Trade welcomes new Booker sponsor Crankstart amid calls for reform

The Booker Prize’s new sponsor Crankstart has been met with an overwhelmingly positive response from the trade but some publishers see a missed opportunity if the Prize does not change its eligibility rules.

Charitable foundation Crankstart, set-up by Silicon Valley billionaire Sir Michael Moritz is taking over funding of the prize from the Man Group. It means the futures of the main Booker Prize for Fiction and International Prize are assured for at least the next five years, with the option to continue funding for a further five. Crankstart's support will begin on 1st June after this year’s international prize is awarded – the last to be funded by the Man Group after an 18-year partnership. 

Alongside relief the prize would not be taking its new backers’ name, many said Crankstart was a much better fit for the Booker amid criticism of the Man Group over changes to the competition.

The hedge fund had sponsored the Booker since 2002 and its international prize since the launch in 2005 but had come in for increasing criticism, with author Sebastian Faulks branding the Man Group “the enemy”.

Oneworld publisher Juliet Mabey told The Bookseller she was pleased Crankstart appeared not to want to "interfere" with the prize, unlike other sponsors. She said: “It is wonderful a new sponsor has been secured so quickly, especially a philanthropic charity so passionate about books, which doesn’t wish to interfere with the policies the Booker Foundation trustees have already set. When sponsors start dictating terms it can undermine the integrity of the prize itself and shift its focus to corporate objectives instead of finest fiction.”

John Murray publisher Mark Richards said, though the sponsorship news was “brilliant”, the eligibility criteria still needed changing. He said: “The Booker Foundation knows the view of the publishing industry, a view taken by people who want to see the healthiest literary ecology possible. I think Jeremy Trevathan put it best recently when he said that ‘I can't imagine anything that would create more positive column inches than a rethink now, both here and around the world’  – and for good reason.”

Richards instigated a widely-signed signed letter last year calling for a reversal on the rule allowing US authors to enter the Booker. After Man pulled out, many in the industry said it would be a good time for a rethink on American writers being eligible. The Booker Foundation said this week there was no plan to change the criteria and insisted sponsors had no say over the rules, although it wanted “an open dialogue with stakeholders”.

Pan Macmillan publisher Trevathan also said the new sponsor gave the prize a chance to “go back to basics”. He said: “It's absolutely terrific that the Booker Prize is settled for 5 years. It's such an important part of the health of literary publishing. The Booker Foundation Committee have been very smart in finding a sponsor who seems to be entirely and purely philanthropic, who doesn't seem to be looking to promote itself or its activities, particularly.

"Hopefully this gives the Booker Foundation the opportunity to go back to basics, to retrench, reaffirm the original aims of the Booker and recalibrate their activities and, perhaps, even the entry requirements for the prize which have been so controversial.”

Profile Books m.d. Andrew Franklin, one of those who signed Richards’ letter, said the new sponsor was “really good news and they’ve done it really cleverly”. He told The Bookseller: “I think it’s great. It seems like small change to him and if he’s interested in supporting books and literacy this is a good way of making a difference.” He said the funding would enable the Booker Foundation to continue its outreach work and he had no qualms about a US-based organisation stepping in. But he said publishers should not give up on reforming the award, perhaps with a third prize for US authors.

Clare Alexander of Aitken Alexander said: “I’m delighted of course and I think the whole industry must be delighted. It’s our most important book prize, globally it’s very important and now its future is secure. I’m relieved also they’ve done it very fast so there’s less uncertainty than there is about Brexit.”

But she added the sponsorship change would probably have no bearing on the Booker’s rules – something that echoes the Foundation’s official position – and could actually make reform less likely.

She said: “The honest truth is the loss of Man was never about the rules. There’s no pressure on them to change the rules other than people in the business hoping they do. It’s nothing to do with sponsorship and I think it’s now even less likely they’ll change them.”