In London. Image – Getty: Pawopa
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘To Amplify the Creative Spoken Word Sector’
Barely a month after the 35th-anniversary British Book Awards, the “Nibbies,” were produced by The Bookseller and its parent company, The Stage, another contest has been announced today (June 11)—a competition for audiobooks recorded in the English language and available in the United Kingdom.
The British Audio Awards’ winners are expected to be presented for a first time on November 24. A shortlist is anticipated in September.
The standing leader in audiobook award programs, of course, is the annual 28-category Audie Awards, produced by the United States-based Audio Publishers Association, led by Michele Cobb.
The Audie Awards, presented each year during the publishing industry’s award-saturated springtime, reached a 30th anniversary with their March 5 winners’ announcement. Those awards are called the “Audies”—a term that in some dialects can sound like a reference to cars made by the German auto manufacturer.
The British Audio Awards are nicknaming themselves the “Speakies,” and organizers may be hoping to establish some distinction for themselves with their autumn presentations, wisely far from the Audies on the international industry’s groaning prize calendar.
Categories at the Outset
At this point, it appears that the UK’s new audiobook awards will be given in at least 17 categories, although it’s unclear whether a kind of super-category will also get its own “best” title awarded, as well. The list provided comprises:
- Best Audiobook
- Fiction
- Crime & Thriller
- Science Fiction and Fantasy
- Romance
- Business / self-help
- Nonfiction
- Nonfiction Memoir
- Children’s Books
- Young Adult Books
- Best Audio Drama
- New / Original Work
- Adaptation
- Best Performance
- Best Performance
- Best Reader (narrator)
- Best Performance Ensemble
- Best Performance New Voice
- Overall
- Audio of the Year
- Audio Business of the Year
Alastair Smith
Alistair Smith, editor of The Stage—which itself is behind the Stage Debut Awards—points out that audio drama will be recognized, something that some may have called “radio theater” at times.
This, Smith says, is “a vital yet often undervalued part of the performing arts landscape, and one in which British writers, performers, and theater-makers consistently excel.”
Philip Jones
The Bookseller editor Philip Jones, on today’s announcement, says that the new audio awards “will further support one of the UK book trade’s most exciting growth sectors.
“Working with colleagues at The Stage to join the dots between audiobooks, audio drama, and performance, has been vital as we look to amplify the creative spoken word sector in all of its forms.
“The publishing industry has already shown its backing for these awards, and we are also indebted to the Audie Awards in the US for shining the light three decades ago.”
There’s a July 7 deadline for making entries for the first round of the British Audio Awards, and you can learn more at a section of The Bookseller site now dedicated to this program.
A Chance for a Fresh Start on Transparency
In most of the book and publishing awards in the United Kingdom and other markets, it’s assumed that “the golden sticker” on a winner’s book cover will automatically mean increased sales, benefiting much deserved authors and publishers. However, that’s an assumption. Little data is provided by contests on what impact a win has had on sales of that title.
A new award such as the British Audio Award has the chance to build in a plan to report on how audiobook and audio drama sales go following winner announcements.
This is not without precedent. As Publishing Perspectives readers know, the Booker Prize Foundation has been an industry leader in reporting various angles of marketplace impact on its winning titles, authors, and publishers. We’re pleased that since we began reporting on this, the £25,000 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding and the £50,000 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction have begun developing statistics and reports on their own accolades’ market impact. We’ve also had word that the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is planning to report on this from its influential National Translation Awards.
As a program like the British Audio Awards gets started, it’s easy to see the sort of insight on sales that could be generated for a format well understood to be leading growth in many markets today. Once 17 or more categories of audio content are named “winner,” which of those titles finds new energy on the market? —in what genre? of what type? “audio drama” or audiobook? large-cast or single reader? This is a great chance for a new awards program from a trusted and experienced producing group to consider leveraging the information that comes from its operation for new views into the sales of a dynamic downloadable format.
More from Publishing Perspectives on myriad book and publishing awards is here, more on the United Kingdom market is here, and more on audio and audiobooks in the industry is here.