CBCA Statistics

Book Week is amongst us and there are schools around Australia enthralled with the Children’s Book Council of Australia awards books.

Last Friday while we were  congratulating the winners, some Australian authors, illustrators and publishers were planning their book for the next year’s awards.

After attending Jane Parsons’ presentation and writing the article, ‘Judging the Judges’ I was left with some fascinating statistics which I thought I would share.

The Books

                  Entries for 2015

Early Childhood             59

Picture Books             122

Younger Readers       128

Older Readers             77

Eve Pownall                  48

Not eligible                       2

Total entries                   434

Or if you prefer a pie chart

The Publishers

Publishers, authors and illustrators to enter the CBCA awards need to pay an  entry fee of $100 plus copies of the book for each of the judges. It has been good to see an increase in self-published books. Although I am not a self-published author, I love the idea that a self-published author or illustrator could be ‘found’ during the CBCA awards and sky-rocket their writing career during the CBCA awards process.

Allen & Unwin 15%

Five Mile Press 2%

Fremantle Press 2%

Hachette/Lothian 2%

Harper Collins/ A&R/ABC 5%

Little Hare/Hardie Grant Egmont 3%

National Institutions 1%

New Frontier 3%

Other Publishers 10%

Pan Macmillan 2%

Penguin Books Australia 14%

Random House Australia 11%

Scholastic/Omnibus/ Scholastic Press 7%

Self Published 14%

UQP 3%

Walker Books Australia/ Black Dog 9%

Figures are approximate

The four largest publishers, Allen & Unwin, Penguin Books Australia, Walker Books Australia and Random House Australia submitted nearly half (44.06%) of all entries.

Themes

I will leave it up to you, the reader, the writer, the book enthusiasts to analyse the main themes in each of the categories.

Older Readers – book themes

Younger Readers – book themes

Early Childhood – book themes

Picture Books – book themes

The Children’s Book Council of Australia awards could not continue without the final two groups which I have to mention.

The Judges  

Fiction Judges

Michele Huet (ACT)                     Suzanne Thomson (NT)

Cathie Tasker (NSW)                   Kevin Steinberger (QLD)

John Forster (SA)                           Tricia Scott (Tas)

Jane Parsons (Vic)                        Anne-Marie Strother (WA)

Eve Pownall Award Judges

Helen Adam (WA)                        Felicia Harris (WA)

Chloe Mauger (WA)

Awards Co-ordinators – Patricia Montgomery (WA) and Sue Wyche (WA)

Awards Chairs – Angela Briant (Tas) and Margo Hillel (Vic)

The Sponsors

Seventy years ago when CBCA awards began, the winners received a handshake for males and a camellia for females. Government funding supported the awards from 1966-1988. This changed to commercial sponsorship. At the end of 1995 CBCA set up an Awards Foundation in the aim of collecting $1 000 000 to support the Awards prizes.

Awards Foundation Benefactors

Scholastic Australia Pty Ltd            Allen &   Unwin Pty Ltd       Laurie Copping OAM (In memoriam)     Thyne Reid Trust No. 1

Major Donors

Australia Post       Jill Bruce     Sandy Campbell      Era Publications     Five Mile Press       Libby Gleeson AM

Bob Graham      Hachette Children’s Books Australia      Hardie Grant Egmont Pty Ltd     Harper Collins Publishers Aus

Ipswich District Teacher-Librarians’ Network       The James N Kirby Foundation      Kinross-Wolaroi School

Koala Books      Library Board of QLD    Angela Naomi      The Northern Territory Government      Parents and Boys at Sydney Grammar School, Edgecliff Prep        Penguin Books Australia      Random House Australia Pty Ltd        Emily Rodda (Jennifer Rowe)       Gillian Rubinstein       Maurice Saxby AM     SA Dpt of the Arts and Cultural Development    Cathie Tasker

University of QLD Press      Julie Vivas     Walker Books Australia Pty Ltd       Margaret Wild       Sue Williams

And the following in memoriam – Jean Chapman, Max Fatchen, Beryl Moncrieff Matthews, Jill Midolo,  Jan Ormerod, Eve Pownall, Marion E Robertson, Cassandra Weddell and Miss Maisie Williams, Garah.

Thanks to the Judges, the sponsors, the publishers, the authors, the illustrators and of course us readers who enjoy books in all shapes and sizes.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this year’s CBCA winners.

Thank you to Jane Parsons for allowing me to use your presentation statistics in my post, all other information directly from CBCA website.