Marketing Ideas Using

Award Winning Books

Marilyn Harhai, Ph.D. and Janice M. Krueger, Ed.D.

Book Awards• What book awards do you know, read or buy for

your library?

And the winner is…•Why book awards?• Criteria• Selection process • Selection controversies • Types

List of Book Awards

Marketing• Finding and motivating potential users• Who we are, what we do, what it is worth to them• Simple message, tweaked for audience, across

platforms, on-going basiso Think like your audienceo What does it take for you to act on a piece of marketing? o Build ambient awareness of your library rather than one off

marketingo Have a plan – what does success look like? Put a number on ito Market benefits rather than featureso Market on multiple platforms – old and newo Go where people are

Examples• Audies• Halloween

Book Awards in the Library

• Speed dating with books

• Award/Month/Celebration tie inso January MLK Day (King)o February Black History (King)o April National Poetry Month

(Bollingen)

• Book award and publishers web sites

• Book trailers/Social media

• Meal ideas

• Programming• Reader’s advisory• Mock elections• Book clubs• Movie tie ins • Across the curriculum • Displays• Art projects and

contests• Challenged and banned

book week tie ins • Focus on format awards • 1000 books before K

Book Awards Tied to Marketing

• Cookbook awardso Health eating – PTO, grocery stores, senior centers, medical offices,

social media; WICo Quick meals – PTO, grocery stores, civic groups, social mediao Hobby – Book club, civic groups, service organizations, social media

• Non-fiction awardso STEM programming – book club, schoolso Business books – civic groups, service organizations, agencieso Military history – book clubs, service organizations, historical societyo Children’s and young adult – Common Core

Your ideas

Marketing• Finding and motivating potential users

o Professionals

• Who we are, what we do, what it is worth to themo Easy access to high quality materials; While in library with children

• Simple message, tweaked for audience, across platforms, on-going basiso Think like your audience – Easy access, push information o What does it take for you to act on a piece of marketing? - Needo Build ambient awareness of your library rather than one off

marketing – “Information for your life”o Have a plan – what does success look like? Put a number on ito Market benefits rather than features – Healthy quick mealso Market on multiple platforms – old and new o Go where people are – offices, professional associations, schools

International Association of

Culinary Professionals Cookbook

Awards

• Description: “Promote quality and creativity in writing and publishing, and to expand the public’s awareness of culinary literature” (April award)

• Categories: 18 categories, such as American; Baking; Culinary Travel; Children, Youth, and Family; Chefs and Restaurants; Culinary Classics, etc., (includes media)

• Web site: http://www.iacp.com/award• Recent winner: The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries

of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes That Made the Modern Cookbook (California Studies in Food and Culture) by Anne Willan, Mark Cherniavsky, Kyri Claflin

William Hill Sports Book of the Year

• Description: This award is the longest running sports-writing prize. Any full-length book about any kind of sporting is eligible.

• 2013 Short list: o The Boys In The Boat: An Epic True-Life Journey to the Heart of Hitler’s Berlin by Daniel

James Brown (Macmillan)o The Sports Gene: What Makes The Perfect Athlete by David Epstein (Yellow Jersey

Press)o Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket’s Underworld by Ed

Hawkins (Bloomsbury)o I Am Zlatan Ibrahimović by Zlatan Ibrahimović, David Lagercrantz and Ruth Urbom

(Penguin)o Doped: The Real Life Story of the 1960s Racehorse Doping Gang by Jamie Reid (Racing

Post)o Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong by David Walsh (Simon & Schuster)

• Web site:http://www.williamhillmedia.com/index.php/sports-book-of-the-year.

Audie Awards• Description: The Audie Award is given to fiction

and nonfiction audiobooks produced for all ages, and it recognizes excellence in narration, engineering, and sound mixing. 

• Categories: Production, Non-fiction, Fiction, Biography, History

• Web site: http://www.audiopub.org/audies-gala.asp

• Recent winner: DAVID AND GOLIATHUnderdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling GiantsBy Malcolm Gladwell

Hornbook Award – Non-fiction

• Description: Recognize and reward excellence in literature for children and young adults.

• Categories: Fiction and Poetry, Nonfiction, Picture Book

• Recent winner: The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin (Flash Point/Roaring Brook)

• Web site: http://archive.hbook.com/bghb/ • Recent winner: The Port Chicago 50: Disaster,

Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin

National Book Award – Non-fiction

• Description: stablished in 1950, the National Book Award is an American literary prize administered by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

• Categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Young People’s Literature

• Web site: http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2014.html

• Recent winner: George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science

• Description: The Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science is offered for outstanding contributions by scientists to the literature of science. It was first offered in 1959. The intent of the award is to encourage literate and scholarly interpretations of the physical and biological sciences and mathematics.

• Web site: http://www.pbk.org/infoview/PBK_InfoView.aspx?t=&id=22

• Recent winner: The Signal and The Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't , by Nate Silver

Award Winning Books• Benefits• Criteria• Selection• Controversies• Types• Marketing• In the library

Happy Reading!