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November 29, 2004

AN IMPAC PERSPECTIVE

Dexter Petley's novel White Lies is one of the 147 titles nominated for the IMPAC award.  He weighed in with a comment on our recent post about the unmanageable size of the long list, and we reproduce it here for your perusal.

"I share the derision at the IMPAC longlist, but let me add the missing perspective. I'm one of the writers on this 2005 longlist and i'm trying to come to terms with a kind of gratitude while retaining my long held disgust at the domination of literary prizes in contemporary fiction.  I'm a mid-list author of lit fiction with very low sales and zero publicity.  There are thousands like me and we're the rank outsiders for prizes we never usually get entered for. Our publishers dont give a toss about us, we're just  in the catalogue as token quality, something to remainder next year. We're like child labour sewing footballs together. Fair trade has yet to enter publishing. We're  unpromoted, therefore unreviewed, thus unsold, unread. Publishers are the only multi-national conglomerates who don't promote the bulk of their products. My books don't even get into bookshops.

Our editors tell us, in all seriousness, that nothing will change unless we "win a prize". They want something for nothing.  Publishers are limited to submitting 2 novels, which usually adds up to a total number of submissions equivalent to the IMPAC longlist.  My publisher alone turns out over 200 novels a year, therefore mid-list losers like me never get entered for the Booker. This makes the Booker the literary prize least qualified to reflect the actual state of contemporary fiction, and yet for many readers, the media, and all bookshops it defines it. In fact, the Booker is a conspiracy against fiction and all publishers are implicated. For instance, my publisher, Fourth Estate/Harper Collins, buys in, for huge advances, big names just for the prize lists.  A tactic which rarely works, but conglomerates are desperate gamblers.  Editors take all the credit for success but blame failure on the writer. They're self-obsessed and need to be seen on prize-giving night, pissed and gloating on TV, or in Vogue or Hello magazine throwing money away in self-promotion which in the past would've financed a first novel.

The Booker leads where others follow. The prize winners are then bought and sold like footballers in time for the next prize. The shortlists are generally rented out from one prize to another because these prizes need the publicity. There are too many, They're in competition, and they're sponsored by corporate money from the advertising fund. Orange is a phone, Whitbread is a beer, Man Booker is something to do with junk food. I don't know what IMPAC is but I doubt it bears scrutiny with a bag of loot as big as 60 grand sterling. You just have to look at the headlines around the IMPAC longlist anyway.  Only the prizewinners from the Orange, Booker, Whitbread, Guardian, etc., are mentioned.  Us unknowns on the list probably won't sell one single extra copy.  My own publisher has just dumped me for low sales anyway, so I'm on the longlist without a publisher or an agent, actually enjoying my liberty. 

147 books on a longlist chosen from all the fiction published worldwide in English for 2003 works out at about 1 novel in 1000, a better statistic than the Booker.  I don't, therefore, feel insulted by my inclusion, just depressed by the comments, and not a little disappointed at the organisers of the prize themselves for playing into the conspiracy.  The nomination structure is the only good thing about it all."

Posted at 12:30 AM |

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Comments

birnbaum

As Pulizter Prize winning Boston Globe critic Gail Caldwell opined in a chat with me, "The Pulizter Prize doesn't mean anything until you have one." Catch my drift?

Or maybe Will Self's rhetorical question about literary awards nails it better, "How do you win at fiction?"

Posted by: birnbaum | November 29, 2004 at 03:05 AM

birnbaum

As Pulizter Prize winning Boston Globe critic Gail Caldwell opined in a chat with me, "The Pulizter Prize doesn't mean anything until you have one." Catch my drift?

Or maybe Will Self's rhetorical question about literary awards nails it better, "How do you win at fiction?"

Posted by: birnbaum | November 29, 2004 at 03:05 AM

Jimmy Beck

Bravo to Petley for telling it like it is. I hope White Lies wins. I hope he finds a new publisher and sells a bajillion copies of his next book as well as his back list.

Posted by: Jimmy Beck | November 29, 2004 at 08:20 AM

genevieve

Good link at Bookninja last week about Faber, and why it exists and prospers in such dangerous times, where books and their creators are like footballs and this damn job of writing increasingly resembles a lottery. There is a small publisher here, Text run by Michael Heyward - they publish Peter Singer, the Australian philosopher among others - and they are now in partnership with another small publisher in Britain with the view to securing European rights for anyone on both lists ( maybe US too, I can't remember.) A last-ditch effort to stay afloat for our guys, but maybe a possible move for the future for all. Surely there is a better way...that Petley is a brave man.

Posted by: genevieve | November 29, 2004 at 03:32 PM

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