Literary fiction is in crisis. A new chapter of funding authors must begin | Claire Armistead

Competition from smartphones and readers sticking to well-known writers means novelists are suffering. We must find ways better ways to enable themFinally it’s official: literary fiction is in crisis, and writers across the land are burning the midnight oil in their garrets, teaching or slogging away in unrelated jobs to keep the fire ablaze in the grate. This Dickensian picture was revealed by Arts Council England today in a report that suggests it may have to shift its funding priorities in order to save a population whose economic and cultural solvency has been chipped away over the years.So why has it come to this, and how much does it really matter? The first thing to be clear about is that people are not necessarily reading less – print sales of books across fiction, nonfiction and children’s titles rose almost 9% in the UK last year, while on Tuesday market analysts Nielsen BookScan will reveal that sales over the all-important Christmas period have risen 20% since 2013. Related: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically, Arts Council England reports Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]

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Barbara Cartland is latest author to be wooed by digital

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Debut author wins Waterstone's Children's Book Prize

Publication Date: Wed, 09/02/2011 - 20:05 Debut author Sita Brahmachari has won the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize for her coming-of-age novel about life, death, friendship and love. She was awarded the £5,000 prize this evening [9th February] for Artichoke Hearts, published by Macmillan... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Non-agency authors are Amazon UK’s bestselling ebooks

Written By: Lisa Campbell Amazon.co.uk has reiterated its opposition to agency pricing as it revealed its top-selling ebook authors are not governed by the model. Last week Amazon.com announced ebooks had begun to outsell paperbacks in the US for the first time, with 115 ebooks bought for every... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random House buys book on BP oil crisis

Written By: Charlotte Williams Random House Books has acquired one of the first books on the Gulf of Mexico oil leak, Spills and Spin: The Inside Story of BP by Reuters oil-industry reporter Tom Bergin. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HMV begins store closure programme

Written By: Lisa Campbell Nine HMV stores have shut their doors as the music retailer begins it's programme of closures. The HMV Group announced at the beginning of the year it would shut 40 HMV stores and 20 Waterstone's shops within 12 months in a bid to cut costs, and it has begun to close... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Borders secures funding but doubts remain over future

Written By: Graeme Neill Borders has finally secured an agreement for fresh funding, with GE Capital providing $550m of new cash, but only if publishers stump up $125m. Publishers Weekly reports the troubled retailer has said for the first time that it doesn't rule out the possibility of... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster requested that journalists and other writers not comment if asked whether they were responsible for the novel “O,” about a fictional 2012 presidential campaign. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Circalit Seeks Crime Fiction

A year-old social networking and digital distribution platform that aims to bring writers and agents together has created a contest to find "the next big crime fiction blockbuster." Circalit, launched in February 2010 as a place for screenwriters to showcase their work to studios, began inviting... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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