Susan Hill is the author of the crime fiction series based on protagonist DCI Simon Serrailler, author of many other literary novels, famous for "The Woman in Black" and is also a publisher with her press "Long Barn".
Susan has also recently had a marvellous idea - The Book Bloggers Book Prize.
This is not a prize for bloggers or books that derive from blogs. (Neither is it specifically for crime fiction.) It is a prize for a book, determined through a process where "... Entries will be suggested only by anyone who either book-blogs or visits and comments, but the shortlists and winner will be selected by those who have Book Blog sites, though anyone may comment and give their opinion of any books and these will most certainly be taken into account. We want nothing cliquey or smoke-filled-room about this..."
Susan's idea was inspired by the fact that she'd noted that many "books-and-reading" bloggers blogged as a result of dissatisfaction with reviews read in the media. Acknowledging the "notable exceptions", she says that most do not seem to reflect the views of the "ordinary" reader and book buyer.
And that same comment, expressed in other words, came up at Harrogate this year, in the panel entitled "What's wrong with popular fiction?" Robert Goddard remarked that the book review sections' pages appeared to devote more space to those books that are not anticipated to sell well. He's right. If you look at the weekly top ten in hard or paper back fiction, there's a consistent 60-70% in there that is crime and thriller fiction. But when it comes to review space, the opposite applies. For most newspapers, crime and thriller fiction is a "feature" every once in a while.
So a prize that is essentially reader voted has got to be good hasn't it?
Dovegreyreader (Lynne) recently commented on the Chark Blog that "Most of us are ignoring the review pages, the 3 for 2's and increasingly the prizelists. Plenty of us have been quietly exchanging great reads through international online reading groups for years and there's a potential audience that no one seems to have taken any notice of, do publishers even know they exist? Have you typed 'reading group' into Yahoo groups lately? Word of a good read spreads around these like a bush fire and likewise we telegraph the turkeys well in advance!"
That is so true.
This blog evolved from participation on author forums and email discussions about books. When I had the chance to go to last year's Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, I also wanted to post something somewhere, to share the experience. Hence the blog. I've added details of other events I've attended and I've also shared my thoughts on books I've read. As for turkeys, yes I've come across a few. But I prefer my turkeys at Christmas, and on a plate, and not on here.
A book voted for by readers has to be a good thing in my mind.
Interestingly, you could say that about the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award before this year. But when the announcement of the winner was made in July, there was a passing reference to a change in determination for 2006. The final decision had taken reader votes into account, but that was one part of a wider decision... Not sure what they meant exactly, but it would be good to know.
But back to the "Book Bloggers' Book Prize" - it seems that inspiration was fast in coming. Susan Hill and Lynne Hatwell of the dovegreyreader blog had a conversation on Susan Hill's blog. Susan suggested that Lynne knit a pair of socks as the prize for the dummy run in 2006. Then Em suggested that it's called the "Socker Prize"...
As Susan is up for "...a really fun award ceremony.. no black ties or dinners at round tables... a nice knees-up somewhere...", my money's on "The Socker" becoming a notable prize in the future.
Congratulations to Susan for the inspirational thought!
The rules can be found here and here. But it's all still in development...
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