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On October 10, 2001, in New York, NY, the International eBook Award Foundation (IeBAF) has announced the names of the winners for the 2001 Frankfurt eBook Awards, the first award designed to recognize achievements in the emerging eBook industry. Selected from a field that included entries from e-publishers, independents, large and small publishers alike, the winners were named today during a ceremony at the Old Opera House in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Grand Prize of $50,000 each was awarded in Non-Fiction to Steven Levy for his detailing of the revolution in cryptography and its implications for privacy and safety in Crypto (Penguin Putnam), and in Fiction to Amitav Ghosh for The Glass Palace (Random House), a masterful novel of love and war. The two $10,000 Distinguished eBook Awards went to, in Non-Fiction, Eric Nisenson for The Making of Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and His Masterpiece, an astute and entertaining chronology of the making of a jazz classic, and in Fiction to Joyce Carol Oates for her collection of short stories, Faithless: Tales of Transgression. The Judges also bestowed a $10,000 Technology Award to Thierry Brethes, CEO of Mobipocket, for the company's cross-platform eBook Reading System. Special Citations were given to François Taillandier and Salvo Press.
To honor her achievements and in memory of Roxanna Frost, past Executive Director of the IeBAF, a special award was presented to a "publisher who has shown excellence in e-publishing." The Roxanna Frost Award was presented to Fodor's for its Fodor's eBook New York City travel guide, a forward-looking use of enhancements, taking eBooks to new and richer levels of experience.
The judges awarded a Special Citation to an eBook publisher whose submissions, although not selected as one of the finalists or for a monetary award, created a remarkably strong E-book publishing program and a list of consistently fine quality books. This special award was presented to Salvo Press of Bend, Oregon, for the development and publishing of new authors in the eBook format.
A second Special Citation was presented to the author of Intrigues, François Taillandier, for his unusual, creative job in developing a work that is unique to the eBook format. The Judges felt that Taillandier's excellent use of eBook technology and his creation of an eBook title that was truly a work of interactive fiction, merited distinction, although it was not selected as one of the monetary award winners. Intrigues was published by Editions 00h00 in France.
"The judges found that the reading experience -- the reading of text on a screen -- was overall a very good one," said Judging Director for the IeBAF foundation Peter Mollman, a former publishing and software executive with World Book Encyclopedia and Random House. "Primarily in non-fiction titles, they found that reading eBooks actually allowed them to better understand and comprehend difficult texts, as they used the enhancements available in this medium such as: noting, book-marking, and searching, for example, to better follow and understand the author's thoughts and ideas."
James Burke, Master of Ceremonies for the Awards, said, "Over the coming years the accessibility, convenience, and sheer excitement of using multimedia e-Books will bring many new readers to the world of literature and information." For more than thirty years, James Burke has produced, directed, written and presented award-winning television series on the BBC, PBS and The Learning Channel, including the Connections series. A best-selling author, his next book 1+1=3 will be published by Simon & Schuster in Fall 2002. He is also working on a large interactive e-text.
The winners of the 2001 Frankfurt eBook Awards are:
Grand Prize --- Nonfiction
 CRYPTO: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government
Steven Levy
Grand Prize --- Fiction
 THE GLASS PALACE
Amitav Ghosh
Random House Publishing
ISBN: B00005NCRR
Distinguished eBook Award --- Nonfiction
 THE MAKING OF KIND OF BLUE: Miles Davis and His Masterpiece
Eric Nisenson
St. Martin's Press
ISBN: B000056WKA
Distinguished eBook Award --- Fiction
 FAITHLESS: Tales of Transgression
Joyce Carol Oates
PerfectBound Publishing/HarperCollins
ISBN: 0066213177
eBook Technology Award
Thierry Brethes (Mobipocket)
The Roxanna Frost Award
Fodor's (a division of Random House, Inc.)
Special Citation
Salvo Press
Special Citation
François Taillandier, Intrigues (Editions 00h00)
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