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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Editorial director for Weidenfeld & Nicolson (W&N), Paul Murphy, is leaving his role after more than eight years with Orion, following a “review" of the imprint's non-fiction commissioning team. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-27 22:34:20 UTC ]
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A Ghana-UK cooperation to support African writers led to the launch of a new literary agency for African middle-grade and teen fiction: Accord Literary. The post New Agency for African MG and YA Fiction: Accord Literary appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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True crime, “professional confessional” memoirs and titles that look into “sealed worlds” are the hottest non-fiction trends, according to agents who spoke to The Bookseller ahead of next week’s London Book Fair. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Super Thursday will fall on 4th October this year, The Bookseller can reveal, when a whopping 544 new hardbacks will be hitting shelves—40 more than on last year’s equivalent day—all vying for a slice of the lucrative Christmas book market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At the 2018 Abu Dhabi Book Fair, Flora Rees of the Emirates Literature Foundation talks about the editor-author relationship and the role of literary agents in publishing across the Arab world. The post At the Abu Dhabi Book Fair: An Industry Ready for Editorial Rigor and Literary Agents... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The 2017 bestseller list was dominated by women, with Margaret Atwood at the top, but the Booker still favours menOn the face of it, the revelation that female writers dominated the UK literary bestseller lists in 2017 might seem cause for celebration, a long-overdue correction that seems... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-01-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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From the French revolution to Brexit, this newspaper has put itself at the heart of the issues of the moment, whatever its sizeToday, we are proud and excited to launch our new design for the Observer. We think it’s vital for a newspaper to shed its skin from time to time, to reimagine itself... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Helen Cross, Andy Stelman, Mark Stewart and Richard Adams respond to a recent Guardian article by Tim LottAs someone whose tiny, grimy literary novels have attracted the interest of the film industry, the truth is the opposite of what Tim Lott (Why should we subsidise writers who’ve lost the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Jilly Cooper has said that literary fiction should not receive state support, arguing instead that the money would be better spent on the declining newspaper industry. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As a new report reveals the dire financial straits being faced by literary novelists, we investigate how these bleak conditions arose and what can be done to help the writers, regarded by some as thoroughbreds and by others as ghosts of Christmas past. We also catch up with Edward St Aubyn, one... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Overall the books selling well' in the UK 'are not literary,' Arts Council England's commissioned report from the Canelo team announces. The post Arts Council England’s Alarm for Literary Fiction: ‘The Problem Is a Real One’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Arts Council England has pledged to engage with more bookshops, fund more writers and lobby the government to provide tax relief to independent publishers following a report finding that “the general trend for literary fiction is a negative one”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Competition from smartphones and readers sticking to well-known writers means novelists are suffering. We must find ways better ways to enable themFinally it’s official: literary fiction is in crisis, and writers across the land are burning the midnight oil in their garrets, teaching or slogging... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Arts Council England’s report into the crisis in literary fiction should serve as a "wake up call" to the industry which needs to "radically rethink" how it presents the genre, the chief executive of Curtis Brown has warned. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New figures show that fewer UK writers earn enough to live on, as ACE blames falling sales of literary fiction on the recession and the rise of smartphonesThe image of the impoverished writer scratching out their masterwork in a freezing garret remains as true today as it was a century ago,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Arts Council England report has set the internet ablaze – but are sales of literary fiction in decline because of snobbery, bad writing or Candy Crush?News: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramaticallyArts Council England has sounded the alarm for literary fiction with a report... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In our digital age, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nobel prize is a reminder that it is still novels that ask the biggest questionsIt’s always entertaining to observe the interaction between the news media and a writer who has just won the Nobel prize. The all-time best was obviously Doris Lessing, who when... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Former energy chief Louise Boland is launching a new publisher focusing on contemporary literary fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Arts Council England is broadening its literature work, which has previously concentrated on areas such as poetry and translated literature, into a new emphasis on literary fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Portobello Books is launching a new non-fiction prize for unpublished writers, in association with literary agency C+W and retailer Foyles. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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