Do we need another set of book awards? Even if they are ‘high profile’? Reed Business Information thinks so. They are calling it the Quills and they even got NBC to agree to air the whole thing. According to Publishers Lunch, they want it to be like the Golden Globes or something. For fucksake!
There are 18 categories as well including something called Rookie of the Year, which I imagine is first time author?
Here is most of what Publishers Lunch has to say:

Nominations in most categories will come from 6,000 booksellers and librarians who subscribe to Reed-owned Publishers Weekly (drawing from a pool of books reviewed by Publishers Weekly). A committee will select nominees for the Book Club, Best Book to Film, and Design awards. Consumers will then vote, online and at retail, between August 15 and September 15.

The broadcast is characterized as a “celebrity-energized presentation in the fashion of the Golden Globes awards.” The program is being run by former Variety publisher Gerry Byrne, who underscores that “good television is based upon celebrity,” and notes their plan to tap the intersection between books and the culture at large to recruit top celebrities as presenters (and potentially nominees/attendees). A production team is likely to be named within the next month or so.

Byrne also notes the awards are meant to “complement the other literary awards-it will not usurp any of them.” In addition to being carried by the NBC-owned stations, which include 14 of the top markets, Byrne says the program will be offered to other NBC affiliate, and could “potentially could be offered to other stations outside the network.”

The awards themselves are a Reed-owned, for-profit venture, with revenue coming from sponsorships and table and event sales (and presumably some advertising in Reed’s magazines). But at least some proceeds from the event will fund the Quills Literacy Foundation, also run by Byrne, supporting new and existing literacy efforts. For the first year, Reed will “guarantee a certain amount of dollars” to the foundation.

An advisory executive council includes top publishing executives (Peter Olson, Jane Friedman, Larry Kirshbaum, Greg Josefowicz, Bob Miller, Jim Chandler, Avin Mark Domnitz, and Robert Gottlieb) alongside other “literacy-minded professionals from finance, media, entertainment, and education.”

A number of initiatives are planned, both in stores and on the NBC stations, to promote the nominated books and reading in general. Byrne notes, “The idea this year is to get it right. Once you get it right, you can do pretty much anything you want with it.”

So any opinions out there?