Book awards - in America, at least - are not like the Oscars. Awards are not cumulative, and in the case of something like the Pulitzers, the jurors often have another goal in mind: sales. They know that the Pulitzer stamp can sell a book.
The book trade invented literary prizes to stimulate sales, not to reward merit.
Writers, most of them, don't have a lot of resources.
One good thing about leaving daily journalism was that I was no longer obliged to read all the book prize short lists.
The European and the North American consider that a book that has been awarded any kind of prize must be good; the Argentine allows for the possibility that the book might not be bad, despite the prize.
I'm not sure that the culture of literary prizes is always a good thing, but while there are literary prizes, it's nice to be nominated.
People say 'chick lit,' and what they mean is 'crap.' And so even though you might sell 100,000 copies of a book, you're never going to win a prize. These are books that people don't just read, they devour them - they stay up into the early hours because they want to devour them.
The Pulitzer is more useful than meaningful.
Oh, I've become immune to the Booker. I think we need something a little more like the Pulitzer prize, where there isn't this great race.
The effect of prizes on one's career - if that is what to call it - is considerable, since they give one more clout with publishers and more notoriety among journalists. The effect on one's writing, however, is nil - otherwise, one would be in deep trouble.
Literature is one of those realms in which giving out prizes can seem not merely dubious but positively obtuse.
Literary prizes serve a purpose if they allow for discussion of books.
You come out of the gate, you've got something new, you're subversive, nobody's ever done it before. But by your fifth novel and your fourth literary prize and your house in the country, can you really claim to be subversive?
My thought is, if you're a book lover, you're going to enjoy winning a book even if it's not something you'd ordinarily pick up on your own. It's a chance to expand your horizons a little.
There may be certain genres that men dominate, but fiction not so much. The question of prizes is tricky because there are so many prizes.
There are, it is true, at present no great prizes in literature such as are offered by the learned professions, but there are quite as many small ones - competences; while, on the other hand, it is not so much of a lottery.
