A recent article by Deborah Cohen cites James English The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value. According to English, the number of literary awards has more than doubled in the UK since 1988 and tripled in the US since 1976. Not all these are for SFF, of course. Some of them are big competitions for national recognition and some are only small prizes for local authors. Still, there’s been that explosion. So why are awards so popular?
The answer appears to be economics, which is the answer to a lot of questions about human behavior, i.e. there’s money tied up in the awards process. First of all, many of the prizes charge an entry fee, which means it’s a money-making proposition for the organization offering the award. The Newbery is free. The Pulitzer charges $50. But other smaller contests often have higher fees. The Florida Authors and Publishers Association, for example, charges $75 for members and $85 for non-members to enter their contest. These small organizations tend to cater to independent publishers and authors who hope to gain some of the advantages a literary award can offer, meaning you can add “prize-winning author” to your bio.
The second way money enters the equation is that the more prestigious awards generally give a big boost to the winner’s sales. There are press releases and a big awards ceremony and a sticker that goes on the books so book stores can set up displays. This means it’s important for an award to become prestigious so it can influence sales, and important for big publishers to control the prestigious awards, if at all possible. There are pressures, and corruption may creep in. For example, recently published diaries of a former French literary judge apparently allege that the French publishing houses illegally influence the major awards. Accordingly, the three biggest publishing houses always win the biggest prizes for their authors.
Because of the prestige and sales that well-known awards can provide, there are other pressures, as well. Readers might recall that the lack of recognition for popular literature is one of the Sad/Rabid Puppy complaints. Underrepresented groups of authors lobby for recognition, and diversity in particular has recently become a point of contention. An interesting question: Does more diversity in the awards lead to more diversity in the publishing industry?
Lela E. Buis 
May 26, 2017 @ 12:36:58
It also suggests that groups like the Puppies should simply create their own awards. If they are convinced that awards like the Hugo and Nebula are failing to recognize popular stories, then they should find they get lots of support–as long as they don’t limit it to white men only.
I know they’ve attempted something like that with the Dragon awards, but those seem to have so many problems that I’m not sure they’re quite what they had in mind.
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May 26, 2017 @ 12:43:40
That’s actually a good suggestion. We’ll have to see how the Dragon Awards pan out. There’s so much going on at the Con that they didn’t get much promotion last year–and prestige is an issue if the award is going to have any real affect on sales.
It’s basically the Puppies’ complaints that have attracted my attention to the awards process, and I’m going to write a short series on it now. You may recall that some of the Puppies allege corruption, and there are certainly pressures on how the awards should be handled.
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May 26, 2017 @ 13:21:07
If you’re going to write a series on the rise and fall of the Puppies, you might want to look at some of my articles on the topic, particularly Fix the Slating Problem Forever and Slate Voting Analysis Using EPH Data: 2014-2016. Between the two of them, I think you can get the best data on the numbers of people involved in the slates and the impact they had on the Hugos.
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May 26, 2017 @ 13:23:19
Oh, let me add that if there were “secret slates,” they would show up in the tables associated with the EPH article, but they don’t. Whatever corruption the Puppies might allege, there was definitely no one else creating slates in 2014-2016. Not successful ones, anyway.
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May 26, 2017 @ 14:15:07
Actually, the series will focus on awards contests rather than the Puppy fiasco. Like all human endeavors, these will never be free of influence. It’s nothing earth-shaking, maybe, but I’ve gotten interested in the last couple of years.
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May 26, 2017 @ 18:56:17
I think the only thing that influences the publishing industry (as a whole) is sales. If being nominated and winning an award boosts sales, they’ll want their authors nominated and winning awards. The fact that some may attempt to influence this is to be expected. Not everyone stands on the same level where moral ground and ethical standards are concerned.
As an Indie author I certainly would appreciate the enhanced sales one of the “bigger” awards might bring. I’d value the prestige and validation that comes with an award too. I think the prestige and validation might be worth more in the long-run. Of course, there’s a degree of validation that comes with being a “Best Selling” author, and without a doubt the money would spend, but I’m not entirely convinced that the money is worth more than the acknowledgement of our peers. It’s a bit difficult to pay for groceries with that, but I still think it’s worth a little more.
Ultimately I believe, the only thing that will bring diversity into the mainstream is sales. Sales are the measure every industry must use to choose a path forward. For a corporation, all else is an aside. It was sales and the potential for sales that brought us 50 shades closer to this as a fact. It wasn’t art that did that. It certainly wasn’t a respect for women, or an agenda, or an award that did it. It was sales. I don’t intend this to come across as cynical. There are good people in publishing, but a publisher without sales is no publisher at all –and fast. I believe, I hope, and I’d pray if I was the praying kind, that the mainstream is ready for a multitude of diversities in fiction. I think, when the public demands it, the publishers will publish it and the awards and rewards will follow.
-J
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May 26, 2017 @ 21:27:03
I think you’re definitely right about the shifting moral and ethical standards. At the least, big publishers have the deep pockets to promote their authors, the connections to get the works reviewed (in glowing terms) and the reputation to attract works they’re looking for.
I’m not sure what you say about sales is solid, though. I’d think there would be a lot of deserving books out there, not sensational enough to sell big on their own, that could be propelled to sales stardom through a well-funded promotional campaign and a big award win. Alternately, I think there are some very undeserving books that are propelled the same way.
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