The Quills of the Proletariat
4 Oct 2005, 12:41:07 pm
2 Comments
NBC and Reed Business Information have gotten together for their own version of the People's Choice Award for books, called The Quills. Quite a daunting award -- considering the thousands upon thousands of books published every year -- but the candidates were narrowed down to a select few by booksellers and librarians. Their goal was to give a Oscars-style profile of the book world, awarding the people's favorite writers for their work.
The problem? Well, they don't see a problem, but voting was quite small. In fact, people interviewed at Barnes & Noble, browsing a display of Quills nominees, had no idea they could vote, or even that the Quills was an award competition. Their voting website traffic wasn't even large enough for the big statistical agencies to take note.
On one hand, here was the perfect opportunity to skew results: if a nominee could win with only a thousand votes, one person with a knack for making fake email accounts could be the difference between the winner and the loser. On the other hand, this doesn't look good for the book industry. No, people are still buying books -- but people are going to reach an "obvious" conclusion when a high-profile, book-related contest that fails because nobody cared. Let's hope that the award gets people reading more, even if the winners are already best-sellers on their own, awards or no. We all still watch the People's Choice Awards, despite the pocketbook votes being registered long before the ceremonies. The industry can only benefit by bringing books up to the level of other popular media.
. . . . . . . . .
User Comments
No comments at this time.
