DCHP-2
Giller effect Giller Effect DCHP-2 (October 2016)
n. — Entertainment
a dramatic increase in book sales for Giller Prize finalists and winners.
Type: 1. Origin — The Giller effect is the name for the instant rise in book sales for those shortlisted for or winning the Canadian Giller Prize (see the 2006 quotation, see Giller Prize). The average percentage boost for winners between 2006 and 2012 was 466 percent (see the 2014 quotation). This effect is said to work for both well-known and unknown Canadian authors, acting as a potential "career maker" (see the second 2013 quotation); this coincides with the earliest found attestation of the term, which argues that the Giller effect highlights the names of certain Canadian books to the public, which in turn leads to consumers "choosing books they've already heard about" (see the 1999 quotation). This term appears to be used often by bookstore retailers and publishers, those most concerned with book sales (see the first 2013 quotation). Not surprisingly, the term is almost exclusively used in Canada (see Chart 1).
