I'm writing this last week - if you know what I mean. I'm scheduling it to go out on Thursday, which will be the day after one award ceremony and the day before another. So, I'm going to be a tad stressed. And no, I haven't a clue whether I've won either or not, but I always prefer to assume not, because clearly the chances are that I haven't. [Edited to add: very very annoyingly, I had to pull out of yesterday's on doc's orders after straining my voice. Can't risk long-term damage. And you will see why there's a pic of my red boots here in a minute...]But I thought I'd like to share some thoughts about awards. I'm going to make some points which may surprise you.
- Some awards are publisher-entered; others are generated purely by librarians or other committees.
- Publishers do not always enter all eligible books. Therefore a shortlist is not necessarily drawn from all eligible books. And therefore may not include all the "best" books available. Publishers tend to enter books they most want to promote, especially if, as often, they are limited to number of entries. A big publisher may have too many eligible books; a small publisher may not have the budget to enter for expensive awards, as some are.
- The shortlisting committees have ideas about which books they'd like on the list, for very good reasons to do with promoting reading. Again, they may not be about which books they think are "best" but which books would be best for this award list. This is GOOD because it creates variety and range. So, some awards for children's books will consist of a shortlist of quite varied books, some easy ones, some harder ones. Some awards aim at easier books; others have a more "literary" feel.
- The whole thing is stressful for most authors involved. Lovely, lovely, lovely to be shortlisted but still full of angsty feelings.
- Some awards are then voted by public vote. Some by loads of kids voting, who may or may not have read all the books - which is entirely understandable. And some by a committee of adults, sometimes with some kids along with them.
- A sequel is very much less likely to appear on a shortlist at all.
- Some publishers do more to promote authors on shortlists than others, for all sorts of understandable reasons. Some shortlists encourage publishers and authors to promote the book on the shortlist, so as to generate sales and interest, while others discourage it, so as to keep it fair. Each approach has merits.
- An award ceremony is a whirlwind of stress if you are me. I feel self-conscious, worried, bleurgh, flattered, proud to be there, refusing to believe I could have won, all keyed up, getting the face ready to look happy when I don't win, really looking forward to it being over, but also loving the adrenaline and meeting the readers.
- Usually, we have to talk about the book for a few minutes to hundreds of kids, which is something we do all the time but NOT in this situation. We have to find something different to say.
- I haven't a flipping idea what I'm going to say for this week's two ceremonies. [Edited to add: I wrote something for yesterday's so the compere could read it for me. And I sent a photo of my red boots to stand in for me - see pic above. I think they'll do a better job than I would, frankly. They should win.]
- Gah.
- Bleurgh.
- Please, please, lovely librarians and people, despite my stressiness, please keep shortlisting me and be kind to me when I arrive all gibbery and stuff. Bleurgh and meh.
