> As far as I can tell, there's no real explanation of how it supposedly came about. Critical awards are a huge boon in getting your book on the very limited a

> As far as I can tell, there's no real explanation of how it supposedly came about. Critical awards are a huge boon in getting your book on the very limited and dwindling shelf space (and especially on endcaps and displays, where they're going to be noticed), or on the front page of online book stores. In a field that is hurting for readers, that's a huge deal. That will get books sold for a *very tiny* number of titles, but not create a stable fanbase. So everyone is competing for those critical awards, causing the genre to spiral.