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Ebook developer takes home $2,500 prize from Rakuten Kobo

Toronto, ON – March 23, 2017 – Contest highlights the best of ebook design

The $2,500 grand prize in the second annual So You Think You Can Code (SYTYCC) ebook design competition, courtesy of prize sponsor Rakuten Kobo, has been awarded to Kristin Brodeur, Digital Associate Production Editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The announcement was made in Toronto on March 23, 2017 at ebookcraft 2017, the ebook production conference organized by BookNet Canada and eBOUND Canada. 

"I wasn’t expecting it for sure, so it was a little surreal but very cool. I put a lot of work into it," said Kristin, after receiving the prize on stage.

Competitors from Canada and abroad were invited to put their ebook design skills to the test by applying best practices and standards to a rough-around-the-edges EPUB file leading up to the conference, demonstrating how a user-friendly, accessible, and beautiful ebook can look and function. Files were judged by a panel of industry experts from Canada and the US, including Joshua Tallent (Firebrand Technologies), Monique Mongeon (BookNet Canada), and Teresa Elsey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), for criteria ranging from typography to semantic inflection.

According to the judges' statement, "Kristin's submission reflected a fine balance struck between the consumer-driven realities of the market and the need for device-agnostic functionality. It cannot be stressed enough just how important proper functionality, clean coding, and careful editing are — and that their absence cannot be disguised by clever design. Quite simply, Kristin's book lasts."

The winner will also go home with subscriptions to FlightDeck, thanks to Firebrand Technologies, and Adobe Creative Cloud.

More information on ebookcraft and SYTYCC can be found at ebookcraft.booknetcanada.ca.

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ebookcraft is a two-day conference for the ebook production community organized by BookNet Canada and eBOUND Canada.

BookNet Canada is a non-profit organization that develops technology, standards and education to serve the Canadian book industry. eBOUND Canada is a not-for-profit organization that aims to advance publisher engagement in the digital marketplace.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for this project. / Nous reconnaissons l’appui financier du gouvernement du Canada par l’entremise du Fonds du livre du Canada (FLC) pour ce projet.
 

Media Contact:
Zalina Alvi
Marketing & Communications Manager
BookNet Canada
zalvi@booknetcanada.ca 
(416) 362-5057 x. 2250