BNC Research's Literary Awards Study Aims to Eliminate Potential Surprises During Awards Season for Canadian Publishers and Booksellers
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A RESEARCH REPORT BY BOOKNET CANADA BNC RESEARCH 04.2012 Literary Awards in Canada 2009- 2011 PREPARED BY JASMINE DER AND PAMELA MILLAR CONFIDENTIAL TO BNC SALESDATA SUBSCRIBERS © BOOKNET CANADA 2012 BOOKNET CANADA 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Confidentiality..................................................................................................................................................................................................3 Summary ............................................................................................................................................................................................................3 Approach ............................................................................................................................................................................................................3 Caveats ................................................................................................................................................................................................................4 The Scotiabank Giller Prize ........................................................................................................................................................................5 Governor General’s Literary Awards ..................................................................................................................................................10 CBC Canada Reads.......................................................................................................................................................................................21 Griffin Poetry Prize .....................................................................................................................................................................................23 Charles Taylor Prize ...................................................................................................................................................................................26 National Book Awards (USA) .................................................................................................................................................................28 Man Booker Prize for Fiction..................................................................................................................................................................37 Trillium Book Award..................................................................................................................................................................................39 Alberta Literary Awards...........................................................................................................................................................................50 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.....................................................................................................................................................54 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction ....................................................................................................................57 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................................................................60 BOOKNET CANADA 3 CONFIDENTIALITY This document contains information that is available only to BNC SalesData subscribers and contributors. It is made available for your internal use only. If you have questions about public disclosure of this report, please contact [email protected]. SUMMARY Being nominated for a literary award is an exciting time for a publisher, but with that national recognition comes increased sales and orders. How do you prepare yourself to stay in the game? How can you predict when your books are going to start flying off the shelves? Will you need to reprint? What happens if you win? BNC Research's Literary Awards Study aims to eliminate potential surprises during awards season for Canadian publishers and booksellers. By looking at sales data from previous years, we can help to predict sales and order spikes so that you can be prepared and have enough copies printed and stocked. In an attempt to verify the conclusions drawn from previous literary awards studies, we have conducted a follow-up study on the impact of literary awards in Canada. Has anything changed in the past two years? Read on to find out. Our studies have found that shortlisted titles do not show a considerable increase in sales for most awards. The exceptions are the Scotiabank Giller Prize and Canada Reads (although the timing aligns with Christmas). But the effect of winning a literary award is clear: soaring sales. Fiction and non-fiction titles tend to perform better than children’s books and poetry, but the lift in sales after winning an award is visible in all subjects studied. APPROACH For each award, BookNet Canada staff analyzed the sales position using BNC SalesData’s sales panel comprised of chains, independents, newsstands, general retail and sales to libraries. An initial analysis was done of the following literary awards from 2009 to2011: § Scotiabank Giller Prize § Governor General Literary Awards § CBC Canada Reads § Griffin Poetry Prize § The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction § National Book Awards (US) § Orange Prize for Fiction § Man Booker Prize § BC Book Prizes § Trillium Book Awards § Alberta Literary Awards § Writers’ Trust of Canada Awards This year, we added the Writers’ Trust fiction and non-fiction awards to the list. We also look at Canada Reads, which, although more of a contest than an award, is watched closely by both publishers and booksellers, and has a clear impact on book sales in Canada. Within this list of awards we eliminated some award categories, such as children's literature, drama and poetry, where retail coverage seemed insufficient or where the BNC SalesData retail panel was unlikely to BOOKNET CANADA 4 capture indicative sales. The case studies that follow are ones where we are confident that we were able to capture enough of the total sales of the books in question to provide a clear picture of the award’s impact. Please note: The winner in each category is presented first and represented by a thick blue line in each chart. CAVEATS Based on publisher feedback, we estimate that BNC SalesData represents 75% of book industry sales. There are certain retail categories that we do not have complete coverage of, which could mean that some awards have an effect that cannot be detected through our retail panel: § Independent bookstores: BNC SalesData includes many major independent bookstores, but does not include many smaller ones, any of whom could be actively promoting an award winner. It also does not capture many specialty independent bookstores (children’s books, science-fiction, etc.) where a genre or subject-specific award may have more impact. However, we are able to detect even the slightest variation in sales in our independent panel, so we are confident that sales changes in the independent market are well represented. § K-12 and higher-education sales: our panel does not include direct institutional sales to schools or college/university textbook sales. § Since the first literary awards study, which was conducted in October of 2006, new booksellers have started contributing their sales to BNC SalesData. Therefore, some changes in statistics and sales figures may be a result of these new additions. BOOKNET CANADA 5 GILLER PRIZE 2011 THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE Winner: § Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, Thomas Allen ORGANIZED BY SCOTIABANK Publishers, 9780887627415 Nominees: 2011 FINALISTS ANNOUNCED OCTOBER 4 § The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje, McClelland 2011 WINNERS ANNOUNCED NOVEMBER 8 & Stewart, 9780771068645 § The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, House of 2010 FINALISTS ANNOUNCED OCTOBER 5 Anansi Press, 9780887842894 and 9781770890329 2010 WINNERS ANNOUNCED NOVEMBER 9 § The Free World by David Bezmozgis, 2009 FINALISTS ANNOUNCED OCTOBER 6 HarperCollins, 9781443403993 and 9781443404006 2009 WINNERS ANNOUNCED NOVEMBER 9 § The Antagonist by Lynn Coady, House of Anansi Press, 9780887842962 § Better Living Through PlastiC Explosives by Zsuzsi ABOUT Gartner, Penguin Group, 9780670065189 The Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife Doris Giller. Giller was a literary journalist GILLER PRIZE 2010 who worked as the Book Review Editor for the The Gazette and the Assistant Book Editor and Reading Habits columnist for the Winner: § The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud, Toronto Star. Gaspereau Press and D & M Publishers 9781554470785 & 9781553658955 Scotiabank teamed up with The Giller Prize in 2005, creating The Nominees: Scotiabank Giller Prize. The award aims to celebrate the best in § The Matter with Morris by David Bergen, HarperCollins, 9781554687749 Canadian fiction and to bring these titles to the attention of all § Light Lifting by Alexander MacLeod, Biblioasis Canadians. 9781897231944 § This Cake is for the Party by Sarah Selecky, SUMMARY Thomas Allen 9780887625251 § Annabel by Kathleen Winter, House of Anansi Historically, the Giller Prize has always had great effect on sales Press 9780887842368 for all shortlisted titles—especially the winner. The 2009 winner, The Bishop’s Man by Linden McIntyre, had sales increase by over 300% the first week, 770%