From fairy porn to romantasy via the Omegaverse, publishing is sexier than ever. The reason? A big shift in gen Z and millennial attitudes to respectability and shame ...I spent a fortnight reading nothing but smut and I don’t need to give you a reason. But since there is one, here it is: business is booming in the publishing world of love and sex. Aficionados draw fine distinctions – between romance and erotica; “steamy” and “smutty”; fantasy and saga fiction – and endlessly subdivide the genres, but the takeaway is that the stigma around what used to be called “books that women like” has gone. And, as the UK literary agent Alice Lutyens puts it: “The steamier the sex, the better the book does.”I started two books simultaneously, which just happened to span the gamut, from the almost completely chaste The Stars Too Fondly, by Emily Hamilton, to the most pornographic thing I’ve ever read (and I’ve read De Sade): Heat Clinic, by Alexis B Osborne. So, I could give you a take on the difference between romance and erotica, but I would rather throw it to an expert. Leah Koch started the independent romantic bookshop Ripped Bodice in Los Angeles with her sister, Bea, in 2016 (they recently opened a second shop in New York). She says readers tend to assume erotica is sexier. “The technical definition is that, in erotica, character development happens from sexual situations. We stock both.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-08-06 04:00:33 UTC ]
The Women’s Prize Trust hopes to make the first award in 2024, after research showed female writers were far less likely than men to be reviewed or win prizes The Women’s prize is to launch a non-fiction award to sit alongside its long-running fiction prize, in response to research that found... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-02-08 08:00:10 UTC ]
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The well-connected publishing executive provides a top-down look at the industry—and more than a few harsh appraisals of notable peers—in a new memoir. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-27 05:00:00 UTC ]
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I assume that at some point I must’ve told Dan Kois what to do. During the years he worked for me at the grand old Bull’s Head Bookshop on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus somewhere in the late ‘90s. I must’ve said, at least once, “Shelve. Show that customer to the cookbooks. Shut up.” If so, […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-17 09:54:33 UTC ]
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The year’s autobiography big-hitters haven’t sold as well as expected, with buyers disenchanted by pricing and lack of feelgood topicsFrom actors and musicians to athletes and presenters, there are no shortage of celebrity memoirs on bookshop shelves. This year has seen new books published by a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-12-09 10:52:17 UTC ]
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PW looks back at the library stories that captivated the publishing world this year, and what they portend for 2023 Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-12-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
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“Booksellers are constantly giving their patrons extraordinary bargains. In London recently a copy of an early edition of Keats’ Poems, originally bought from a dealer for 2s was sold for £140, and a first edition of Burns’ Poems bought in Edinburgh for 1s 6d brought £350.” –R.M. Williamson,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-07 09:53:48 UTC ]
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The two Los Angeles–based independent publishers opened North Figueroa Bookshop earlier this month. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Is there anything scarier than not knowing what great book you’re going to read next? Big love to the booksellers at Exile in Bookville (Chicago, IL), Raven Book Store (Lawrence, KS), Copper Dog Books (Beverly, MA), and The Haunted Bookshop (Iowa City, IA) for their generous recommendations.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-31 08:59:42 UTC ]
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The proprietor’s name is Amy (except that, of course, it isn’t). She’s a kind, petite woman in her forties, the owner of a ghost-themed bookstore in a small southern city. I won’t tell you which city. It’s for your own safety. This is, after all, a ghost story. And most importantly: it’s true.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-31 08:57:03 UTC ]
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The publisher and writer – who has died aged 84 – was a pioneering champion of female writers. Virago’s chair Lennie Goodings remembers her long-time colleague and friendMore than 40 years ago when Carmen and I were working late in the first Virago office on Wardour Street I asked her why she... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-10-18 15:06:43 UTC ]
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Sotheby’s describes 17th-century Cervantes editions as a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity for collectorsOne day in the early 1930s, a young Bolivian diplomat named Jorge Ortiz Linares walked into the illustrious Maggs Bros bookshop in London to ask if they might have a particularly fine edition... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-10-06 13:44:15 UTC ]
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As Tony Montana would probably say if he were a literary agent: In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the memoir. That’s right! Al Pacino is reportedly in talks to sell his first memoir […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-05 14:49:52 UTC ]
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Author Alex George, the owner of Skylark Bookshop in Columbia, Mo., was named Midwest Bookseller of the Year by the Midwest Indie Booksellers Association. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-10-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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With its stellar track record of retail success—including more than 50 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers—Greenleaf has been a proven innovator within the hybrid publishing world for 25 years and counting. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-09-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The uniquely enduring literary agent who worked for years to find a publisher for Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and over the following decades arranged deals for everyone from true crime writer Joe McGinniss to the creators of the Berenstain Bears has died Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2022-09-04 21:08:59 UTC ]
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Hollywood can’t resist a literary adaptation. Frontlist, backlist—it’s all fodder for screenplays. The publishing world itself also feeds the insatiable page-to-screen pipeline: from 1930s and ’40s screwball satires about newspaper reporters (His Girl Friday, Meet John Doe, Mr. Deeds Goes to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-18 08:53:31 UTC ]
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After she was dropped by her agent, Alex Aster turned to a books-obsessed corner of TikTok to gauge interest in her YA novel … and now Lightlark is one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of the yearHaving finally published her first novel, Alex Aster was feeling disheartened. The book had... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-08-16 13:32:30 UTC ]
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As an aspiring writer I loved many exiled authors, from Márquez to Kundera, but with Rushdie the stakes were raisedIt was more than a decade ago when I was introduced to the work of Salman Rushdie, thanks to the recommendation of a writer in my homeland of Pakistan. As an aspiring writer myself,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-08-14 14:47:31 UTC ]
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Richard Charkin offers 'a heartfelt apology,' writing that he now finds literary agents 'trusted go-betweens and understanding partners.' The post Richard Charkin: Dear Literary Agent appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-08-10 17:00:17 UTC ]
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Allow a budget of £4,000 to do-it-yourself, from the editing and design through to marketing“A top-of-her-game literary agent tells us she receives about 3,000 submissions a year,” says Joe Sedgwick, the head of writing services at The Literary Consultancy. “Of those, she requests to see the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-08-09 06:00:19 UTC ]
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