Apply for the German Publishing Award 
As an independent publisher with an exceptional publishing profile, you can apply for the German Publishing Award.
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Basic information
The German Publishing Prize is awarded to book publishers in order to promote the preservation of book culture in Germany.
As an independent publisher, you can be honored with the German Publishing Award if you distinguish yourself through
- a special publishing profile,
- cultural commitment,
- convincing innovative and digital projects,
- professionalism and quality of your publishing work,
- professional distribution,
- careful editing and proofreading,
- promotion of young talent,
- appealing book design,
- wide-reaching and target group-oriented communication and public relations work or socially relevant initiatives and corresponding commitment.
If you receive an award, you can also receive a bonus of up to EUR 60,000 in addition to the seal of approval. The amount of the award depends on the jury's assessment of your performance and your average turnover over the last 3 years:
- Average annual turnover of less than EUR 3 million:
- Seal of approval and bonus of EUR 60,000 for 3 particularly outstanding publishers (top prize)
- Seal of approval and bonus of EUR 24,000 for a further 60 outstanding publishers
- Average annual turnover of EUR 3 million or more:
- Seal of approval without premium for up to 3 outstanding publishers
You submit your application to the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).
You are not entitled to an award.
Requirements
You can apply if your publisher is:
- is independent,
- has its headquarters or a branch in Germany,
- has been in existence for at least 3 years and
- has published at least 4 books per year by different authors in the last 3 years (exceptions possible),
- is not in insolvency proceedings,
- has not been awarded a top prize of the German Publishing Award (prize of EUR 60,000) in the last year
- has not been awarded a German Publishing Prize in the last 2 consecutive years and
- is characterized by outstanding achievements
You cannot apply as:
- pure pay publisher or cost price publisher,
- A publishing branch or imprint of a corporate group that generates more than EUR 3 million in total sales per year.
- A publisher that is directly economically dependent on other institutions such as
- museums,
- universities,
- literary institutions,
- political parties,
- religious institutions, professional organizations or associations.
- Publishing house whose publishing program consists exclusively of periodicals such as newspapers or magazines or of
- encyclopedias,
- register productions such as address books or form books,
- music books,
- maps or other cartographic material,
- school books, learning and teaching media.
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Procedure
To take part in the German Publishing Award, you must apply online on the German Publishing Award website.
- Go to the German Publishing Award website, fill in your application form online and send it off.
- You will receive an electronic confirmation by e-mail that your application has been received. The e-mail will also contain your application number and a PDF with your details.
- Print out the PDF and sign it.
- Print out all other required documents. You will find these documents for download under the navigation link Application documents on the German Publishing Awards website.
- Sign all documents and send them by post to the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).
- You do not need to print out and sign the documents if you have logged into the online application portal via "ELSTER - My Company Account".
- You can also submit additional documents to supplement your application. If possible, please upload these to the application portal. You will need to log in with your user name and password.
- You can also submit book copies by post for inspection.
- You will be informed by the BKM by e-mail if you have been selected for the prize.
- If you also receive an award, payment will be made to your business account after the award ceremony.
If you use the money, you should ensure that you only use it for expenses in line with your declaration of commitment and pay tax on it yourself.
You are not entitled to have the application documents you submit returned to you. If you have voluntarily submitted book copies for consideration, these will be donated to a charitable organization after the application process has been completed.
You can object to the donation by e-mail within four weeks of the online application deadline.
Note: You can also log into your user account at any time after submitting your application.
For example, you can view the data from your last application if you wish to apply again next year.
More information
There are no references or special features.
Legal remedy: Legal recourse is excluded.
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Necessary Documents
- Signed self-commitment form in which you guarantee that you will use the premium received exclusively for the objectives of this prize
- Written confirmation that you have taken note of the information sheet on subsidy fraud
- Signed form of the privacy policy
- Signed form of the declaration of economic capacity
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Online Services
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Fees / Costs
gebührenfrei
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Deadlines & processing time
What deadlines must be paid attention to?
The publishing prize is awarded annually. The prerequisite for this is that the corresponding budget funds are available. The current application deadlines can be found on the website of the German Publishing Prize under Deadlines.
How long does it take to process
4 months bis 5 months
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More Information
This page has been automatically translated by DeepL. We cannot guarantee that the translation is correct.
The official information in German is complete and correct. 22.07.2025