Garrett 1993:314So much for the prizes themselves, but what about the winning books and their authors
and illustrators? It has to be said first of all that most are pleased to have been
recognised by an award in the insecure world of creative writing (the reactions of the
unsuccessful candidates are not usually reported, however). Whether a book’s winning
an award has a great effect on sales, however, is sometimes disputed, although it varies
from country to country. Liz Attenborough, publishing director of Puffin, says
The Japanese for example are wild about awards. When one of our books gets an
award we get letters from publishers all over the world about foreign editions. And
when Sunshine [by Jan Ormerod] won the Mother Goose Award the Australian
publisher ordered an instant reprint of 5,000. That would never happen here.
Bradman 1983:4The Newbery Medal has a far greater effect on the purchasing policy of American
librarians than the Carnegie Medal does on their British counterparts. In the year
immediately following its being awarded the Newbery Medal, a winning book is expected
to sell 50,000 copies, with honour books selling between 10,000 and 20,000 copies. The
apparent lack of sales in Britain is probably due to insufficient interest in award
winning books on the part of British librarians, or more generously, to the fact that they
have already purchased them: do British librarians set trends rather than follow them?
The sales figures quoted for the Newbery Medal should also be seen in context, as one
award-winning American publisher sees them:
To look at the impact of the Newbery and Caldecott awards on the total hard cover
trade children’s book industry, we had to consult the invaluable tables and charts
available in Publisher’s Weekly. According to the February 19, 1979, issue...the
average price of a children’s book in 1978 was $6.59. And for the same year,
estimated publishing industry reports for hard cover children’s book sales in the
United States...are $134,600,000. Using $7.95 as the average price of a winning or
honour book published in 1978, that means that approximately $795,000 was
spent on the winners and $349,000 on the four honour books, for a total of $1,444,
800—and that’s less than 1 per cent of the total children’s book sales last year?
Kayden and Glazer 1979:42Penelope Lively has this to say about the effects of children’s book awards on sales:
Trying to determine the effect of literary prizes on book sales is a baffling exercise.
Two of my children’s books have won awards: The Ghost of Thomas Kempe won the
Carnegie Medal for 1973, A Stitch in Time the Whitbread prize for 1976. Thomas
Kempe has done well ever since, Stitch in Time has not distinguished itself
particularly. But they are very different kinds of book, and I can’t help feeling
Thomas Kempe might have been more popular anyway, without the initial impetus
of an award, though there’s no doubt at all the Carnegie...does a great deal to help506 PRIZES AND PRIZEWINNERS