The ECPA/Dickinson Press Book Cover Award is intended to educate, promote and recognize superior cover design in the Christian publishing industry.

In the summer of 2006, Dickinson Press, Inc. (DP) commissioned a landmark book study to help Christian book publishers improve internal planning between sales, marketing and editorial, while developing and designing more on-target products.

This first ever book study is based on analysis conducted by the Research Institute on Social Change, or RISC. Through over 35-years of analyzing consumer behavior, RISC measures consumer buying motivations, attitudes, and design affinity. ("How RISC Works") The research DP commissioned also monitors changes in book reader's characteristics such as demography, values, and book cover design preferences.

Based on this ground-breaking research, ECPA and Dickinson Press have developed the ECPA/Dickinson Press Book Cover Award which is presented annually and recognizes the industry's finest book cover design integrity.

Book cover "design integrity" is defined as design incorporating the intended book reader's characteristics with the application of design components most likely to appeal to the target book reader. These design elements would include subject matter, images, font and font treatment, color pallet, and title language.

Book covers will be entered into one of four categories based on the number of titles a publisher has released in the previous year: