Books-A-Million, Inc. invites area high schools to submit student work for the first annual Books-A-Million Publishing Contest.

“We decided to launch a contest for creative students in our area because without creativity, we’d lack the books, music, and technology that fill our shelves. We also value the schools that foster this creativity early in an artist’s life. After all, each artist begins as a student.”

Students in grades 9-12 from the greater Birmingham area can enter for a chance to win a publishing package from the Espresso Book Machine, and books for their school’s library. The Espresso Book Machine is a full color self-publishing machine that gives customers the ability to print their self-published works or any user generated content, photo books, recipes, etc. in about the time it takes to make a cup of espresso.

“At Books-A-Million, we value creative spirits,” said Joyce Butterworth McKinnon, Espresso Book Machine Coordinator. “We decided to launch a contest for creative students in our area because without creativity, we’d lack the books, music, and technology that fill our shelves. We also value the schools that foster this creativity early in an artist’s life. After all, each artist begins as a student.”

The first, second, and third place winning schools will receive a donation of books of their choosing valued at $3,000, $1,500, and $500 respectively. In addition, the winners will receive a free author package that includes a complimentary copy of the book with a deluxe cover, a unique ISBN, title registration in Books-in-Print, access to the international EBM sales channel and preferred in-store placement at the Brookwood Village Books-A-Million. Any sales royalties will be paid directly to the winning schools.

Acceptable student submissions must be between 40 and 800 pages in length and can include poetry, short stories, essays, art, and photography. Full color art and photography submissions are limited to no more than ten (10) pages per submission.

Each submission should be submitted by a faculty representative on behalf of the student(s). A submission can be the work of one student, or a compilation of the work of many students, with up to five submissions per school. The deadline for submissions is March 27, 2015, and winners will be announced May 1, 2015.

Official contest details are available online at bampublish.com/contest. For more information, interested schools may send an email to publishing-contest@booksamillion.com.