The Other Side of Awards
...what might that be? Well, I know at this time of year there is much discussion of the effect of awards on literary culture, but what of the effect of applying for awards on a publisher's bank account?
To wit, Kristin Pulkkinen, our genius publicist, was just now discussing with me the books we're submitting for PEN Awards. Mostly, we love submitting for a PEN Award, they don't charge us. (Unlike the extortionate National Book Awards, who do, and handsomely...). We've also managed to be a finalist in a couple of PEN Awards, engendering even greater fondness for them here at Soft Skull.
But we saw that the PEN Hemingway Award, for Best First Novel, administering by PEN New England, had a $40 entry fee. "F&*k!" I exclaimed, my predeliction for profanity well-known in this office.
And then we see the note:
"* Exceptions will be made for small press submissions: if your press's annual net sales do not exceed 4 million dollars, you need not submit the entry fee."
Ladies and gentleman, the only literary award of which we are aware that recognizes that awards submission fees are a form of regressive taxation on independent publishers: the PEN Hemingway. Kudos to them, and to PEN in general for being free, and to the NBCC for also being free.
And a big-time hint to the National Book Foundation that one of the ways in which they could contribute to literacy and respect for the book could be by ceasing to extort $100/title from independent publishers for each nomination. Or at least waiving it for say the first 2 or 3 titles submitted...
(As for the $2000 the publisher on the short list has to pay as a contribution to marketing support—well let's just say that Copper Canyon must have a separate line item in their annual budget for forking over money to the NBF in exchange for being one of the finest independent poetry presses in the United States)