Universal credit could silence working-class writers, MPs told

All-party inquiry into authors’ incomes hears new benefit’s rules could mean only the wealthy will write. Meanwhile booksellers welcomed budget business-rate changesMPs have been warned that the rollout of universal credit championed in Monday’s budget will further undermine professional writers’ falling incomes. As a result, authors such as 2018 Man Booker prize winner Anna Burns, JK Rowling and Sarah Waters, all of whom relied on benefits to write their breakout bestsellers, would be unable to write full-time unless they had an alternative income.In the acknowledgments to her winning novel, Milkman, Burns thanked her local food bank, various charities and benefits from the Department for Work and Pensions for support that enabled her to write the book. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2018-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]

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Earnings soar for UK's bestselling authors as wealth gap widens in books industry

New study reveals Julia Donaldson, David Walliams and JK Rowling lead the top 1% of authors, who account for nearly a third of all UK book salesThe gap between publishing’s rich and poor continues to widen, as figures from Nielsen BookScan reveal that the top 50 authors account for more than 13%... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Russian censors target children's books that break the mould

Publishing a children’s book in Russia is not a straightforward matter, as Anna Starobinets found when her detective stories set among woodland animals were deemed to be far too beastly for children I wrote my first children’s book, The Land of Good Girls, in 2009 for my then five-year-old... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-01-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Galbraith among Brits up for book prize

JK Rowling's pseudonym Robert Galbraith, Ian McEwan and BBC journalist Kirsty Wark make the longlist for the world's richest literary prize, the International Impac Dublin Literary Award. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2015-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sarah Waters, Ross Raisin, Adam Foulds, Andrew Cowan, Helen Simpson share writing tips, favourite books by young writers

Past winners of the The Sunday Times/Peters Fraser & Dunlop Young Writers of the Year Award share their writing tips and their favourite books written by writers aged 35 and under. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter magic continues at Bloomsbury as sales grow

Magician series among children’s books boosting revenue at publishing house, with pre-tax profits at £1.9m Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury has reported a jump in half-year sales after a strong performance from educational and children’s books. Sales were up 11.6% to £52.7m in the six months to... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Sequel play to pick up where final JK Rowling book left off

A new play will pick up the story of Harry Potter where the seventh and final volume of JK Rowling's saga left off, with a plot involving a grown-up Harry and his youngest son, Albus. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2015-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Funny best-selling kids' author Andy Griffiths in New Zealand

More popular here than JK Rowling, No 1 children's author Andy Griffiths is in New Zealand meeting fans and signing books to promote his much-loved Treehouse book series. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2015-10-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How Indie Booksellers Fared This Summer

Sales at independent bookstores got a boost from breakout bestsellers and the adult coloring book boom. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Student blog: success and serialisation

Big successes in the publishing industry come in threes…or fours, fives, and sixes. Serialisation is a key factor in developing brands and launching star authors such as JK Rowling and George RR Martin. Publishing a series means each successive book accumulates a larger readership (propagated... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Girl on the Train breaks all-time book sales record

Paula Hawkins’s novel has now been top of the UK hardback book chart for 20 weeks, outlasting even Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol• How Paula Hawkins wrote ‘the new Gone Girl’A record set six years ago by Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol was broken this week by Paula Hawkins’s dark thriller The Girl on the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Gaiman, Rankin and Waters join SoA council

Authors including Joanne Harris, Malorie Blackman and Neil Gaiman have joined the council of the Society of Authors (SoA). Other new members are Roger McGough, Ian Rankin, Anne Sebba and Sarah Waters. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Experience tells on Baileys Women's Prize shortlist

Five writers on the six-strong shortlist for this year’s Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction – Rachel Cusk, Kamila Shamsie, Ali Smith, Anne Tyler and Sarah Waters – have all been shortlisted for the award before.  The sixth novelist, Laline Paull, is shortlisted for her debut The Bees (Fourth... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tyler, Waters and Smith on Baileys Women's Prize longlist

Anne Tyler, Sarah Waters, Ali Smith, and five debut novelists including Emma Healey and Sara Taylor are on the longlist for this year's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.  Meanwhile chair of judges Shami Chakrabarti has told The Bookseller: "Until you can honestly see that women are getting the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Walter Scott Prize longlist released for first time

Martin Amis, Sarah Waters and Jessie Burton have made the 15-strong longlist for the 2015 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The longlist has been released for the first time following a 40% increase in entries this year.  Amis is longlisted for his dark love story set in a Nazi... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New Harry Potter covers – in animated gifs

To celebrate Harry Potter Book Night we have a mesmerising insight into how Jonny Duddle created new Harry Potter covers for JK Rowling’s beloved series. So feast your eyes and enjoy these process animationsPlus win a complete set of the newly illustrated Harry Potter books in hardback – find... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-02-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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TV books programmes: if nobody watches them, make better ones

The novelist Robert Harris was right to call the BBC’s lack of a books show a ‘disgrace’. There’s plenty the corporation could do to make a popular literary programme on TVWith injury, there is always a little insult. When a BBC spokesperson, responding to Robert Harris’s complaints at the Costa... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bestselling books 2014: the kids are all right

Books for children and young adults are top of the league, bagging seven of this year’s top 10, but non-fiction has endured another annus horribilisSee the chart in fullAt long last, kids ruled in 2014. Books aimed at them have often figured in the top 10 of the all-year sales chart for printed... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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JK Rowling crime novels to be adapted for BBC series

Crime novels The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm, written under the author’s pseudonym, to form the basis of new dramaThe BBC will adapt the crime novels written by JK Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, its second collaboration with the Harry Potter author.The Cuckoo’s Calling, the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-12-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Public vote opens for eBooks by Sainsbury's award

Books including There’s Something I’ve Been Dying to Tell You by Linda Bellingham (Hodder), The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (Headline) and The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (Little, Brown) are among the titles vying to be named eBooks by Sainbury’s ebook of the year. There are... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Julia Donaldson makes record £10m sales five years in a row

The author of The Gruffalo earned more than JK Rowling and Dan Brown in UK, making her the fourth biggest-selling writer in British historyA dancing chorus of giants and snails, witches and Gruffalos have propelled Julia Donaldson into uncharted territory, as the former childrens laureate... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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