Financially, it is the most valuable literary award in the world for an author or book, with the winner receiving €1,000,000.
[1] It was created by José Manuel Lara Hernández in 1952 and is awarded on 15 October, St Teresa's day, Teresa being the name of Lara's wife.
The award has been declined by Miguel Delibes and Ernesto Sábato, both Planeta authors.
In 2005, an Argentinian court fined Planeta 10,000 pesos after finding that there had been fraud in awarding the Argentinian version of the prize to Ricardo Piglia in 1997.
[3] While the manuscripts are presented under a pseudonym, it is not unusual for the names of the winners to be leaked days or weeks before the official announcement.