Summer reading: dive into the perfect book

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 ]

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New Sally Green trilogy to PRH Children's

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[ The Bookseller | 2017-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Trade hails Waterstones Childrens Book of the Month impact

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[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Martina Cole | 'I was just this blonde from Essex, people didn’t know what to do with me'

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[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Out of Bounds trespasses into second week at number one

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[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Out of Bounds bounds out to clinch McDermid's first number one

Val McDermid has bounced straight into the UK Official number one spot with Out of Bounds (Sphere), shifting 13,310 copies for £53,483 according to Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Webcast on Virtual Communities Today

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Joe Wicks's Lean in 15 books earn fattest sales of any British diet plan

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[ The Guardian | 2017-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2016-12-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fantastic Beasts boosted as Walliams clocks up fourth week at number one

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[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Walliams holds off Wicks, Rowling and Zoella for third week at the top

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[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Folio Magazine | 2016-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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