NATIONAL Book Foundation (U.S.); NATIONAL Book Awards; BOOK sales & prices; BOOK promotions; ARTS publicity; SCIBONA, Salvatore

The authors discuss speculated changes to the selection process for the annual National Book Foundation (NBA) Awards to feature more well-known and higher-selling works in order to increase the public stature of the awards. They argue in favor of a focus on literary merit, noting that the prize can draw deserved attention and sales to a worthy book that received insufficient media attention. They suggest that an approach on sales would have disqualified prior winners such as Salvatore Scibona.