A prize program goes beyond literary heft to recognize commercial cunning and corporate determination on behalf of good authors
On Monday of this week, the Bookseller’s 2018 Nibbies—the British Book Awards—were handed out in a high-gloss event at London’s Grosvenor House in Hyde Park. Since last year, this event has combined industry awards (Literary Agent of the Year, Marketing Strategy of the Year, Imprint of the Year, and so on), with seven Book of the Year awards.
While the event does create some ungainly branding, as when one tries to talk about the British Book Awards Book of the Year Awards, it does produce a different, more market-facing type of selection that’s valuable and worth note.
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the International Man Booker Prize are the heavyweights in the world of UK literary awards, and the Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of many important literary awards that stand with the Booker. Those programs base their choices, rightly, in literary merit. By contrast, the Nibbies, while certainly taking artistry into account, consider sales and publishers’ market support for the honored titles.
For example, the Nonfiction Lifestyle Book of the Year award went to chef Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients, published by Michael Joseph (a Penguin Random House imprint). The commendation from the jury notes not only the book’s clever content and its design, but also that the cookbook has sold more than 944,916 copies.
Jon McGregor’s Reservoir 13 won the award for fiction, but the jury focuses on how the publisher (HarperCollins’s 4th Estate) “determined that the novel would be an ‘event publication’ rather than a ‘quiet literary success.’” The jurors write, “McGregor was sliding toward the midlist, and they [his publishers] have pushed him back up.” In making this award, the program is sending a signal: Do this for your authors; put some muscle behind their books; market them with the same effort you devote to publication.
One more example: In the case of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, Bloomsbury is commended for making “a very, very smart acquisition” of a book the jurors call “fascinating” and “brilliant” and “breathtaking.” But they go on to praise how Bloomsbury packaged and marketed the title, and they point out that “The author played her part, speaking at more than 40 events in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the Netherlands, and posing for the front cover of Stylist magazine.” That message, of course, is to writers: Work with your publisher; engage in the sales mechanism for your book.
Bottom line: Nobody here is going to say that the literature itself isn’t essential. Writing well is the prime directive. But as the British Book Awards gain traction, the intent of Nigel Roby, Philip Jones, Emma Lowe, and the staff and jurors is becoming clearer. As we write, news of reporter Tom Wolfe’s death at age 88 has crossed the wires. We’re reminded that, at his best, Wolfe handed publishers a lot of branding and “new journalism” frisson. But those publishers had to know how to leverage what Wolfe was doing. And it’s good not to let our admiration for the art cloud our appreciation of the business.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
