This program premier features the Editors Choice Prize a $1,000 cash award for both fiction and non-fiction Book-of-the-Year. Winners will also be named in the following 19 categories: Audio, Business, Biography/Memoir, Childrens Picture Book, Childrens Young Adult, Cookbooks, Environment, Fiction, Fitness/Sports, Gay/Lesbian, Gift, Health, History, Home/Garden, New Age, Poetry, Self-Help, Spirituality, and Travel. Winners will be announced in January, 1999 at The Literary Congress in Phoenix, Arizona.

ForeWord Magazines focus behind creating this annual award is to provide an additional, credible marketing tool that can significantly affect a books performance in the market with improved awareness and sales. In addition to foil cover seals and other promotion provided by ForeWord, first place award winners will be highlighted in color posters distributed to their readership of booksellers and librarians, with the intent of creating fresh ways to promote independently published titles in stores/libraries.

"Greatness is rarely recognized in a popularity contest driven by mass market PR frenzies. Publishers of good books know this as a basic truth," says Publisher Victoria Sutherland. "By submitting their top 1998 titles to a venue that judges books by the same criteria used when deciding what to publish, we can add validity to the reviews and word of mouth that independent presses rely on for marketing. We trust them to bring out the worlds finest books, and the industry trusts us to spotlight them."

ForeWord Magazine is the only monthly journal that is devoted exclusively to providing news and reviews of independent book publishers. It is distributed to a controlled circulation of the nations booksellers and librarians.

For a registration form and additional information, please contact ForeWord offices at 616-933-3699, or e-mail your request to reviews@traverse.com.

For more information, contact:

Amy McQuaid
ForeWord Magazine
616-933-3699
reviews@traverse.com