Ensuring a world-wide audience for fiction
Derek Johns on the impact of the Man Booker shortlist
'The Man Booker Prize for Fiction heaps great rewards on those authors who win it, ensuring a world-wide audience for their books, and a good chance of seeing their winning novel adapted into a film. What may sometimes be overlooked, however, is the rewards that even a shortlisted author may receive.
Since the longlist of the Man Booker Prize began to be published in 2001 (hitherto it was a closely guarded secret, even after the shortlist was announced), literary agents have become accustomed to receiving numerous inquiries about the books featured on it. And now that the long-list has been reduced from about twenty or so to the twelve or thirteen it now is (the so-called ‘Booker Dozen'), these inquiries have increased in number. It is when we get to the short-list announcement, however, that things become interesting.
It is generally the case that books which reach the shortlist have already established some sort of market for themselves. But many shortlisted books will not yet have secured either American or translation publishers, and certainly will not have been placed with a film or television producers. The announcement of the shortlisted books nowadays is certain to lead to a rush of inquiries from these sources.
American publishers are especially well-attuned to the Man Booker Prize. Since no American prize has a comparable effect on sales (the Pulitzer boosts a career rather than a single book, and the National Book Award goes largely unnoticed), for many years now American publishers have taken a lively interest. Last year's winner,
Anne Enright's The Gathering, has by reliable estimates sold over three hundred thousand copies in America, a remarkable number.
Given the dominance of the English language around the world, publishers in Europe and beyond are similarly alert to the possibilities that the Man Booker Prize affords. Publishers in certain countries, such as Holland and Greece and Portugal, will respond very quickly. It is often the case that the major foreign markets - Germany, France, Italy, Spain, etc. - will already have been sold; but a shortlisting may easily boost the number of translations from a modest three or four to ten or more (and winning will boost this number even further, to thirty or more).
Film and television producers are similarly alert to the possibilities. The recent ‘Booker at the Movies' programme at the ICA demonstrated how many books - short-listed books as well as winners - have been adapted for film or television. Of this year's short-listed books, I confidently expect at least two to be realised on the screen, and perhaps more.
The Man Booker Prize acts as a lightning-rod, drawing attention to the lucky (and talented) authors who feature on it. It is a truly international prize, one of the very few literary prizes that have a world-wide influence. In its forty years it has demonstrated year after year the strength and depth of fiction writing in the English language.'
Derek Johns is joint managing director A P Watt, the longest-established literary agency in the world. www.apwatt.co.uk
A P Watt represents three of this year's shortlisted authors - Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture , Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs and Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency
