Ten finalists are listed for each award, during the Festival da Mantiqueira, and the winners are announced on the first Monday of August in the Museum of the Portuguese Language.

The initial jury for the inaugural year of the São Paulo Prize for Literature reviewed 146 novels submitted by 55 publishers and 19 independent authors.

From those submissions, the initial jury selected ten finalists for each category (an increase from five the previous year), which were announced on 30 May 2009, at the Second Festival da Mantiqueira.

The winners selected by the final jury were announced on 3 August 2009 at a ceremony at the Museum of the Portuguese Language.

[18] The list of ten finalists for each category was officially announced at the 4th Festival da Mantiqueira in São Francisco Xavier on 28 May 2011.

The winners selected by the final jury were announced on 1 August 2011 at a ceremony at the Museum of the Portuguese Language.

[20] On 2 August 2012, the Secretary of Culture for the State of São Paulo announced the ten finalists for each category.

Bartolomeu Campos de Queirós died in January 2012, but was still made a finalist and allowed to compete posthumously.

[22] The winners selected by the final jury were announced by Governor Geraldo Alckmin[23] on 24 September 2012 at the Museum of the Portuguese Language.

At the ceremony, Paula Fábrio, the winner of the Best Book of the Year by Debut Authors Over 40, commented on how this year's prize reflects a movement in the Brazilian market, with small publishing houses producing quality novels that are being missed by the larger publishers.