Readers to decide Dagger in the Library awards longlist

The CWA and Penguin Random House’s Dead Good crime community are relaunching the CWA Dagger in the Library Award today (1st August).

For the first time readers will decide on the longlist for the award, and the accolade will also have an online-only voting system, with a longlist of 10 of the most voted-for authors.

The Dagger in the Library awards an author’s body of work, not an individual book. A judging panel which will include CWA director Lucy Santos, author Steve Mosby and a panel of UK librarians will decide on the shortlist and the winner.

Lynsey Dalladay, digital marketing manager for Dead Good Books, said: “We’re thrilled to be sponsoring this important award and giving it the attention it deserves.

“By asking the public to nominate their favourite talent, we’re putting power back into the hands of readers and allowing them to recognise and celebrate authors that consistently deliver top class crime fiction.

“Ours is the first crime award to do this, so we’re incredibly excited to see what crime readers choose.”

Santos said: “The CWA is delighted to be working with Dead Good and to relaunch the 2014 Dagger in the Library. Not only is at an opportunity to celebrate the best in crime writing but it is unique amongst our Daggers in that the public choose who makes it onto the longlist.”

Readers can nominate authors from today at Dead Good Books, with nominations closing on 1st September.

The 2014 winner will be announced in November.