Philip Kerr and the RBA Crime Prize

As we know, Philip Kerr recently won the RBA crime Writing Prize for his next Bernie Gunther novel.  Many congratulations to Mr Kerr.

I'd never heard of this prize and with its staggering 125k euros as prize money I decided to perform a little investigation.  (You could call it "Marple-lite", sans tweeds.)  I also noticed that sarcastic comments have been made in some quarters, based on the fact that RBA is a media and publishing organisation and publishes... Philip Kerr.   Hot on the trail, I discovered there's a very good reason for that, so read on for truth and transparency, folks...

Here is an excerpt from the rules of entry:

"The Prize is open to any crime novel, originally written in any language, but submitted in Spanish or English. The manuscripts should be at least 150 pages long (2,100 spaces per page), be hitherto and unpublished in any language and not presented for any other award or competition which has not yet been judged and/or not previously received any award."

And another:

"The winning novel will be published during the six months following the awarding of the Prize if the novel has been submitted in Spanish, and during a period of 12 months if the novel has been submitted in English."

The full set can be read here.

Therefore it's no surprise at all that all three winners thus far - Kerr,  Francisco González Ledesma and Andrea Camilleri - are published by RBA Libros.  Either all were published by RBA already and knew about the competition, or became published by RBA by virtue of winning the prize and now sit on their list. 

Crime authors in possession of an as yet unpublished MS may wish to take note and read the rules for the purposes of entering next year; the prize is not just the money but also a publishing deal.  You read it here first!

Comments

[cfr]

Thanks, Norm.

[Norm]

We are lucky to have our own two Miss Marples you for literary detection and Karen for television searches to keep us up to date with what is going on. :o)