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 ]
Pandemic Dispatches Elena Poniatowska In this column that originally appeared in La Jornada, Elena Poniatowska considers the role of editors and talks with Diego Rabasa, founder of publisher Sexto Piso. Already precarious, the pandemic lockdown has made... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-03 21:05:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Cultural Cross Sections Elena Poniatowska In this column that originally appeared in La Jornada, Elena Poniatowska considers the role of editors and talks with Diego Rabasa, founder of publisher Sexto Piso. Already precarious, the pandemic lockdown has... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-03 21:05:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Books by authors including Reni Eddo-Lodge, Ibram X Kendi and Robin DiAngelo are selling out on both sides of the AtlanticBooks tackling racism and white supremacy by authors including Reni Eddo-Lodge, Ijeoma Oluo and Layla F Saad are selling out in Britain in the wake of eight days of protests... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-03 14:40:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Sally Rooney's Normal People (Faber) has bounced back to the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a second week across lockdown. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-01 21:09:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Although it was the nineteenth century when the novel arguably came into its own, with novelists like Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, George Eliot, and the Brontë sisters writing novels that are still widely read and studied today, the eighteenth century was the age in which the novel emerged as a... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2020-05-23 14:00:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Quarantine may be a golden opportunity to finally read "War and Peace" — but it's not an easy time for the book industry. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2020-05-21 09:45:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It always takes a little time for novelists to shape a real-life nightmare into a story. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-05-21 06:58:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this
For a third week running, Joe Wicks' Wean in 15 (Bluebird) and Sally Rooney's Normal People (Faber) have topped the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold categories for the week ending 17th May. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-19 23:05:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Joe Wicks' Wean in 15 (Bluebird) has star-jumped into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot according to Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-19 05:58:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this
For the week ending 9th May, Sally Rooney’s Normal People punted into the Bookstat e-book number one, climbing one place to leapfrog Andrew Mayne’s The Girl Beneath the Sea. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-16 12:06:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Debut and veteran novelists dive into the world of digital events amid the pandemic. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Costa award-winning love story of Connell and Marianne takes top slot from David Walliams’ bestselling children’s book SlimeSally Rooney’s Normal People has flown to the top of the UK’s book charts more than two years after it was published, thanks to the release of the TV adaptation starring... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-05-13 15:44:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Amid a global pandemic, thousands of people are reading... ‘The End of October,’ about a fictional pandemic. Plus ‘Good Morning America’ book club pick ‘Oona Out of Order’ cracks the fiction list, and the Hulu adaptation of ‘Normal People’ boosts paperback sales. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Every industry is experiencing a digital transformation. For some, the pandemic has accelerated this transformation. Others, like retail, travel and QSR, are trying to quickly adapt to the new criteria of our on-demand world. Consumers are permanently changing their online consumption habits,... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2020-05-07 14:20:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Novelists Hilary Mantel, Maggie O'Farrell and Margaret Atwood are among the list of big-name writers and thinkers taking part in the first fully digital Hay Festival. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-06 10:09:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Sally Rooney's Normal People (Faber) has soared six places up the Amazon Charts' Most-Sold: Fiction chart to score the number one. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-05 17:09:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this
[caption id="attachment_180020" align="alignright" width="150"] Jim Rich[/caption] G/O Media announced Wednesday that Deadspin editor-in-chief Jim Rich has been promoted to editorial director across the company's entire portfolio, which also includes sites like The A.V. Club, Gizmodo, Kotaku,... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2020-04-22 19:47:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In post 11/8 America, the citizenry became more aware, more active, more willing to submit themselves to self-examination. Yet while the world of journals both print (Freeman’s), and online (Guernica, Lit Hub, Electric Literature), have increased their commitment to the exploration of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-16 08:49:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this
David Walliams' Slime (HarperCollins Children's) has leapfrogged Mrs Hinch's The Little Book of Lists (Michael Joseph) at the top of the UK Official Top 50 through Nielsen BookScan's TCM, for the comedian-turned-author's 57th week atop the chart. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-14 13:04:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Doctors, novelists and other writers are exploring, as quickly as they can, the pandemic’s impact on a country that was among its earliest victims. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-04-09 14:40:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this