Anyone Wanna Buy a Prize Winner?

By Steven Zeitchik, PW NewsLine -- Publishers Weekly, 12/2/2004

Those looking for reasons to complain about the clout or relevance of this year's NBA's won't want for evidence after looking at the winners' sales numbers. Prestigious though they may be, the awards don't send flutters up the spines of bestseller lists, or, for that matter, the spines of readers.

Nielsen BookScan numbers reveal that none of the four winners sold more than 2000 copies in the ten days following the award announcements, with the poetry and children's winnrers actually selling fewer than 1000 copies.

Other numbers to shake your head at: Life-to-date sales for Arc of Justice and News from Paraguay are only in the low 3000's, and the total sales number for all four NBA winners combined is fewer than 8000--that is, the respectable sales number for one first novel from a mid-size press. (The usual caveat: BookScan is assumed to represent only about 60-70% of sales, and doesn't include libraries, most religion stores or Wal-Mart.)

The numbers do more than underscore the ever-tenuous link between awards and sales. They show that media by itself is not enough (witness Charles Frazier, who though many people had already bought his book by the time he won his NBA, managed to sell still many more after the award because the media was buttressed by a previous awareness). They show, perhaps, that booksellers themselves don't always react with the expected placement and enthusiasm. And most pointedly, they show prize committees looking to shine a light on the unknowns that while their choice may help an author's standing, it doesn't measurably help their popularity or wallets. In the current winner-take-all climate of publishing, these books may win, but do they really?