Jon Stewart, a two-time winner at the first-ever Quills Awards ceremony, joked in a brief monologue about the uncertain expectations for these people’s choice prizes for books.
“They’re voted on by the public,” Stewart noted Tuesday night, “or will be when the public finds out about them.” Stewart, J.K. Rowling and Stephen King were among the winners as the publishing industry held a black-tie affair for which the unofficial guests of honor – readers – have indicated little interest.
The awards, organized by NBC-TV and Reed Business Information, which issues Variety and Publishers Weekly, were started this year as a way of getting the public more interested in book prizes.
Writers were chosen by a panel of booksellers and librarians and were required to meet one of several possible criteria, such as an appearance on the best-seller list of Barnes & Noble or a starred review in Publishers Weekly. There are no cash prizes.
The Quills include 19 categories, ranging from history and general fiction to sports, cooking and business. In monthlong voting that ended Sept. 19, fans picked their favorites by visiting the Quills Web site, quillsvote.com, and filling out e-ballots.
But despite promotion on NBC and at bookstores, the Quills have apparently failed to connect so far with their intended audience.
According to comScore Networks Inc., which tracks the Internet, the Quills site attracted so little Web traffic during the voting period, fewer than the threshold of 25,000 unique visits per week, that it can’t offer an exact number.
Even some of the attendees Tuesday seemed uninformed about the Quills. Actor Matthew Modine, who presented the prize for the best religious/spiritual book, looked confused when asked by The Associated Press before the ceremony whether he had voted.
“Voted?” he asked.
Yes, the public votes for them. “Really?” he said. “That’s news to me.”
Winners did dutifully thank readers. Rowling, author of the multimillion-selling Harry Potter books, won for book of the year and best children’s chapter book for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” “You’ve made a sleep-deprived mother very happy,” Rowling, who gave birth last January to a girl, said in a videotaped speech.
Stewart’s “America (The Book)” won for best humor book and for best audio book. Stewart spoke at the ceremony but, in a comic twist, later was unavailable to accept his prizes, having left early.
King and Stewart O’Nan won in the sports category for “Faithful,” their chronicle of the Boston Red Sox’s 2004 season, when the baseball team broke a decades-long jinx and won the World Series.
An edited version of the ceremony, hosted by NBC anchor Brian Williams, will air Oct. 22 on various NBC stations.
