You are very welcome to register your book.  There are five categories from which a total maximum of 33 Best Dutch Book Designs can be selected. They are:

• Prose, poetry or graphic novels
• Informative nonfiction (cookbooks, history books, doctoral thesis, etc)
• Art, photo and architecture books
• Books for children and young people
• Others

Criteria

To be eligible for selection a book must fulfil at least two of the three following requirements.

1 The work (which need not be in Dutch) must have been:

published by a publisher established in the Netherlands;
designed by a person holding Dutch nationality or resident in the Netherlands;
printed by a printing business and/or lithographed by a lithography business and/or bound by a binding business established in the Netherlands.

2 On registering for the selection the registrant must donate to the Foundation 2 copies of each work; 7 further copies must be provided if a work is selected as one of the Best Dutch Book Designs.

For more details see the Rules.

Please note: 2 copies of your book(s) have to be send to Drukkerij Zwaan Lenoir, Industrieweg 58, 1521 NE Wormerveer, with reference to The Best Dutch Book Designs. Friday January 7 the registration will be closed. The books needs to be at Zwaan Lenoir at Monday January 10.

Entry fee & payment

The registrant pays €75 for the first title and €50 for each further title.

You pay directly through Ideal. You can also pay later: after the registration period you will receive an invoice and you can pay by bank, but for this we will charge € 7,50 (administration costs).

Judging Panel

In each individual book the panel of expert judges looks for a combination of design, printing and binding skills and overall concept, in the last of these also taking into account differences in budgets and target group. This year’s panel consists of Edwin van Gelder (designer), Stefano van der Knaap (creative director drukkerij Zwaan Lenoir), Astrid Vorstermans (owner / director publisher Valiz), Sarah van Binsbergen (art journalist and critic) and Thomas Castro (curator of Graphic Design Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and designer).

Student panel

This year there will once again be a separate judging panel consisting of five students who will make their own selection of 33 books. The five members all come from top Dutch art colleges. Their selection will be placed on the website at www.bestverzorgdeboeken-studentenselectie.nl and will have its own catalogue. Their selection is part of the exhibition at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

The Best Dutch Book Designs 2021 will be submitted for the international judging in Leipzig. The Dutch and international selection will be announced on March 10, 2022.