The Orange Prize Gets a Facelift

Posted on March 1, 2007

The Orange Prize is being renamed and made more high-tech. The prize will now be known as the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. The sponsor of the prize, Orange, wanted to change the name to promote the launch of its broadband service. The Prize pays £30,000 to the winner. Other changes are also in the works.

A new Readers Award will accompany the re-brand, which will allow the public to vote via text or through the prize website for their favorite shortlisted authors. The website will also be revamped with increased video content, a webcast of the awards and audio clips of the shortlisted books available for download.
"The relationship between the prize and Orange has been extraordinarily successful, partly because of the way the relationship has evolved over the years," said Kate Mosse, author and honorary director of the prize. "This announcement is great news for the prize as it opens up even more opportunities to promote women's fiction to new audiences."
The longlist for the prize will be announced on March 19, the shortlist a month later and the award ceremony is on June 6.

So long as the sponsor doesn't drop out, no one really minds the name change. The main thing is to keep those prestigious literary prizes; if that means name changes and advertising, then so be it.