The Planeta Prize reaches one million euros

Since the Planeta Award celebrated its 50th birthday in 2001, the endowment received by winners and finalists had remained fixed. At that time, the award was set at 100 million pesetas for the first-place winner and 25 million for the second. With the arrival of the euro, the figures were rounded and set at 601,000 and 150,250 euros, respectively. Now, 20 years and a pandemic later, the publishing group has wanted to reinforce the award on its 70th birthday and raise it to one million euros for the winner ---surpassing the Nobel Prize in Literature--- and 200,000 euros for the finalist. Far behind are the 40,000 pesetas (just over 200 euros) that the first winner of this award received in 1952, the then unknown Juan José Mira.

According to Planeta's president, José Creuheras, the group is making a "great effort" to increase the award's amount by 66%. "It makes us very excited, it shows the good health of the award," he states. It is expected that in the long run this increase will translate into the sale of more books. For now, during these 70 years, the publisher has already managed to sell more than 44 million copies of the winners.

Planeta has not only increased the amount to celebrate its birthday but has also wanted to highlight the good moment the sector is experiencing, as Creuheras points out, after books have reclaimed their leading role during confinement. In fact, the group predicts that in 2021 the book sector's turnover in Spain will be the highest in its history, surpassing what had until now been the leader, that of 2013. Sales, dominated by paper books and bookstores, have grown this year by 15% compared to 2019 and 30% compared to 2020.

This trend has also been reflected in Planeta's results. "We will close a great year," says the president of the publishing group, after it invoiced 1,500 million euros during 2020 and registered profits of 55 million euros, surpassing the 32.5 million euros of 2019. The good performance of the business is also seen in the recovery of Casa del Libro's expansion plan, which the pandemic had halted, but which this year has already resumed with the opening of four new bookstores and the forecast of five or six more next year.

Record Edition

The winner of the 70th Planeta Prize will be the first to receive one million euros. This edition has broken participation records, with 654 original works submitted, the highest number in the history of this award. From among the almost 700 original works, the jury, formed by José Manuel Blecua, Fernando Delgado, Juan Eslava Galán, Pere Gimferrer, Carmen Posadas, Rosa Regàs and Belén López, has already chosen the ten finalist novels of the LXX edition.

Only three of the finalist original works have been submitted without a pseudonym: Descalza voy contigo, by Antimio Cruz Bustamante, El túnel de Oliva, by Jorge Sánchez López and La llama del pasado, by Aurelio González González. The rest of the titles and authors to be discovered are Cadáveres insepultos, by Escolarca de Clazómenes; Ciudad de fuego, by Sergio López; Barbarie by El Arlequinado; El viaje by Camilla Seymour; El canto del grajo, by Fermina Cobos; Hijos de la ira, by Yuri Zhivago and Donde el recuerdo nos lleve, by Elahanleys.

This edition has broken participation records, with 654 original works submitted, the highest number in the history of this award

Regarding the origin of the novels received in the 2021 edition, the participation of authors from South America stands out, with 104 works submitted, and from North America, with 53, mostly from Mexico, in addition to Spain. There is also European participation, widely distributed among the different neighboring states. From Spain, Planeta has received 389 originals. Madrid is in the first position, with 79 novels, followed by Barcelona (53); Valencia (24); Las Palmas (23); Seville (15), Cadiz (14), Alicante (13) and Zaragoza and Murcia (12), among other origins.

The literary dinner on October 15 returns

Planeta recovers this Friday the literary dinner in which it announces the winners. After last year's limited edition, with a small ceremony at the Palau de la Música and just over a hundred guests, the group recovers the traditional gala, which since 2019 has been held at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), replacing the Palau de Congressos. This year it is presided over by the Kings and also attended by the Ministers of Culture and Education, Miquel Iceta and Pilar Alegría, the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and the Minister of Culture of the Generalitat, Natàlia Garriga.