Results of the Malta Book Fund 2022 announced

The National Book Council has announced that the Malta Book Fund 2022 board has chosen the winning submissions for this year.

29 projects will receive funding for publication or translation through the Malta Book Fund.

The NBC said the Malta Book Fund aims to support culturally significant book projects that require funding due to their lack of commercial viability.

“The winning projects have been chosen according to a set of established criteria, including the cultural and educational value of the project and its engagement with the publishing market and target audience,” the National Book Council said. 

The Malta Book Fund 2022 board was comprised of Simone Inguanez, Dr Mario Aquilina, Dr Mario Thomas Vassallo and Katryna Storace, who independently assessed each submission for completeness, costing, feasibility and cultural merit. Applications are considered to receive either full or partial funding.

The board said that the quality of the submitted applications was high, which is translated in the fact that many submissions got more than the minimum 60 marks required to be eligible for funding.

The board also said that the applications not backed by an excerpt of the proposed project had less chance of being awarded any grant. In contrast, others, especially projects submitted for the translation grants, whose application included a thorough explanation of the target market and distribution, fared better.

The Malta Book Fund had received 74 eligible submissions but the deadline.

The budget for the 2022 Malta Book Fund was €120,000, with €50,000 allocated to Publishing Grants for New Books, €10,000 for Publishing Grants for New Editions of Out-of-Print Works, €55,000 for Translation Grants and €5,000 for Book Translation Pitch Grants.

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.

The NBC said that to ensure that the Malta Book Fund can support as many worthy projects as possible and be utilised fully, the National Book Council reserves the right to repurpose unused grants from one category to the other.

Applicants who did not receive funds can apply again during the next call for applications with the same project or a different one.

The NBC will be contacting the winning applicants for the signing of a beneficiary’s contract allowing for an 18-month period from the date of signing to publish the book.

The list of the projects funded, alongside the beneficiary and the amount granted, can be viewed in the attached tables and at https://ktieb.org.mt/malta-book-fund.