RBA

The sales of Crime novels have increased during the first three months of this year in Spain. According to the Nielsen study, from January to March 2009, 1.585.000 copies have been bought in Spain, almost the double than in 2008, when 831.000 Black Novel were sold.

This isn’t the first time that crime novels and the economic downturn walk hand in hand; the origins of this literary genre date back to the Great Recession of the United States, a very turbulent social period that set the scene of universal literary classics.Nowadays, the Crime Novel has become more popular in Europe and the sales have increased, achieving a record figure in Spain.

A sign of the present increasing importance of this literary genre is the celebration of the third edition of the RBA International Prize for Crime Writing that offers a top prize of 125,000 Euros, the most valued prize of this literary genre in the world. The previous winners were the Spanish novelist Francisco González Ledesma for “Una novela de barrio” (“A neighborhood’s novel)” in 2007 and the Italian Andrea Camilleri for “La muerte de Amalia Sacerdote” (“Amalia Sacerdote’s Death”) in 2008.

Now, the writers who want to apply for the prize must submit their original manuscripts before June 15, 2009 at 2 p.m. The Prize is open to any crime novel, originally written in any language, but submitted in Spanish or English. The manuscripts should be at least 150 pages long (2,100 spaces per page), be hitherto and unpublished in any language and not presented for any other award or competition which has not yet been judged and/or not previously received any award.

The Prize will be awarded according to the final decision of a jury made up of five members chosen by RBA Libros. The names of the jury members will be announced before the deadline for submitting manuscripts. The presentation of the 3rd RBA International Prize for Crime Writing will take place on September 3 2009. The winning novel will be published during the six months following the awarding of the Prize if the novel has been submitted in Spanish, and during a period of 12 months if the novel has been submitted in English.

Last year, the competition received 197 manuscripts from various novelists from around the world, some well known and others unpublished. Many coming from Spain and South America but also from Germany, France, Italy, Scandinavia and USA, Canada, Australia and Japan.

Rules_3rd International Pirze for Crime Writing

If you need more information, please contact:
Cristina García – cgarcia@tinkle.es – 93 445 11 02 / 607 276 295
Tinkle Consultants 93 238 57 00