The Results Of The Malta Book Fund 2024 Are Out

The National Book Council is pleased to announce that the Malta Book Fund 2024 adjudication board has agreed on the winning submissions for this year’s edition. 31 projects will be receiving funding for publication or translation through the Malta Book Fund.

The winning projects have been chosen according to a set of established criteria, including the completeness of the submission, cultural and educational value of the project, its the engagement with the publishing market and target audience, feasibility and costings.

In the 2024 edition structural changes were effected, namely in the translation strands, which now reflect better the export element in them.

The Malta Book Fund 2024 Adjudication Board was comprised of Conrad Thake, Aaron Aquilina, Karsten Xuereb and Caldon Mercieca, who independently assessed each submission.

The adjudicators noted that, as a rule, the eligible applications were supported by the by the required documents as specified in the regulations. However, they pointed out that applications with missing or absent key documents received lower marks or were deemed ineligible.

They also commended those applicants who provided rigorous detail in their application. However, they noted that some applicants lacked awareness of other contemporary works investigating similar areas or themes and motifs for fiction projects. The adjudicators interpreted this as a lack of knowledge of the local market on the part of some applicants.

Most importantly, the judges emphasised that applicants must engage proofreaders and editors for their projects. They stressed that a project lacking quotes for these services is likely to result in a poor publication.

By the application period deadline on 24 May, the 2024 Malta Book Fund received a total of 88 submissions across all strands of the Fund. The budget for the 2024 edition was €120,000, as follows:

1. €50,000 for Publishing Grants for New Books;
2. €10,000 for Publishing Grants for New Editions of Out-of-Print Works;
3. €40,000 for Grants for the Translation and Export of books by Maltese authors;
4. €5,000 for Book Translation Pitch Grants
5. €15,000 for Grants for Translations into Maltese

All grants awarded may support up to 100% of the proposed project up to a maximum of €5,000 for all grants except the Book Translation Pitch Grants, which may support up to a maximum of €500 per proposal. To ensure that the Malta Book Fund can support as many worthy projects as possible and be fully utilised, the National Book Council reserves the right to repurpose unused grants from one category to the other.

Applicants who fail to receive funds in a particular year are not barred from applying again during the next call for applications, whether with the same project or a different one.

The NBC will contact the winning applicants to sign a beneficiary’s contract, which allows a 24-month period from the date of signing to publish the book.

List of all projects awarded underneath:

Publishing Grants for New Books

Publishing Grants for New Editions of Out-of-Print Works

Translation and Export Grants, Cat 1: Grants for the Translation and Export of books by Maltese Authors

Translation and Export Grants, Cat 2: Book Translation Pitch Grants

Grants for Translations into Maltese