Signs of Change in Book World?

What could be nicer than books and chocolate? The Galaxy Book Awards are rapidly upstaging the Booker prize, which has taken a knock lately after arguments about the need for readability which supposedly clashes with perceptions of literary value  (are the two things irreconcilable?).

Alan Hollinghurst won the Author of the Year award - after having been left off the Booker shortlist - for his novel 'The Stranger's Child'.   A lot of people will be pleased to see an award going to Sarah Winman's debut novel  'When God was a Rabbit',  and an old-fashioned literary biography won the non-fiction prize ahead of the much hyped celebrity bios.

Apparently there's been a reader's revolt against the trend towards (often publisher generated) celebrity memoirs/biogs  and Claire Tomalin's 'Dickens' is doing much better than anyone (even Claire herself) predicted.  Hurray!!!!

Nothing for poets this time though.

Interesting post by Elizabeth Baines over at Fiction Bitch, about the experience of re-reading books you loved as a child.    It's called 'What do we read, when we read?'

Galaxy Award Results:- 

Waterstone's UK Author of the Year: The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst (Picador)


Specsavers popular fiction book of the year: A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French (Penguin)

More4 popular non-fiction book of the year: How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (Ebury Press)

Crime and thriller of the year (available on iBookstore): Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson (Doubleday)

Daily Telegraph biography of the year: Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin (Viking)

International author of the year: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)

Food and drink book of the year: The Good Cook by Simon Hopkinson (BBC Books)

WHSmith paperback of the year: Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador)

National Book Tokens children's book of the year: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)

Audible.co.uk audiobook of the year: My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young, read by Dan Stevens (HarperAudio)

Galaxy new writer of the year: When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman (Headline Review)

Galaxy National Book Awards

Book awards are increasingly seen as part of the necessary publicity launch-platform for authors.  Winning one can transform you from a mid-list hopeful to an international sensation over-night -  that is providing your publisher can afford the fees to get you onto the list.  Some of the big prizes require back-up funding that runs into thousands and is beyond the reach of all but the biggest publishers who are unlikely to splurge on new or less well known authors.
Books for the Galaxy awards are apparently nominated by 'around 50 carefully-selected individuals from the Galaxy National Book Awards Academy, who are drawn from retailer chain buyers, independent booksellers, wholesalers and trade press columnists'.   The exact process is rather vague, but the impression is one of democracy and you feel that it should produce a varied list that allows the small fry to swim with the big fish.
So why did I feel so depressed after I'd watched the awards?  Why did I feel that I'd seen it all before?  There didn't seem to be anything fresh or original at all.  (Martin Amis, Stephen Fry, Jonathon Frantzen, Terry Pratchett ...........) And hardly any women at all - though there were loads on the shortlists.  But awards were only given to Hilary Mantel,  and children's writer Julia Donaldson who shared her award with co-author Alex Scheffler.
I thought the biography short list was particularly apalling - celebrity memoirs and diaries by Alan Sugar, Tony Blair, the Duchess of Devonshire, Stephen Fry, and Chris Mullin MP - the one biography on it, Justine Picardie's account of the life of Coco Chanel didn't get anywhere.

One interesting new writer who made it to the shortlist is Katherine Webb, who wrote 7 unpublished novels before The Legacy came to the notice of Orion through the on-line writing site 'YouWriteOn.com'.   It's a peer criticism site where the top ten voted authors are read by an agent or publisher.  Orion are currently giving The Legacy the full treatment and I feel very glad for Katherine who deserves her success for persevering as well as the quality of her writing!