Submission Guidelines

Authors and publishers are invited to submit an entry or entries to the 82nd Annual California Book Awards of The Commonwealth Club. Awards are presented to those books with exceptional literary merit.

Each entry must be made on an official form, or facsimile thereof, and must be postmarked no later than midnight December 14, 2012. You may also complete our on-line entry form. Please be sure to press "Submit" and view your on-line receipt. We kindly ask that you print out that on-line receipt page and include it with your submission.

We prefer to receive all materials at once, but if your books are shipped separately from your warehouse or distributor we will accept the materials as they arrive.

Entries are restricted to books bearing a 2012 original publication date.

The author must have been a legal resident of California at the time the manuscript was accepted for publication. To be eligible for an award for Notable Contribution to Publishing, the publisher must be headquartered in California.

We cannot accept books that are self-published.

Awards will consist of 6-8 gold medals and up to 6 silver medals:

  • One Gold and One Silver Medal for Fiction
  • One Gold and One Silver Medal for Nonfiction
  • One Gold Medal for Poetry
  • One Gold Medal for an author's first published work of Fiction
  • One Gold Medal for Fiction or Nonfiction for children up to age 10
  • One Gold Medal for Fiction or Nonfiction for children ages 11-16
  • One Medal for Fiction or Nonfiction relating to California
  • One Medal for a Notable Contribution to Publishing (outstanding book production). The medal in this category is awarded to the publisher and is restricted to publishers based in California.
  • One Silver Medal for outstanding entry, regardless of classification

Entries may be submitted either by authors or publishers. At least six copies of each book entered and a completed entry form must be provided to:

The California Book Awards
The Commonwealth Club of California
595 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

(Copies of entries cannot be returned).