From the National Book Awards to independent publishing awards like the Ben Franklin Awards, the Foreword Magazine Awards, Independent Publisher Magazine's "Ippy" Awards, the Pushcart Prize and regional awards such as our state's New Mexico Book Awards, many book awards are highly respected within the industry. Never mind that all these awards have cash entry fees; such programs require an enormous amount of organization and administration that need to be paid for somehow. Any resemblance to the poetry and short story contest schemes of an earlier era is entirely coincidental. Now that the traditional "gatekeepers" of publishing are mostly a thing of the past and print media book reviews are on the wane, these awards are assuming greater importance as an aid in identifying the best new independent titles, and distributors, booksellers, librarians and so forth put a lot of stock in these awards.
Richard Harris
President, New Mexico Book Association
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