The Independent Press Award is an international book award program dedicated to recognizing and celebrating excellence in independent publishing. We honor authors, publishers, and creative professionals who demonstrate exceptional quality, originality, and passion in their work across a wide range of genres and categories.

 

Our Mission

To give independent voices greater visibility, credibility, and opportunity for growth within the publishing industry—connecting outstanding books with the readers, librarians, booksellers, and media who are looking for them. At its heart, this is about giving great books their due and broader access to the book-buying community.

Our Founders
Drawing on experience with multiple award programs and numerous recognition platforms, Ted Olczak pitched the original concept to create a more impactful program. The program is run by Gabrielle Olczak, an editor and publisher who has spent her career utilizing her extensive publishing network to champion great content and the creators behind it. After completing her undergraduate work at Fordham University, Gabrielle was awarded a scholarship as a Publishing Studies Fellow and earned her Master's Degree at New York University, specializing in Marketing Management in Book and Magazine Publishing.

 

She wrote her own column at the industry trade MagazineWeek and gained experience at publishing houses including Ziff Davis, CMP, SIGS, and FAMA. For a dozen years, she served as Founding Editor and Publisher of Toddler Times Magazine and Parent Times Magazine, building email lists and industry relationships along the way. As an editor, Gabrielle is always searching for great content to share with others—and the Independent Press Award grew directly out of that instinct.

Alongside her is Ted Olczak, who spent nearly a decade at the international trade book journal as a champion for independent presses seeking wider acceptance in a book business dominated by a handful of major houses. He knows firsthand how hard independent presses work to develop and share great books, and how difficult those books can be to promote. The Independent Press Award is, in his words, simply another way for "indies" to get the recognition they deserve.

 

To build it, Gabby teamed up with honorable colleagues who know this industry inside and out—people from all kinds of backgrounds and training who love books and share the same ideals.

Together, we invite you to join the Independent Press Award in celebrating great ideas from independents all across the globe.