Does The Giller Guarantee Sales? It Depends
After Sarah Bernstein won the 2023 Giller Award for her novel Study for Obedience, the book’s sales increased, and it soon ranked third on the top 10 Canadian fiction list - just in time to cash in on the holiday sales bump. Predictable, according to BookNet Canada, the non-profit organization that develops technology, standards, and education to serve the Canadian book industry. BookNet regularly tracks the impact of awards on markets.
“Literary prizes have a significant impact on the Canadian book industry, which means we pay close attention to who gets nominated, who wins, and how it all impacts sales.”
Winning a literary award hikes a book’s profile, as the books are put on course curriculums, book club reading lists, and are listed as library best staff picks. This creates more profits for publishers, which is a boon for authors because it increases a book’s promotions budget.
Still, an award nomination or win can be a double-edged sword. A 2013 study linked to the University of Chicago found books that are nominated for, or win, awards actually get lower ratings from readers. “The causal effects of winning a literary prize: awards in this setting lead to increased popularity,” the authors write. The drop in ratings is because of a “lower predicted fit with audience members’ tastes,” study authors explain.
In other words, people buy the book due to the buzz, but it’s less likely to meet their expectations. However, an award win or nomination nowadays means social media will sit up and take notice and that does have an impact. In 2018, a Cornell University study found influencers with publishing links and social media cred had more impact on book rankings than book reviews.
It found social media highly effective at driving a book to Amazon’s best seller lists. In his seminal 2008 book The Economy of Prestige, James F English writes that the impact of award nominations and wins are more complex than people realize. Nowadays Western society’s proliferation of awards means we are awash in an awards culture, he writes.
This has watered down much of the value of literary awards as society tries unsuccessfully to create an arbitrary measure for taste. This is not an objective cultural value, he writes. There is no longer any way in the modern world to commodify taste, he writes, and as a result, literary prizes are both revered and reviled.
Some say they “systematically neglect excellence, reward mediocrity … and provide a closed, elitist forum where cultural insiders engage in influence peddling and mutual back-scratching.” Others contend they “reward excellence,” bring publicity to ‘quality’ art,” and give struggling artists much needed financial security.
Both views are correct, English says. “It would be a great mistake to imagine that prize judges are cynical. But this does not mean that their work is free of self interest or beyond any economic reckoning. “ In 2019, Writer’s Digest wrote of a long list of benefits for award winners and nominees, pointing out one of the most important was how they boosted author links to literary networks and readers' access to authors.
Whatever the long-term impact of Bernstein’s award win, readers have had much to say about the recent Giller winner, reflected in the following social media and Goodreads comments. “A wonderful book. Had to read it three times to properly grasp it, but so well written. A book should make you think.”
“Although I consumed this book in the span of 24 hours, I felt like I didn’t understand a lick of a word. Dense prose and several ten-dollar words left my brain feeling as if it was kicked repeatedly.
“The sentences were fine, but I failed at understanding their meaning. I’m sure Bernstein has a truly deep meaning hidden within the loquacious plot, but I missed it.”
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“I found it a deeply compelling but equally dense and elliptical, a novel I will definitely need to revisit.”
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“I often found myself going in circles, the narrator’s thoughts coming back to the same points repeatedly (as is naturally the case when in someone’s head), and wanting to take frequent breaks from this. I came to understand the author’s intent, but I have to say I didn’t have a whole lot of fun getting there.”
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“Catnip for a certain type of esoteric reader - but I am NOT that person.”
Robin Harvey (robinharvey@live.com) worked on staff for The Toronto Star for more than 20 years. There she wrote book and theatre reviews. She was a reporter, editor and columnist as well as a News Editor, Assistant City Editor and Public Editor. As Deputy Sunday Editor she was supervisor of the books page. For a time, she ran The Sunday Star short story contest. She's been published in Sun Media, The Toronto Sunday Sun, the Southam news chain and the National Post. Ms. Harvey studied journalism at Metropolitan University, Fine Arts at York University, and is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers.