From Richard Osman and Millie Bobby Brown to the upcoming book by Keanu Reeves, celebrity novels are everywhere. What’s behind the boom? And how do non-famous writers feel about it?I understood that if I was going to do it, I would have to put 100% of myself into it,” says Richard Osman about writing his debut crime novel The Thursday Murder Club, which was an immediate bestseller when it was published in 2020. He had attempted a novel before, but “I wasn’t giving it everything, I had too much on. And this was the first time where I thought: No, I’m able to focus on this for a couple of years now.” Osman’s agent, Juliet Mushens, adds: “He told me he was working on a novel, but he didn’t want to show it to anyone until he finished the whole thing.” When he did, “we did a couple of drafts and submitted it to publishers”. The rest is history: since The Thursday Murder Club was released, Osman has published three further novels and sold more than 10m books worldwide.He is the most successful example of a phenomenon that is more prominent than ever: the celebrity novelist. Of course, famous people have written novels for decades – from Alan Titchmarsh to Ben Elton. And the children’s market has become saturated with celebrities, including David Walliams, Geri Halliwell-Horner, Paul McCartney and Jamie Oliver. But sales of adult fiction by celebrities have remained relatively low, until recently. According to Nielsen BookScan data, in 2018 the Top 100 paperback fiction... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-13 09:00:12 UTC ]
Lee and Andrew Child's The Sentinel (Corgi) has claimed the UK Official Top 50 number one spot in its first week on sale, selling 19,996 copies, as sales figures return to the Nielsen BookScan charts. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-23 15:29:43 UTC ]
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At the Guardian, Kazuo Ishiguro discusses his newest book, Klara and the Sun, and how this latest offering echoes themes and ideas he has often explored in his previous work. “Literary novelists are slightly defensive about being repetitive,” Ishiguro says. “I think it is perfectly justified:... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-02-26 21:30:38 UTC ]
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“Like so many women novelists of previous centuries, Yezierska’s canonical status is a phenomenon of the recent past.” Catherine Rottenberg on the overdue revival of Anzia Yezierska. | Lit Hub Fashion isn’t frivolous: Francesca Granata recommends books central to our understanding of femininity,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-26 10:30:02 UTC ]
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Paul McCartney has written the “extraordinary” story of his life for the first time through the prism of 154 song lyrics, to be published by Allen Lane. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-24 12:41:28 UTC ]
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Nosy Crow m.d Kate Wilson, Nielsen BookScan director for UK and Ireland Hazel Kenyon, and Empowered Author founder Sam Missingham are among the speakers confirmed for the first IPG international publishing forum. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-21 22:46:20 UTC ]
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MOST NOVELISTS WHO want to embed sophisticated ideas in their fiction resort to long stretches of dialogue. In the traditional philosophical novel, loquacious characters are the vehicles for politics or principles. Sarah Moss is different. She favors realism and interiority. In each of her... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-02-21 13:30:51 UTC ]
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Over the past 20 years, industry shifts have funneled more novelists into TV rooms than ever. It's salutary in many ways — beginning with health insurance. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-11 15:00:05 UTC ]
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Nielsen BookScan has estimated the full-year print market for 2020 at 202 million books sold for £1.76bn, a 5.2% rise in volume and a 5.5% increase in value compared to 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-22 10:32:48 UTC ]
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Debut novelists performed solidly last year, despite widespread fears that they would lose out to more established authors due to 2020's pandemic-hit publishing schedules. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-14 13:16:53 UTC ]
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Charlie Mackesy's The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse (Ebury) was the bestselling book of 2020 through Nielsen BookScan's UK Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-12 01:12:31 UTC ]
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The publisher faced calls to drop the Missouri Republican’s upcoming book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech,” following criticism of his efforts to overturn the presidential election. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-01-07 23:20:50 UTC ]
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The Thursday Murder Club sees off titles by Barack Obama and David Walliams in chaotic week for Britain’s book tradeRichard Osman’s cosy mystery about a group of elderly sleuths, The Thursday Murder Club, has become the first debut novel ever to become the Christmas No 1, selling a remarkable... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-12-22 15:00:18 UTC ]
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For the first full week following the lifting of lockdown restrictions in early December, the print market sold 9.17 million books for £84.7m through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market—15% up in volume and 17% in value against the same week in 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-20 21:38:05 UTC ]
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Barack Obama's A Promised Land (Penguin) has once again charted top of both the Amazon Most-Sold and Most-Read: Non-Fiction charts, as it claimed a third week as the UK Official Top 50 number one through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-08 21:17:24 UTC ]
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Courtney Milan explains how a group of romance novelists rallied behind one of their own: Stacey Abrams. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2020-12-07 19:30:17 UTC ]
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Joe Biden’s presidency has not yet begun, so one might think it would be too soon to start planning its depiction on television. Think again! Less than a month after Biden’s win, Showtime has optioned an upcoming book by John Heilemann, who has covered the President-elect for more than 30 years.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-03 19:58:49 UTC ]
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'Not being Arab nor African enough,' translator Sawad Hussain writes, female writers aren't supported by Sudan's 'literary ecosystem.' The post Words Without Borders in December: Female Sudanese Novelists ‘Caught in a Limbo’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-12-02 16:34:21 UTC ]
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Parton, with collaborator Robert K. Oermann, has penned an excellent new memoir-slash-song-primer. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-30 14:15:30 UTC ]
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One of four debut novelists among the six writers shortlisted this year, Stuart wins for 'Shuggie Bain,' also a National Book Award finalist. The post Douglas Stuart Wins the 2020 Booker Prize for ‘Shuggie Bain’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-11-19 20:23:21 UTC ]
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Ah, February 2021: maybe by then, we’ll have forgotten that 2020 ever existed. An upcoming book by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Joanna Concejo, promises to help us cleanse the timeline: The Lost Soul, a story for both children and adults. Publisher Seven... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-18 18:31:35 UTC ]
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