[5] Its mission is "to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.

In 2013, the judging panels were expanded to include experts in the literary field in addition to established writers.

Each finalist receives $1,000, a medal, and a citation written by the judging panel; winners get $10,000 and a bronze sculpture.

Virginia Kirkus chaired the central committee of seven including the ABA president, three bookshops, Publishers Weekly, and American News Company.

Master of ceremonies Clifton Fadiman declined to consider the Pulitzer Prizes (not yet announced in February 1938) as potential ratifications.

"[15] The Bookseller Discovery officially recognized "outstanding merit which failed to receive adequate sales and recognition" (quoted by NYT)[16] Finally that award stood alone for 1941 and the New York Times frankly called it "a sort of consolation prize that the booksellers hope will draw attention to his work.

"[19] The winning authors and books were selected by a nationwide poll of booksellers (ABA members); during the 1937/38 cycle, ballots were received from 319 stores, triple the number who voted in the first rendition early in 1936.

[15] In a 1941 advertisement, the Booksellers described the "significance of the awards" thus:[20] In effect, his ballot says, "Of all the books of the year these are the three I enjoyed most – in two ways!

[21] The fifteen judges were "Elmer Davis, John Kieran, Henry Steele Commager, Fairfield Osborn and Norman Cousins for non-fiction; Mary Colum, Glenway Wescott, Max Gissin, W. G. Rogers and Malcolm Cowley for fiction; and W. H. Auden, Louise Bogan, Babett Duetsch, Horace Gregory and Louise Untermeyer for poetry.

"[33] There would be nearly 30 awards presented in an extravagant TV-friendly ceremony, to winners selected by a standing "academy" of more than 2,000 people in the book industry.

At the time, AAP and Harper & Row president Brooks Thomas anticipated "probably fewer than ten" categories, including some "only for original paperbacks, not reprints".

Edwin McDowell reported that "many book-industry officials hope ... [to] rank in importance with the $15,000 Booker McConnell Prize for Fiction" (British).

A committee comprising American Book Awards executive director Barbara Prete and four publishers designed the new and improved program, implemented fall 1984 for a publication year beginning November 1983.

They cut the roster to merely three (Nonfiction, Fiction, and First Work of Fiction), moved the ceremony from early spring to late fall, and redefined eligibility to require publication during the calendar year of the awards (roughly, see Annual eligibility).

Covering the November ceremony, Edwin McDowell of The New York Times remarked upon the recurring changes in format and contrasted 1983 in particular, when there were 96 finalists in 27 awards categories (listed above).

In 2024, the National Book Foundation announced the awards would no longer require U.S. citizenship for eligibility, following a similar decision the Pulitzer Prizes had made in 2023.

[45] The 1950 to 1983 awards, as the National Book Foundation labeled them, were presented in the spring to works published during the preceding calendar year.