I make books about books, and every year hundreds of people commission me to make custom art prints for them or their loved ones, of the spines of the books that changed their lives and made them who they are today. And as a result, I've read quite a lot of books-for people of all ages-and spent a lot of time researching which books people love most.
Links of the week December 4 2023 (49)
Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world:
4 December 2023
Here's what I've noticed: Even when an adult picks the books, the set of books they pick often includes books they read as children. The books we read as kids are often stick with us more than any others. There is something special about those books you first read for yourself, and those that a beloved parent reads to you. They are the ones you hug to your chest like small animals, trying to get them as close to your heart as you can.
These books are so formative partly because at that age we are very ready to be formed, of course. But there's also the fact that most stories for children are clear and entertaining, short and memorable, and often address our greatest joys and our deepest fears. And they still have all these excellent qualities when you read them as an adult
A third of children's books now 'feature a racially minoritised character', up from 4% in 2017, but direction of travel reversed in picturebooks and non-fiction
According to the report, '30% of children's books published in 2022 feature a racially minoritised character, a significant and consistent increase from the 4% first reported in 2017. This increase is also echoed in the increase of racially minoritised main characters up from 1% in 2017 to 14% in 2022 and a 5 percentage point increase on last year.'
According to the CLPE: 'However, for the first year in its history the report does not show an increase in representation across all text types. Only fiction titles showed an increase in racially minoritised presence, while there was a year-on-year decrease in presence for non-fiction and picturebooks.
'Minoritised representation in fiction increased from 11% in 2021 to 15% in 2022, while representation in non-fiction dropped from 41% in 2021 to 30% in 2022, and picturebooks from 61% to 52% year on year.
Almost a third (30%) of the children's books published in the UK last year featured a racially minoritised character, reflecting an unprecedented and "remarkable" longterm rise in representation, according to a new report from the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE).
The latest annual report, "Reflecting Realities Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children's Literature", showed an ongoing rise in representation in the six years that the annual report has been published.
This year's figure of 30% representation - which the CLPE described as "significant and consistent increase" - across children's picture books, fiction and non-fiction titles shows an upward trend from 20% in 2021, 15% in 2020, 10% in 2019, 7% in 2018 and only 4% in 2017.
In her Reith lecture of 2017, recently published for the first time in a posthumous collection of nonfiction, A Memoir of My Former Self, Hilary Mantel recalled the beginnings of her career as a novelist. It was the 1970s. "In those days historical fiction wasn't respectable or respected," she recalled. "It meant historical romance. If you read a brilliant novel like I, Claudius, you didn't taint it with the genre label, you just thought of it as literature. So, I was shy about naming what I was doing. All the same, I began. I wanted to find a novel I liked, about the French Revolution. I couldn't, so I started making one."
Genre is a confining madness; it says nothing about how writers write or readers read, and everything about how publishers, retailers and commentators would like them to. This is not to criticise the many talented personnel in those areas, who valiantly swim against the labels their industry has alighted on to shift units as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Consider the worst offender: not crime, horror, thriller, science fiction, espionage or romance, but "literary fiction". It can and does contain many of the elements of the others, but is ultimately meaningless except as a confused shorthand: for what is thought clever or ambitious or beyond the comprehension of readers more suited to "mass market" or "commercial" fiction. What would happen if we dispensed with this non-category category altogether? Very little, except that we might meet a book on its own terms.
Whenever someone chooses to leave social media, you hear the same refrain: it's gotten so negative, I can't stand it. To me, that's a reason to stay.
Don't get me wrong. I'd rather hang out with people who like me in real life, and I'd certainly rather hear praise than criticism. But when it comes to building an audience online, it's better to be hated than loved. For better or worse, social media rewards engagement, and negativity fuels engagement.
You may have heard the old saying, "All publicity is good publicity." But I'm here to tell you that the best publicity of all is absolute hatred. Your online haters can inadvertently give you effective marketing, spread your name to new groups, give you opportunities to respond persuasively, and sharpen your brand.
"I was in the gym when the email from my editor telling me I'd won the award popped up on my phone, and I can still clearly remember how amazed and thrilled I felt. My books are now published in nine languages, but to discover that one of them has sold over a quarter of a million copies in the UK alone is just so special. The award is now one of my most prized possessions; I've hung it in the downstairs loo, and sometimes I just go in and stand there for a minute for no reason other than to admire it."
"I'm a big planner, and before I start writing a novel I like to know how it's going to start and end, and the main twists and turns of the story. Then I plan the first three or four chapters in more detail, write those, plan the next few and carry on like that. Having said all that, things do sometimes change as I go along. The plot and characters tend to take on a life of their own and lead me off in slightly different directions. There's always one point where I think the book isn't working at all, and panic, but then a few weeks later it all seems to come together again. The last few weeks before my deadline are always horrible, but I haven't missed one yet...fingers crossed!"
Benjamin Franklin once wrote to the Royal Society of London: "I have already made this paper too long, for which I must crave pardon, not having now time to make it shorter."
Yes, writing short can be far more difficult than letting the pen rip. And writing a short description of your novel - like the three tight paragraphs you need in a query letter - is one of the hardest tasks of all.
So much can and often does go wrong. By "wrong," I mean that authors often set out to do the opposite of what they ought to do.
While a chronological narrative describing how your story unfolds may be the backbone of a full-blooded synopsis, it's virtually the opposite of what you want in your short description, especially for a query.
