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 ]
Dan Brown’s fifth Robert Langdon title Origin (Corgi) has spent a third week running at the UK Official Top 50 number one, selling 36,723 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Solid but unspectacular growth in print value and volume has been posted through Nielsen BookScan in the first half of 2018, with range the key in the absence of a breakout trend. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Studio Press has bought three fiction titles from Casey Stoney MBE, based on the former England Women’s captain’s life "on and off the pitch". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Sophie Kinsella’s Surprise Me (Black Swan) has elbowed John Grisham from the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 19,104 copies in its first three days on sale through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
David Walliams and Tony Ross’ The World’s Worst Children 3 (HarperCollins) has scored a third straight week in the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 32,809 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
David Walliams’ The World’s Worst Children 3 (HarperCollins) has held the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a second week, selling 46,930 copies for £336,714 through Nielsen BookScan, for his 38th overall number one in total. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
W H Smith has been offering customers money back if they find a cheaper copy of one of their books at a local rival bookshop. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker talks to The Bookseller about moving into the publishing world with her own imprint on behalf of Hogarth. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Harper) has returned to the UK Official Top 50 number one spot with 22,040 copies sold through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market, ousting Lee Child's The Midnight Line (Bantam). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Eimear McBride, Kit de Waal and Sally Rooney are among the writers from "Ireland's current golden age" who are to feature in an anthology for Faber. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Michael Kogge’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Dean & Son) has ascended into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 62,104 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Harper) has once again held the UK Official Top 50 number one, with 24,729 copies through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
We spoke to the "Salinger of the Snapchat generation" Sally Rooney, following her shortlisting for the 2018 Dylan Thomas Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Anti-racist group Hope Not Hate says Waterstones, Foyles, WH Smith and Amazon are lending respectability to offensive books, but retailers say listings come from uncurated feedMajor booksellers have been accused of lending a veneer of respectability to antisemitic and neo-Nazi books by featuring... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
With soaring sales, viral hits like Cat Person and a cameo by Tom Hanks, the form seems to be staging a comeback. But did it ever go away?In 2017, almost 50% more short story collections were sold than in the previous year. It was the best year for short stories since 2010. Booksellers are... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Tom Fletcher and Shane Devries’s World Book Day title Brain Freeze (Puffin) has nipped into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, leapfrogging three-week wonder Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Harper), with 37,879 copies sold through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Hardly anyone reads New Zealand adult fiction. Printed books comprise about two-thirds of all books sold in this country, but Kiwis are a pragmatic bunch and by far the most books we buy are cookbooks and sports biographies. Printed fiction is likely to be less than a half of adult fiction sold,... Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2018-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
WH Smith has unveiled a new books strategy for its High Street arm, designed to futureproof sales at the 611-strong chain “for the next decade”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Sally Rooney, the 2017 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, has been longlisted for this year's £30,000 Dylan Thomas Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury (Little, Brown) has blazed into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, ousting Tom Kerridge’s Lose Weight for Good (Absolute) and selling 41,202 copies for £620,851, according to Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this