Apila’s First Printing Award is an international illustrated picture book contest to promote creativity and enrich children’s literature with an educational scope. The aim of this competition is to promote the production of children’s picture books, illustrated by illustrators with no previous published works. Illustrators, regardless of nationality, may submit a project of an illustrated picture book for children, written in Spanish or English, and could be either original tales or adaptations from tales with free copyright. RULES Apila Ediciones, in collaboration with the Aragon School of Design and with the support of its Town Hall, announces “Apila’s 2025 First Printing Award” (Premio Apila Primera Impresión 2025). This is an international illustrated picture book contest to promote creativity and enrich children’s literature with an educational scope.
  1. The award is open to all illustrators, of any nationality, over 18 years of age, without any limitation as to the number of projects. In order to be eligible to participate, no children’s books with ISBNs must have been published before the deadline for the submission of projects. However, applicants who have one or more books published with ISBN may participate, as long as they have been self-published, i.e. they have not been published through a publishing house. In the event that the authorship of the project is shared (text on one side and illustrations on the other), the condition of not having any published books applies exclusively to the illustrator. Likewise, the rights of the works submitted must be free of commitments to third parties.
  2. The works submitted, written in Spanish or English, may be original or adaptations of stories free of copyright.
  3. The award will consist of the signing of a professional contract with Apila Ediciones for the publication of the selected work, which will include the payment to the author(s) of €4,000, equivalent to 10% of the value of the first print run of the book, as well as the dissemination and international distribution of the book. In the event that the rights of the project are shared between writer and illustrator, the percentage of 10% will be divided between them according to the prior agreement reached by both.
  4. The award will be granted to one project only.
  5. The projects may have any format, but may not exceed 40 pages (20 double pages), including legal pages (credits page and title page) and flyleaves. The cover: front cover, spine and back cover are not included in the 40 pages of the book.
CALL FOR APILA’S FIRST PRINTING AWARD 2025 Website link: https://www.apilaediciones.com/premio-apila-primera-impresion/