My publisher is pushing me hard on the marketing side, and says that Prizes are a good idea. Even if you don’t get on the long list, it does get exposure. Fair enough, though I didn’t start writing with prizes in mind – I just want to entertain and inform those people who buy my books, and hopefully scratch a living along the way.
So, what prizes are there for my type of work? I don’t write crime fiction in the traditional sense, but did some research. For example, the Best Crime Writers are very well established – authors such as Ian Rankin or Val McDermid (spelling?) feature heavily on the prize shortlists. Anyway, my writing is in the thriller genre. I also discovered the Guardian First Book Award, for which the nominations are provided by readers. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, though I wouldn’t expect to fall into the elevated levels (now that’s an oxymoron unless gravity reverses) of the fiction likely to be on that long-list!
