Amassing Awards

So far, Louis Sachar has received the following awards or citations for his book Holes: a National Book Award for Young People's Literature, a Newbery Medal Award, an American Library Association Notable Book, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, an American Library Association Quick Pick for Young Adults, a Christopher Award for Juvenile Fiction, a Publishers Weekly bestseller, a Riverbank Review Children's Book of Distinction, a Texas Lone Star nominee, a New England Children's Booksellers Association "Fall Title," an Edgar nomination for best Children's Book, a New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a Horn Book Fanfare Honor Book, a Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Book, one of the New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, and on Wednesday, it was announced that Holes is a finalist in the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Young Adult Fiction category.

What did Louis Sachar have to do to win all thoseawards? Nothing, really, except write what people call an "award-winning book," which connotes a book of high literary quality. Is that why the organizations listed above have sometimes murky and labyrinthine systems in place for the nomination of titles? In an article titled "And the Envelope, Please... How the Edgar Process Works," Marilyn Wallace, a mystery author who is this year's general awards chair for the Mystery Writers of America, which bestows the Edgar Allan Poe Awards every year, demystifies the "mystery" inherent in the awards process by stating that "the Edgar process isn't really very mysterious. Hard-working writers read (sometimes hundreds of) books or watch films or videotapes in thirteen categories and give a single award in each. But before that moment, a lot goes on. First, the executive vice-president appoints someone to chair the Awards Committee, subject to approval by the national board. That person must then find individuals to chair each of the committees, ideally reaching a balance of gender, geography, and genre.

"Letters then go out to publishers and producers, urging them to submit books, short stories, films, scripts, and videotapes to the appropriate committees, and informing them of the guidelines, developed over the years, for each award. Each committee member must receive a copy of the work, and a copy must be sent to headquarters. Anyone, in fact, may submit a work to a committee. For example, if a publisher or producer declines to submit a book or videotape, the writer may do so," Wallace writes.

In general, though, the publisher, and not the author, tend to nominate titles for awards. Kate Kubert, the publicity manager for children's books at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Sachar's publisher, says that, "It's a combination of the editor, the director of marketing, and me ... [the director of marketing] and I go over the list and decide what to submit and sometimes the editor requests us to submit titles. But it's basically up to the director of marketing in the end; he has the last say and it varies from house to house, too. That's just the way we do it." --Clay Smith