The British Book Awards, or Nibbies, ran from 1990 to 2009 and were founded by the editor of Publishing News.

[1] In 2018, a Specsavers National Book Awards ceremony was held on 20 November but was unrelated to the Nibbies.

[10] Katherine Rundell was named Author of the Year, the first time that a children's writer received up the accolade since Philip Pullman in 2018.

[11] In the run up to the awards ceremony, a daily podcast featuring nominated authors was made available online.

Salman Rushdie was recognised with a special Freedom to Publish honour.

[19] It is only the second time that the British Book Awards regime has conferred this prize, previously being awarded in 2022 to HarperCollins UK and its publishing director Arabella Pike "in recognition of their defense of [their] authors against interference from Russian oligarchs, and for their ‘robust defense of investigative non-fiction and publishing in the public interest.

[23][24][25] This year marked the return to the first live awards ceremony since 2019 but was also broadcast as a livestream.

[26] A new category of Discover Book of the Year was introduced aiming to showcase traditionally underrepresented authors with a particular focus on the work of indie presses and imprints.

[30][31] Once again the ceremony was held online due to the continuing restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

[33] In celebration of the Nibbies' 30th anniversary, 2020 saw a special award called "30 from 30" to celebrate the best of the best, where a longlist of 30 previous winners was narrowed down by a public poll to a shortlist of 10 nominees, plus a wildcard entry (This Is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay), that had not taken home a trophy in the past.

[52] This year also saw Becoming, the memoir by former first lady Michelle Obama winning two awards.

The shortlisted nominees were announced on 15 March 2017 at the London Book Fair.

Starting in 2010, the Best was chosen by the public via open internet vote from among the winning books in the other categories.