Jane Rawson

Annabel Smith and I are writing a series on what to expect when your first book comes out – all those questions you’re too embarrassed to ask your publisher, answered here!

Part 4 is about entering prizes. Is it even possible for a debut novel to win a prize? How do you know which prizes to enter? Do you do it, or does your publisher? Should you bring a speech? (Actually, we don’t answer that question… Maybe we should have…)

The fourth issue on our series for expectant writers is all about literary awards: how to get your book nominated, and how being longlisted, shortlisted or winning a literary prize will affect your career. Will you be rich? Will you be famous? Will you sell a squillion? Will you date celebrities? We share our own experiences (spoiler: we’re not rich, famous or dating celebrities) as well as the (slightly better) experiences of AS Patric and Pamela Freeman.

Right now it is awards season in the Australian literary world. Every couple of weeks a new longlist/shortlist gets announced and down the track we’ll find out who the winners are. If you have a book coming out you may be hoping that next year, your book might appear on one (or more) of those lists, that it might even win one. So how do books come to be considered for literary prizes? And how does winning or even being long/shortlisted affect a writer’s career?

Read the rest of the guide to your prize-winning novel on Annabel Smith’s blog 

Or you can read the whole series.