[1] The First Novel Award was founded by the literary magazine Books in Canada.
[1] When SmithBooks was acquired by Chapters, it became the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award.
[1] The award was reorganized when Books in Canada was acquired by Adrian and Olga Stein in 1995.
The Steins retained a first novel editor, introduced a comprehensive first novel review program, and formalized the adjudication process.
The Amazon.com arrangement saw the prize award initially doubled to $10,000, and then increased to its current amount of $40,000, with shortlisted finalists each receiving over $6,000.