As publishers vie to persuade us to pack their titles for the holidays, we chart the evolution of the ’beach read’Summer reads, beach reads, holiday reads … at this time of year, the publishing world works itself into a sweat trying to force its novels into our carry-on luggage, or over the ether on to our Kindles. There are more books sold in the summer than during any other season: the well-established publishing calendar tends to see hardbacks released in the autumn to be given as gifts at Christmas, then repackaged as paperbacks in late spring. As Donna Harrington-Lueker sets out in her history of the beach read, Books for Idle Hours, the summer publishing rush is at least a century old, and has typically aimed “airy and froth-like” books on “young ladies” (the quote is from an 1888 work on summer books by Arlo Bates). The summer fiction market is changing, though, with more and more “serious”, “literary” novels showing up where once there were only thrillers and crime novels, bonkbusters and romances. So it is that Normal People by Sally Rooney is currently piled high on the tables of WH Smith’s Travel alongside Lee Child, Jodi Picoult and Bernard Cornwell.I’m aware of how contentious and porous discussions of genre can be. Generic labels, though, are the terms that booksellers and publishers think in and for literary novels, the chances of summer success are still relatively slim. Tom Tivnan, managing editor of the Bookseller, points to Nielsen BookScan data that... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-07-14 07:00:23 UTC ]
Of mixed Filipino, Chinese, Spanish and Indian descent, and identifying as queer, Catherine Hernandez’s new novel, Crosshairs, imagines a dystopian near-future Canada where an oppressive regime is rounding up those deemed “Other”—people of colour, the disabled and members of the LGBTQ+... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-14 02:09:59 UTC ]
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Javier Celaya is the founder and c.e.o. of Dosdoce.com, a member of the executive board of the Digital Economy Association of Spain, as well as head of institutional relations at the Spanish Digital Publishing Association (Aselid). He talks to Tom Tivnan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-14 01:37:55 UTC ]
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Faber is to release the complete screenplays of the television series "Normal People", based on Sally Rooney's novel of the same title. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-13 21:25:25 UTC ]
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Hachette Children’s Group has acquired two middle-grade fiction titles by debut author Kate Gilby Smith, to be published on the Orion Children's Book imprint. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-02 10:02:53 UTC ]
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Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club (Penguin) has charted top of the Bookstat e-book top 10 in its second week on sale, rising from third to score an across-formats double, after its hardback claimed the UK Official Top 50 number one through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 21:50:09 UTC ]
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Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club (Penguin) has topped the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction top 20 for a second week running, in the same week its hardback claimed a second week atop the UK Official Top 50 chart through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 05:52:35 UTC ]
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With no room for Hilary Mantel’s conclusion to her Wolf Hall trilogy, the six finalists also include four debutsHilary Mantel will not win a third Booker prize with the final novel in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, after American writers made a near clean sweep of this year’s shortlist.With four... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-09-15 12:21:07 UTC ]
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Bolinda has scooped a “laugh out loud” romantic comedy by debut author Aly Mennuti, featuring a literary agent based partly on the author's own, Simon Trewin. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-25 02:20:12 UTC ]
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Jamie Oliver's 7 Ways (Michael Joseph) has soared into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 34,241 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-24 18:56:55 UTC ]
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Ah, yes, the good old days: when novelists lent their faces and testimonials to advertisers hoping to sell tires, or a certain kind of beer, or fancy watches. It’s something you don’t see very much anymore, because we writers have become too principled to participate in advertising campaigns.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-19 17:14:06 UTC ]
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Chris Bohjalian, Mary Kay Andrews and other novelists have turned to Zoom and Facebook Live to find their audience. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-08-19 12:00:00 UTC ]
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From 'islands of pain' to the 'peril of exposure,' writers have captured the fear, emptiness and despair that characterize life during the current pandemic, writes a poet and English scholar. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2020-08-17 12:24:39 UTC ]
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Novelists including Candice Carty-Williams, Beth O'Leary and Jeanette Winterson are in the running for the Comedy Women in Print Prize (CWIP). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-16 13:06:20 UTC ]
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The Women's Prize for Fiction has just published 25 literary works by female authors with their real names for the first time. Could we do the same for Miles Franklin and Henry Handel Richardson here? Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2020-08-13 06:43:53 UTC ]
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Stephenie Meyer's Midnight Sun (Atom) rose 11 places to top the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction chart, as the Twilight reboot sold 62,460 copies in hardback to claim the UK Official Top 50 number one through Nielsen BookScan's TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-12 02:23:16 UTC ]
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Among the big books sold this week are a nonfiction book from former National Security Council member Fiona Hill, a nonfiction book on skyscrapers, and a book about how sports is helping the country to transform its understanding of sex and gender. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-07 04:00:00 UTC ]
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“Make Russia Great Again” and “Rodham” are two recent novels that benefit from blending fact and fiction. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-08-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Jojo Moyes' The Giver of Stars (Penguin) has soared into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 25,331 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM in its first full week on the shelves. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-04 00:24:26 UTC ]
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Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Abir Mukherjee, Courttia Newland, Guy Gunaratne, Paul Mendez and Okechukwu Nzelu on why British writers of colour are left out of the conversationAfter this week’s Booker prize longlist was announced, the Times asked “Where are the new male hotshot novelists?” I was... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-07-31 14:10:18 UTC ]
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When I started writing my current novel, Paris Never Leaves You, I had no idea the protagonist, a young widow struggling to survive in Occupied Paris, would end up working in a New York publishing house. I knew she would get to America, but I assumed she would enter the fashion or beauty... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-31 08:48:22 UTC ]
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