Two in three prize winners never make a critics', readers' or booksellers' list
Across the eight prizes in the index, 117 of 344 winners are also on at least one critics' list, readers' poll or bookseller's list. The other 227 are on none. Winning still helps: 44% of Booker winners made one of those lists, against 14% of the books they beat.
Sometimes the book that lost lasts longer. Atonement (2001) and Never Let Me Go (2005) were shortlisted for the Booker and didn't win. Each is now on more of those lists than every Booker winner except Midnight's Children.
Source: The Novel Index, from 29 lists, prizes and polls, all credited below.Download image (PNG)The numbers behind the chart
A book counts as making another list if it is on any of the 21 critics' lists, readers' polls, booksellers' lists and book clubs in The Novel Index. Other prizes don't count. Shortlists are each prize's own shortlist, or its finalists for the Pulitzer and the National Book Award.
The prizes go back different distances, from 1918 for the Pulitzer Prize to 2017 for the British Book Awards; the table has each prize's years. Recent winners have had less time to be noticed, but counting only winners up to 2020 gives much the same answer: 107 of 303 (35%) made another list. Each prize has its own page listing every winner: start with the prizes.
