And I have been an Edgar judge. And let me tell you, reading over 500 books in a year (but actually less than a year, and a lot of books show pretty early that they aren’t worthy), and giving each one a fair shake, can give you an unusual insight into the business.
Wait, 500 books in a year? Did you have to finish them all, or were you allowed to give up as soon as it became clear that it wasn’t award-worthy?
That’s a full-time job, and then some.
It’d make a lot more sense to have a multi-tiered process, with the earlier tiers being open to a large set of people who don’t have to read all of them, and then narrowing it down to, say, 10 finalists for the official judges.