Sarah Frier won the 2020 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award for ‘No Filter’, about the rise of Instagram © Ken Frier

The search for the best business book of 2021 is under way following the launch of the 17th edition of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.

The award, inaugurated in 2005, carries a top prize of £30,000, which goes to the author or authors of the title that provides the “most compelling and enjoyable” insight into business issues. Each of the five other finalists will receive £10,000.

Last year’s winner was Sarah Frier for No Filter, about the rise of Instagram. Other recent winners include Caroline Criado Perez in 2019, for her exposé of gender bias, Invisible Women, John Carreyrou in 2018 for Bad Blood, about the Theranos scandal, and Amy Goldstein in 2017 for Janesville, about the impact of plant closures on a Wisconsin town.

Roula Khalaf, the FT’s editor, again chairs the judging panel.

The prize is open to all books published for the first time in English in the 12 months to November 15. Once again, publishers are invited to submit titles in digital form. Last year, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the judging and presentations took place virtually.

A longlist of about 15 books will be agreed in August and judges will select up to six finalists for a shortlist, to be announced on September 23. The winner will be named on December 1 at a ceremony in London, where the Bracken Bower Prize for young business authors will also be presented.

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