three times the number from the previous year (32). However, Bent also expressed his annoyance at people who gave submissions that broke the rules, with some of the books mentioned being published as far back as 1880. The 2014 prize allowed nominations from self-published works, the first book being Strangers Have the Best Candy by Margaret Meps Schulte, which won the prize. The Diagram Prize receives considerable press coverage every year. In 2008, more people voted for the Diagram Prize (8,500 votes) than The Best of Booker Prize (7,800). The prize is either a magnum of champagne or a bottle of claret for the person who nominates the winning title, and increased publicity for both the book and its author. In 2014, the nominator was Brian Payne, who works as the deputy chief sub-editor of The Bookseller. Due to his position he decided to reject the bottle of claret that he won saying it, "would remain in the cellar." In 2018, all the nominations came from staff at The Bookseller, so the claret was awarded to a random voter who voted for the eventual winner. Format Nominees were originally limited to just books at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this was extended to submissions sent in by The Bookseller magazine's traditional readership of librarians, publishers, and booksellers in order to decrease the risk of no award being given. In 2009, submissions could be sent to either Bent's or The Bookseller's Twitter accounts. People cannot nominate their own works, nor can they select books they publish themselves. Titles that are deliberately created to be funny are normally rejected. Also, nominators, judges and voters are actively discouraged from reading any of the nominations, "for fear that becoming too close to the work may cloud their judgement in declaring the text's title 'odd', especially considering the prize champions 'odd titles' and not 'odd books' (see the Man Booker for the latter)". The winner was originally voted for by a panel of judges, but since 2000 the winner has been voted for by members of the public via the Internet. Bent resisted this move and threatened to resign, but he later reconsidered and now creates the short list of finalists. Also, the title of the book must be in English, although the language in the book can be any language. Books about the prize In September 2008, a book about the Diagram Prize was