The writer and illustrator on turning her ‘weird hobby’ into a bestselling YA series and Netflix hit, the importance of asexual representation and lessons from her fans on love bitesAt 28, the author and illustrator Alice Oseman recently achieved what so many of her peers cannot: she bought a flat. But instead of giving up Netflix so she could save for a deposit, as Kirstie Allsopp notoriously recommended, she sold the streaming service the rights to her gay romance comic book series.The series in question is of course Heartstopper, the web comic turned graphic novel turned Netflix show that this paper’s reviewer described as “completely lovely” when it aired earlier this year. The boy-meets-boy tale, set in a British secondary school, sees rugby captain Nick and socially awkward Charlie navigate friendships, bullying, coming out – and falling in love. It’s not hard to see why the TV adaptation won over teenagers and adults alike, with its lovable characters, quirky nods to its comic book origins – for example, tiny animations of hand-drawn flowers form a circle round the actors when Nick and Charlie share their first kiss – and an injection of starriness in the shape of Olivia Colman (Nick’s mum) and Stephen Fry (headmaster Barnes). The show’s success resulted in a huge increase in book sales for Oseman: the Heartstopper series has now sold more than 6m copies worldwide. Volume One recently won the Books Are My Bag readers’ choice award and is a contender for the 2022... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-11-19 09:00:53 UTC ]
Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 18/05/2011 - 09:33 Dominic Myers has called on the book industry to collaborate in creating more nation-wide events like World Book Night in order to enhance the dialogue around books. The Waterstone's m.d told the Book Industry Conference forum... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 11/05/2011 - 08:22 Sainsbury's has singled out book sales as an area of strong growth in its most recent financial year, and has said that it will now devote more new space to "non-food ranges". For the 52 weeks to 19th March 2011, the retailer... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 10/05/2011 - 08:59 Book sales for April were "well down" in a month where general UK retail sales rose by 5.2% on last year. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) today (10th May) reported like-for-like sales were up 5.2% in value from April... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a time when bookstores are adding used-book sections to bolster their diminishing numbers of new book sales (see, for example, Anderson's Books, PW's 2011 Bookstore of the Year, PW, Apr. 25), Nashville's BookMan/BookWoman used-book store has recently broadened its selection to include new... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones and Jenny Roper Publication Date: Wed, 27/04/2011 - 16:00 Book sales dropped 9% last week as the Easter weekend cut into retail time, but the market was still up on the same week last year with sales up 2.1%, a second consecutive week of year-on-year growth after a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 19/04/2011 - 15:35 Physical book sales in the seven days to 16th April soared 6.4% (£1.6m) week-on-week and were up 4.3% (£1.1m) on the same week last year, according to Nielsen BookScan data. Helped by schools breaking for the Easter holidays,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 19/04/2011 - 09:40 Tesco UK sales rose by 5.5% in a year where the company said book sales "grew well." The supermarket released its preliminary results for the 52 weeks to 26th February 2011 this morning (19th April), showing that UK sales grew... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 14/04/2011 - 09:57 Like for like book sales at W H Smith have fallen by 3% in a "soft" market as the retailer reported a 3% increase in profits to £64m. In its interim management statement, for the six months to 28th February, the group's sales... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page and Philip Stone Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 09:40 Book sales have slumped on both sides of the Atlantic as the British and American markets experienced year-on-year declines in the first quarter of 2011. Book sales in the UK were down 3.1% to £324m, with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nearly 40% of Russia's book sales in 2009 came from independent bookstores. Bookshop chains contributed around 20%, and only 8% were transacted online. The dependence on bricks-and-mortar outlets remains unassailable even though bookstores outside of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and some other major... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Wed, 23/03/2011 - 07:10 Lendle, the US-based tool that allows Kindle users to lend their ebooks, has been reinstated after Amazon said that its concern related to its "Book Sync tool". The news that Amazon had locked the services out of its API caused... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 25/02/2011 - 15:56 Almost three quarters of primary head teachers are expecting funding for books to be inadequate in 201112, as the Publishers Association has warned of a challenging year for book sales to schools. As schools begin to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Stone and Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 07/02/2011 - 09:24 The supermarket sector was the only winner in the 2010 retail trade, with sales jumping 7% year-on-year. Estimates based on data from Nielsen BookScan show that book sales in the UK were down by 4% in 2010 in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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