Awards

Literary Prizes 2014: The Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction

The shortlist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction was announced last week at a press conference in Toronto. Congratulations to the five finalists! Interested in how this literary prize affects sales in Canada? Check out some highlights from BookNet Research in this blog post.

Finding Award-Winners on CataList

Canadians love their books. A recent National Reading Campaign survey found that 95% of Canadians read for pleasure, and books are their preferred reading format. But with so much out there to read, how does anyone decide what to pick up next?

Often, avid readers’ holiday wishlists are filled with the winners and finalists of Canadian book awards such as Canada Reads, the Giller Prize, and the Governor General’s Literary Awards. To make it easy for retailers and libraries to find and order Canadian award finalists, we’ve created catalogues for all the major awards on BNC CataList.

The Giller Shortlist: What Can Publishers Expect?

Each year since 2005 BookNet Canada has been actively tracking and comparing the performance of the Giller nominees and winners. On the day that the shortlist announces we send a Giller Report to all nominated publishing firms who are subscribers to BNC SalesData. This report is created in order to give publishers a sense of what to expect during the award season, and to help nominees with stock and demand planning. What did we find? In a nutshell: the Giller effect is alive and well.

Capitalizing on the Giller Announcements

The Scotiabank Giller shortlist was announced on Tuesday, and people are absolutely delighted by the number of independent presses represented on this list. But many are also worried. They worry that the independents won’t know how to react. Steven Beattie wrote a thoughtful piece on the plight of the shortlisted indie publisher just yesterday. It’s true. It can be difficult for publishers without much Giller experience to know exactly what to do, when to reprint and how much. BNC can help with that—as long as a print job can be scheduled in time.

Check Out the Giller's Track Record

The fall book season has officially begun now that the Giller longlist is out. Everyone is overthinking how to sum up the jury’s selections, but the longlist does indeed seem like “a fairly balanced affair”.

Politics aside, this is a moment for the nominees to celebrate. The Scotiabank Giller Prize works. It brings considerable attention to Canadian fiction, and it has been proven to generate sales, significant sales.