December 19, 2012 
Do book awards really matter? Some swear by them while others shrug them off as unimportant. But the truth of the matter is:
1. Book awards attract attention. This is especially important for small presses and little-known authors. According to one site: ”Awards are just about the best publicity you can get ..” Of course, even accomplished authors are thrilled about the larger literary prizes.
2. Book awards generate sales. ”Sales” doesn’t always translate into large sales, but sales nonetheless, and a press is in business to generate sales or they don’t stay in business long, unless they can afford to function in hobby-mode year after year. And I don’t know of many that can.
3. Book awards give the author / publisher affirmation of a job well done. Maybe no one else cares, but at least the author and publisher are shouting at the news that comes in: ”Congratulations on winning the ABC book award in the XYZ genre.” Those emails or phone calls are invaluable.
Other considerations:
“Only the test of time will judge whether or not the novels are truly enduring and achieve genuine popularity. Even then, you still can’t please all the people all the time.” Very true. Prize-winner or not, tastes differ and what makes me happy as a reader may not do the same for you.
Are book awards subjective? To some degree, yes, but if a contest is well-run and the judges are informed, I think we can be assured that the top contenders will rise to the surface.
And for the most prestigious awards, does it truly matter who wins, or does even making the list say something significant? Some decry the pretentiousness of awards, while many others celebrate the literary excellence pinpointed by the best book awards.
Of course, one has to ask if those who make the claim that books awards “don’t matter” are less indifferent than jealous, because human nature being what it is, well …
Very happy that Port Yonder Press is a multi-award winning small press; our goal is to pursue the highest ones we can rightfully claim.
Your thoughts?
~Chila
In the organization based awards, I think it’s possIble they’ve peaked. The independent awards, such as reader-generated nominations, may be truer indicators on which books are finding traction with readers. It’s foolish, for example, for any contest to deliberately exclude small press or e-books. For that matter, excluding the growing number of high-quality indie books is short-sighted. My take–what about others? Would you rather win an association based contest, or a reader-preference contest? What would hold the most value for you?
agreed, Deb. thanks for the input. and personally, i’d rather win an association-based contest /unless/ the “reader-preference” contest is well monitored, which few are. i find most of them are “see how many friends i can get to vote for my book” type of ballet-box-stuffers. not good.
best: double-blind judging with at least 2 levels of advancement.
Good morning,
When talking about awards, do you refer to shortlist as well?
Two years ago i had a “newly written” novel. After two rounds of edits, I entered it into a contest. When I didn’t win, i did more revisions and rewrites and re-entered the same contest the following year. This time, it made the shortlist. Now, fast forward to this year… I attended a writers’. conference and met with an acquisition editor. When this shortlist prize came up in conversation, he told me that these prizes have to be awarded and that personally, he wouldn’t award most of them because many of the stories entered do not deserve to win.
I’ll be the first to admit, when he said this to me, i know my novel still wasn’t ready, and that it needed work but wow…. Talk about deflating my ego. But wow it hurt. I respect him for doing his editor’s job because until then no one had been this honest with me. It was always oh it’s good but you might want to do this or that…
I’m not afraid to say it… It stank. But now, I’ve worked with an editor, and after more revisions, rewrites and more edits, Stella’s Plea is finally published.
I’ve seen many “finalists” in various awards contests that “stank” also, Renee-Ann. I think a number of factors come into play including the size and quality of the contest, and the expertise and biases of the judges. I believe that acquisitions editors are generally familiar with contests and would know how to guide a writer, such as the one did at your conference. Kudos to him or her for telling you straight. Gosh, that’s hard to take, I know, but for the sake of honesty and the betterment of writers, it has to be done.
Congrats on the book, btw.
The reason it was so hard to take was, no one ever told me it stank, even though I knew it did. Oh, it might have been a good story but it wasn’t well written when my friends proofread it. I knew it needed a lot of work. (isn’t it true when they say never ask your friends/family to proofread your work!!!)
But it was also was the first time I entered a publishing contest, so to be told by this acquisition editor NOT to publish it after one of the contest judges had told me I was at the top of the shortlist AND would have been runner up had there been two winners…. yeah, it was hard to swallow. But he did me a favor. Had he not told me, I might have “thought’ it was good enough to publish without working with an editor. It’s all good.
Excellent!
Awards can be handy as a recognition of what you’ve done well, but I’ve seen folks get too wrapped up in getting Award X for something. If they don’t get the award, they act like the world has imploded.
I enter contests now and then just for the amusement of it. Getting the award would be snazzy as all get out, but when/if I don’t get it, it’s not time to go “unfriending” or “unfollowing” someone or getting a bout of depression.
Speaking of which, I’m thinking about entering either Drug War or Like Herding Wind into Amazon’s Breakthrough contest.
I
I agree with you Cindy. I enter for the amusement but I’ll admit I enjoy what it adds to my writer’s portfolio when I win. At the same time, I enjoy the lesson learned when I don’t win. Both are valuable to me.
Agreed, Cindy. We take it all in perspective, and if I were you, yes, do the contest and best wishes!
Fabu! I’ll have to see which one I can get closest to “publication ready” over the break, conveniently timed with the contest’s first entry date.