CWA Daggers - fee changes

The Bookseller reports on the new fee arrangement applicable to Dagger entrants from next year. Gone is the fee for being shortlisted but in, is a £15 fee per book submitted (for most categories):

The Crime Writers Association is to introduce a "processing fee" across the majority of its awards from next year, and has cut the prize money on two of its prizes because they are not sponsored. But it has also dropped the £500 fee charged for shortlisted books.

Murphy said: "We're a non-profit organisation. Personally, I’m not looking for any more [sponsorship]. Part of the problem we have had is the constant chasing. If we can rely on modest sums [from the processing fees] we can focus more sharply on getting good publicity and focusing on other aspects such as the social side for our members and informing them of current research."

The Short Story Dagger and Gold Non-Fiction Dagger awards will both see their prize money dropped from 2010. The short story prize has been reduced from £1,500 to £500 and the non-fiction award has been halved from £2,000 to £1,000. Murphy said the short story prize had "not had sponsorship for years". The Gold Dagger for non-fiction has recently lost its sponsorship from Owatonna Media.

The prize funds for the association's biggest prizes dropped last year after the withdrawal of Lawrie. The prize for the Gold Dagger dropped from £20,000 to £2,500, while the international Dagger prize fund dropped from £5,000 plus £1,000 for the translator to £1,000 plus £500.

The CWA will begin charging processing fees of £15 per entry for the Gold Dagger, Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, Short Story, International and John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger. The biennial Gold Dagger for non-fiction will be exempt until its next cycle, which begins in June next year. The Dagger in the Library, sponsored by Random House, is also not affected.

Read the whole article here.