Diagram Prize winner 2007
Magazine
The winner of the 2007 Diagram Prize is:
If You want Closure in Your Relationship, Start with Your Legs
by the wonderfully-named Big Boom, published by Simon and Schuster.
This venerable competition is run by columnist Horace Bent in the Bookseller (the UK book trade weekly) with input from dedicated odd title hunters from all over the world. The prize, set up in association with the Diagram Group, has been running since 1978 and is a joyous celebration of the barmy side of publishing.
The 2007 shortlist:
I Was Tortured by the Pygmy Love Queen
How to Write a How to Write Book
If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start with Your Legs
Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues
Cheese Problems solved
People Who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Dr Feelgood
This year a record number of 8,492 votes were cast, with 2,870 going to the winner.
Excitement has run high, with the announcement being run all over the world. Diagram Prize fans will be delighted to hear that Aurum Press will - you guessed it - be bringing out a book about the Prize in September. Entitled How to Avoid Huge Ships, and Other Implausibly Titled Books, this will be a homage to the 30 years of the Prize.
The Bookseller's announcement
© Chris HolifieldManaging director of WritersServices; spent working life in publishing,employed by everything from global corporations to start-ups; track record includes: editorial director of Sphere Books, publishing director of The Bodley Head, publishing director for start-up of upmarket book club, The Softback Preview, editorial director of Britain’s biggest book club group, BCA, and, most recently, deputy MD and publisher of Cassell & Co. She is also currently the Director of the Poetry Book Society; During all of this time aware of problems faced by writers, as publishing changed from idiosyncratic cottage industry, 'occupation for gentlemen', into corporate business of today. Writers encountered increasing difficulty in getting books edited or published. Authors create the books which are the raw material for the whole business. She believes it is time to bring them back to centre stage. 2008