The Publishing Next Awards recognize the work of professionals in the publishing industry. The newly introduced Editor of the Year Award was won by Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri of Harper Collins, while Simar Puneet of Aleph Book was declared the runner-up. The winners were presented with a trophy while the runners-up will each receive a certificate.
The Cover Design of the Year (English) award, presented to a book designer, was won by Bena Sareen for the cover she designed for How I Became a Tree by Aleph Book Co.,
while Harshad Marathe was runnerup for his cover of Mohanaswamy from HarperCollins India. In the corresponding category, Cover Design of the Year (Indian Languages), Mugdha Sadhwani won the award for her cover design for Achanak Ek Kavita from Yatra Books while Pooja Ahuja was declared runner-up for her cover design for Akbar from Rajkamal Prakashan.
Pratham Books was declared Publisher of the Year at the recently announced Publishing Next Industry Awards 2017. Niyogi Books was the runner-up in this category. The awards, now in the 4th year, seek to recognize innovation and leadership of publishing professionals and others in the book trade.
This year several new categories were introduced, especially for Indian languages. While Invisible Libraries by Yoda Press was declared winner in the Printed Book of the Year (English) category, Adhyathma Ramayanam Kilippattu by Palm Leaf Innovations won the Printed Book of the Year (Indian Language Category). The Gene from Allen Lane and Baaghbaan – Nindiya Chor from Harper Hindi were runners-up in these categories, respectively. In the children’s book categories, When I Grow Up I Want to be a Tiger (Speaking Tiger) and Muezza and Baby Jaan (Puffin Books) were winner and runners-up respectively in the Children’s Book English category while Mujhe Ghar Mil Gaya (Mumbai
Mobile Creches) and Akal Aur Uske Baad (Eklavya Publications) were winner and runners-up respectively in the Children’s Book Indian Language category. In the Illustrated Book of the Year category, a category introduced for the first time this year, Rehearsing Freedom (Leftword Books) was the winner, while Taj Mahal: Multiple Narratives (Om Books) was declared runner-up.