The big business of the Nobel Prize in Literature: winners' sales increase by up to 20 times.

Surely the happiness that now fills László Krasznahorkai cannot be compared to many things. Nor is it comparable to the professional prestige that comes with a Nobel Prize in Literature . Although the real award is more likely being celebrated right now in the offices of Acantilado . Because, beyond the aforementioned prestige, if the Nobel Prize is anything, it is a real business for the publisher of the anointed author each year.

Before we begin, let's run down the numbers. Han Kang , the latest winner , increased the sales of her novel The Vegetarian in Spain by 10 times. Jon Fosse , who won the award the year before, had done so by 20 times. Louise Glück , recognized in 2020, in a small market like poetry, went from selling around 1,000 copies in our country to between 3,000 and 4,000. Kazuo Ishiguro , winner in 2017, also started selling 10 times more than he was selling before, that's 1000% more. Yes, 1000%, there are no zeros added by mistake.

These are the absolute figures of what a Nobel Prize means in the publishing world, but the benefits go further. In 2024, the Swedish Academy awarded it to Han Kang, a previously minority author. The rights to her novel The Vegetarian were held by Penguin Random House, which had published it in June of that year. By October, it had sold around 10,000 copies, and now its sales figures exceed 100,000 , explains Miguel Aguilar, editorial director of Random House. "A lot depends on the author who wins it, that's the first thing, but in this case, it helped to reach readers who weren't familiar with her," explains the editor. He continues: "Above all, the Nobel Prize draws attention to an author, helping them find better places in bookstores. The public buys more from Nobel Prize winners, that's an indisputable fact ."

At the time, Random House had The Greek Class and The Vegetarian in its catalog. In December 2024, after the Nobel Prize, it added two more publications by Han Kang: Impossible to Say Goodbye and Human Acts . “That was a relatively young Nobel Prize for what it usually is, and it sells very well,” notes Aguilar, who explains that it is impossible to know “the criteria” for a publisher to hire a Nobel candidate. “ If you look for a Nobel Prize in advance, it won’t turn out well. There are no parameters among those who award it. Our job is to have good authors like Han Kang or Svetlana Aleksievich.”

In 2023, the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to playwright Jon Fosse. On the same day the verdict was announced, Random House announced that it had acquired the rights to five of his works. However, until then, the writer's work translated into Spanish was held by the small publishing house De Conatus, which saw sales of a "very minor" author increase 20-fold. "It wasn't just about selling Fosse's work; the visibility he's brought to the rest of the catalog has been tremendous. Our backlist sales have been constant since then, and it's made the rest of our authors known, " explains Beatriz González, co-director of the publishing house with Silvia Bardelás.

The Norwegian's Nobel Prize opened a new market for De Conatus: Latin America. Its publishers began to receive offers for the rights to its work to publish it on the other side of the Atlantic, a market with many readers. Instead of selling them, they signed an agreement with Planeta for the group to print there and split the profits 50/50. " The Nobel Prize gave us the chance to become known in Latin America, and any extra sales can save your publishing costs . For a large group, selling 3,000 copies can be a disaster, but for us, it saves us."

In 2022, the Nobel Prize went to French author Annie Ernaux, culminating in a career that had seen her win the Formentor and Booker Prizes in 2019. "This case seems different to me because I was already experiencing a period of sales growth, but the Nobel Prize helped us consolidate that growth trend," explains Miguel Lázaro, editor of Cabaret Voltaire, the publishing house that stocks much of the French author's work. With this upward trend, confirmed by the Nobel Prize, they have already sold more than 200,000 copies of her novels . "It also caught us at a good time because we had a lot of stock and were able to handle a large first wave of orders." Now, Cabaret Voltaire is beginning to print Ernaux's work in South America.

Two years earlier, in 2020, academics recognized Louise Glück 's poetry. Visor acquired the rights to her poetry collections in November 2020, just after the Nobel Prize and the poet's split from Pre-Textos. "They sell more than usual, although the poetry market in this country is what it is," says Chus Visor, founder of the publishing house. Specifically, according to the data he provides, a book of poems usually sells for around 1,000 copies; with the New Yorker, that figure ranged between 3,000 and 4,000 . "The Nobel Prize isn't a huge financial boost, but the prestige is very important," he emphasizes.

In 2017 and 2018, two Anagrama authors received the Nobel Prize for Literature in consecutive years—although the 2018 award was decided in 2019 following accusations of influence peddling and sexual abuse against Jean-Claude Arnault . First, Kazuo Ishiguro; then, Olga Tokarczuk. The English author's entire work was translated into Spanish by the publisher, and in the two years prior to the award, his novels averaged around 6,000 copies sold annually. In the two years following, those figures increased tenfold, with around 60,000 copies sold .

"The effect is very curious, because the increase in sales was across the board across all titles. But titles that had, let's say, had a more modest run, such as The Nocturnes and The Inconsolables, saw sales increase by 20 or 30 times. However, The Remains of the Day grew by more than 600%, and Never Let Me Go exceeded 1,000%," explains Silvia Sesé, director of Anagrama. " The Nobel Prize boosted new releases, reactivated the entire backlist, and consolidated impressive sales for an author who already had a large readership ."

Olga Tokarczuk 's case was completely different. Anagrama had just acquired the rights to The Wanderers, the book that won the Nobel Prize to the Polish author, who was practically unknown in Spain. The publisher had planned a print run of between 4,000 and 5,000 copies, but ended up releasing 10,000. " That same year, we had to reissue, even though the pandemic didn't allow us to promote it properly. She herself canceled her trip to Spain because of Covid. And yet, that book had remarkable sales, was widely read and recommended, and she has established herself as an author," concludes Sesé.

That's the business that awaits Acantilado with Krasznahorkai .