Some have put his silence down to shyness, others have called him aloof and a few have said it is just plain bad manners. But, five days after Bob Dylan was given the Nobel prize for literature, the singer’s lack of comments on the subject may have been broken.

In a subtle update on Dylan’s website, a page promoting a new book of his lyrics now includes the declaration “winner of the Nobel prize in literature”.

It is the first time the elusive singer has made any acknowledgement of the prize. Sara Danius, the Nobel academy’s permanent secretary, said on Monday that numerous attempts had been made to contact Dylan, including emails and calls to those closest to him, but had heard nothing back from the man himself.

Dylan, 75, played a gig in Las Vegas on the night the accolade was announced, but made no mention that he had been given the prize, which comes with 8m kronor (£740,000) prize money, or if he intended to turn it down.

Danius said she was “not at all worried” that Dylan would fail to appear at the ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, where the Nobel winners are celebrated and where the singer will be invited to give a lecture.

“I think he will show up,” she said. “If he doesn’t want to come, he won’t come. It will be a big party in any case and the honour belongs to him.”

The decision to award Dylan the Nobel prize was not without controversy. The French Moroccan writer Pierre Assouline described the decision as “contemptuous of writers” while Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting, said that although he was a Dylan fan “this is an ill-conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies”.

Will Self also called on Dylan to follow the example of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and turn down the prize.

“My only caveat about the award is that it cheapens Dylan to be associated at all with a prize founded on an explosives and armaments fortune, and more often awarded to a Buggins whose turn it is than a world-class creative artist,” Self said. “Really, it’s a bit like when Sartre was awarded the Nobel – he was primarily a philosopher, and had the nous to refuse it. Hopefully Bob will follow his lead.”

However, it is not technically possible to turn down the award. Even Sartre, who refused the prize in 1964 because “a writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution” was still listed as the winner.

“The fact that he has declined this distinction does not in the least modify the validity of the award,” the Nobel committee said at the time.

• This article was amended on 25 October 2016 because an earlier version said the Nobel prize ceremony would take place on 10 November. The ceremony takes place on 10 December each year, on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.