Buxtehude Bull

The Buxtehude Bull (German: Buxtehuder Bulle) is an award for youth literature, established in 1971 by Winfried Ziemann, a local book merchant from Buxtehude, a Hanseatic City located in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. The town council took over the sponsorship of the award in 1981. The award is given annually to the best children's or young-adults' book published in German (either native language or translated) in the preceding year. The writer is presented with a small steel statue of the bull (German: Bulle) Ferdinand, from the popular work The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, and also receives a monetary prize of €5,000.

From the Wikipedia article “Buxtehude Bull”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Check the official rules of the Buxtehude Bull for the current eligibility window, accepted formats, residency or language requirements and any entry fee. For most established prizes the publisher submits on the author's behalf, often with a limit on entries per imprint.

If you are self-published, look for an explicit statement that independently published books are accepted, and budget for entry fees and copies for judges.