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Giller effect
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
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n. — Entertainment
a dramatic increase in book sales for Giller Prize finalists and winners.
Type: 1. Origin — The Giller effect is the name for the instant rise in book sales for those shortlisted for or winning the Canadian Giller Prize (see the 2006 quotation, see Giller Prize). The average percentage boost for winners between 2006 and 2012 was 466 percent (see the 2014 quotation). This effect is said to work for both well-known and unknown Canadian authors, acting as a potential "career maker" (see the second 2013 quotation); this coincides with the earliest found attestation of the term, which argues that the Giller effect highlights the names of certain Canadian books to the public, which in turn leads to consumers "choosing books they've already heard about" (see the 1999 quotation). This term appears to be used often by bookstore retailers and publishers, those most concerned with book sales (see the first 2013 quotation). Not surprisingly, the term is almost exclusively used in Canada (see Chart 1).
See: Giller Prize
Quotations
1999
The high number of best-sellers from 1997 that carried over to 1998 perhaps indicates buyers are taking fewer risks and choosing books they've already heard about.
Giller effect
2006
The analysis, drawn from BookNet Canada's weekly sample of 650 retailers, shows the "Giller Effect" seems to work equally well for both a well-known author such as Alice Munro, who won the 2004 Giller for Runaway, and authors previously unfamiliar to most Canadian readers, such as David Bergen, who won the Giller in 2005 for The Time In Between.
2006
Last year, Scotiabank got on board and the purse was increased from $25,000 to $50,000 (runners-up get $2,500 each) -- a veritable king's ransom for most writers.
Even a mention on the prize's short list can have a big impact on book sales, a phenomenon that some have dubbed "the Giller effect."
BookNet Canada, which tracks book sales across the country, says the trend continues with "De Niro's Game" -- Hage's debut novel about two friends dealing with the civil war in Lebanon -- showing the biggest jump in sales.
2008
Following its Giller win, sales of Ontario's Joseph Boyden's novel Through Black Spruce jumped by more than 560 per cent.
This is known to publishing experts as the Giller effect and happens after books win major awards.
According to Booknet Canada sales of Three Day Road, Boyden's first novel, also increased by 160 per cent
2013
Bahram Olfati, a senior vice-president at Indigo, said it's hard to compare the success of short stories and novels by what the chain stocks or sells - "The depth and breadth of the two categories are dramatically different in terms of scale and representation in the market" - but the instant "Giller Effect" is measurable. "In the context of the Giller, a win will augment sales of both short-story collections or novels, versus nonwinners," he said. The difference, as McNally noted, is the long-run sales, which aren't measured.
2013
It awards $50,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English and $5,000 to each of the finalists.
The Giller can also be a career maker, with the winner often seeing a huge spike in sales - a boost often referred to as "the Giller effect."
2014
The “Giller Effect” includes a 464 per cent sales spike for Vincent Lam’s Bloodletting and Other Miraculous Cures (2006); 628 per cent for Elizabeth Hay’s Late Nights on Air (2007); 557 per cent for Joseph Boyden’s Through Black Spruce (2008); 339 per cent for Linden MacIntyre’s The Bishop’s Man (2009); 468 per cent for Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues (2011); and 803 per cent for Will Ferguson’s 419, which triumphed last year.
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