Stories should come from all parts of society – not just from the well heeled and the middle classLiterary fiction, you might think, is in wonderful health. Book festivals, from Edinburgh and Wigtown in Scotland, to Hay-on-Wye in Wales, to Cheltenham and Bath in England, are flourishing. There is certainly no shortage of people eager to become authors of literary fiction: creative writing courses have proliferated. The British, you could argue, are more at home tucked up with a decent novel than with any other artform. Britain is, after all, the country of Austen, the Brontës and Eliot; of Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith and Hilary Mantel.Look at the facts, though, and a more worrying picture emerges. It is well known that financing for the arts in Britain suffered a great blow after the global financial crisis: public funding for cultural organisations took a hit, the art market was severely knocked, and spending on theatre and concerts became impossible for many. A decade on there have been some signs of a recovery, albeit patchy and fragile. But this is not so for sales of literary fiction, which have not recovered from the recession. According to new research commissioned by Arts Council England, the problem affects literary fiction in particular. Genre fiction is doing better, dominating digital sales (the popularisation of the e-reader followed swiftly on the heels of the financial crisis; Amazon energetically promoted its Kindle for Christmas in 2010). The arrival of the... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Sutherland, a former judge and chair of the Man Booker prize, is to chair the judging panel... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Members of six organisations have announced they will gather to lobby parliament on cuts to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Joanna Ellis, former marketing director at Faber, is to join The Literary Platform as associate... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent publisher Saqi Books is to launch a new non-fiction imprint, with plans to publish... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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TV presenter Stephen Fry is to judge an international competition, launched by literature and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Customer sentiment towards the high street helped independent bookshops in the final weeks of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Gibson Square Books will be increasingly "dipping its toe" into fiction, following on... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sussex-based independent publisher Myriad Editions is launching a series of events to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Playboy magazine will relocate its editorial, art and photo departments from Chicago to Los Angeles in April 2012, ending an almost 60-year occupancy in its Midwest headquarters. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Literary agent Fiona Spencer Thomas has sold a thriller by Alex Churton to Anthony Cheetham's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Literary agent Fiona Spencer Thomas has sold a thriller by Alex Churton to Anthony Cheetham's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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W H Smith has backed rival retailer Asda's move to join WHS in selling Kobo e-readers. The... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Constable & Robinson is to launch Canvas, a new commercial fiction list headed by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The only non-fiction title shortlisted for the 2011 Guardian First Book Award has taken home the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Publishers Association has spoken out in support of Penguin UK's move to withhold the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The British newspaper publisher says the pioneering Web site is "is a high-quality asset but our focus in the US is on building the Guardian." Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Guardian has put its PaidContent website up for sale with a price tag of $20m (£12.7m), three years after it bought the New York-based digital publishing and events business. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2011-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The top three fiction titles in Germany were all debuts in October, led by In Times of Fading Light, which recently won the 2011 German Book Prize and is set for publication in the U.S. by Graywolf Press in fall 2013. Umberto Ecos newest book, The Prague Cemetery, which debuted at #3, is newly... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 14/11/2011 - 08:15 Stephen Kelman's Pigeon English (Bloomsbury) has made the shortlist of the £10,000 Guardian First Book Award, equaling its achievement on the Man Booker Prize this year, with Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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