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Waterstone's, W H Smith, Tesco and Sainsbury are to sponsor prizes at this year's Galaxy National Book Awards. Former British prime minister Tony Blair has been confirmed as one of the 'celebrity' guests on the television shows airing as part of the awards promotion.
Amanda Ross, founder and managing director of Cactus TV, which is producing the shows and the awards, has promised that other "big names" are being lined up for the shows, that follow the broadcasting of the awards on 13th November on More4. Blair will be interviewed by John Sargent about his book A Journey, which became the fastest-selling political biography ever earlier this year.
The relaunched awards were unveiled to the book trade just last month, with Ross describing the reception as "fantastic" despite the short turnaround time for books to be submitted and promotions to be planned.
Waterstone's is to sponsor the Author of the Year award; W H Smith the Children's Book of the Year gong; Sainsbury's will sponsor the Paperback Fiction prize; while Tesco is backing two awards, Food & Drink, and Biography. There are nine awards in total, including Non-Fiction Book of the Year; New Writer of the Year, and International Author of the Year.
She said "all major retailers" had promised big promotions to support the winning titles. Ross said: "They won't want to miss out, the television coverage will drive people into the shops asking about the books. It's a good excuse for everyone to get behind it."
Ross said the new awards, a move on from the Galaxy British Book Awards, would be a more effective promotion than the previous awards with fewer titles for retailers to focus on and more televisions coverage—she said the ITV3 Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards, also produced by Cactus, had doubled its audience this year.
She added that the 'nibbie'-shaped gong would be replaced by a new style award: "It's got nothing to do with pens, or nibs, or anything like that, it is based on an actual book."
The awards will take place on 10th November at BBC TV studios and be broadcast on More4 on 13th November. They will be followed by five shows broadcast in the run-up to Christmas. Each will focus on one celebrity book, plus two category winners.