For one thing, you can't possibly squeeze in all the plot or action in three short paragraphs. For another, too much plot results in a lack of focus-at the expense of a clear concept and a clear window onto the protagonist's wants, needs, obstacles, and how her story ends.
The sooner you stop trying to tell the whole darn story as if you were writing CliffsNotes, the sooner you can focus on writing a description that captures the reader's attention.
Consider this precious real estate. Every square inch-i.e., every word-needs to be packed with meaning, and every sentence needs to lead us onto the next, not by jumping from scene to scene, but from one vital turning point in the story to the next.
The UK books market's volume sales this autumn have slid 8% compared with 2022 with value down a shallower 1%, as almost all the big brands including Jamie Oliver, David Walliams and even Richard Osman have been suffering a contraction in their Christmas run-in hardback releases.
This does not necessarily mean customers in general are buying fewer books because they are baulking at the ratcheted up price. There have been a number of breakthroughs with hefty a.s.p.s this year, including Rory Stewart's Politics on the Edge (Cape) which is the fifth-bestselling adult non-fiction this autumn on 84,000 copies with a meaty £18.88 a.s.p., a mere 14% discount off r.r.p.
But what this overall big brand contraction suggests is pricing becoming a larger factor in certain retail channels. BookScan cannot reveal bookshop market share, but anecdotally Oliver and Walliams, for example, have always had a significant proportion of their success in supermarkets and other higher discounting retailers. By contrast, a book like Politics on the Edge is clearly in the Waterstones/independent bookseller end of the market. In fact, since it was published on 14th September, Politics on the Edge has been a mainstay on The Bookseller's Independent Bookshops Top 20, earning three number ones, placing second four times and never drifting below fifth place.
Publishing attracts people who love books, reading, and ideas. But for many Black professionals in publishing, there's a disconnect between the love of the medium and their work experiences, which can be rife with isolation, exclusion, and stalled routes to leadership.
The challenges these workers face reflect the central argument I make in Gray Areas: How the Way We Work Perpetuates Racism and What We Can Do to Fix It (Amistad, out now): that key aspects of hiring, organizational culture, and advancement are structured in ways that maintain racial inequality.
Organizational culture refers to the norms, values, and expectations that characterize a company. Aspects of organizational culture are usually implicit, so they may not be apparent until they are violated. Furthermore, they vary widely between companies and industries.
Many publishing houses can be characterized by clan culture, wherein staff are expected to work collaboratively. This type of organizational culture might seem benign-how could working closely create problems for Black employees?
In recognition of the one year anniversary of BookTok being announced as Person of the Year at The Bookseller's FutureBook conference 2022, creators reflected on another year on the platform and look ahead to 2024.
For Lewis (@achilleanshelves; 18,400 followers), his favourite part of being on BookTok is "the ability it gives me to show readers of all ages that books exist which reflect them". Emily (@emilymiahreads; 70,300 followers) also pointed to the communal element: "This year I've gotten closer with other creators."
Brittany (@whatbritreads; 56,200 followers), Emily and Hana (@booksonthebedside; 38,600 followers) all mentioned the events they have attended because of their platform on BookTok. Emily attended an early screening of "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes", the film adaptation of Suzanne Collins' novel. For Hana and Hali (@booksonthebedside; 38,600 followers), meeting Eliza Clarke twice this year has been their highlight. Brittany's highlights included being part of the judging panel for the Pageturner Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 2023 and attending the TikTok Book Awards in summer: "I definitely think it was one of the biggest years for BookTok, and it was really exciting to be part of a couple of different elements of it."
How do booksellers keep up with the latest trends in a fast-changing world? It used to be simple: just read the newspaper, watch TV, or listen to the radio. But now, with the rise of social media, blogs and podcasts, booksellers need to be more alert and adaptable than ever.
The first major change came in 1999, when the internet became a source of information and inspiration for book lovers. Booksellers had to expand their horizons and read people's blogs from different countries and cultures. Then, in 2005, Facebook took over the world and made information even more accessible and viral. Publishers and media outlets started to lose control of the narrative, and booksellers had to listen closely to their customers, not only in their own region but also internationally.
As a bookseller from the Antipodes I learned that trends typically started in the UK and US about one month before they reached my region. This gave me an advantage: I could watch these two markets and order stock ahead of time, sometimes even airfreighting from overseas because the local publishers were not ready.
A Harry Potter first edition found in a Highland bookshop's bargain bucket could be worth £60,000, according to auctioneers selling it.
The hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - the first book in JK Rowling's stories about a boy wizard - was published in 1997.
Hansons Auctioneers said it was one of 200 copies distributed to shops from the book's first-ever print run, with a recommended retail price of £10.
A Scottish woman, who lives near Edinburgh but has not been named, found the book during a family caravan holiday in Wester Ross in the late 1990s - shortly before Rowling's stories became a global phenomenon.
Hansons expect the copy to sell for an estimated £40,000 to £60,000 when it is auctioned on 11 December.
The seller, a 58-year-old retired manager, bought the book at a bookshop café at the end of a single-track road near Ullapool.
She recognised the author's name having previously read an interview with Rowling in The Scotsman newspaper.
You only have to look at the extent of the global reach of the winner the day after to see what a big deal the prize has become internationally. Coverage from right round the world, all the big American media outlets, but also from across the Continent, the Far East, the southern hemisphere, the Middle East.
If English is to be, or has already become, the world language, then an English-speaking book prize should logically become the world's biggest, most influential, book prize. Only Britain or America have a big enough domestic publishing base to pull it off, and the Americans seem to have got lost somewhere between the Pulitzers and the National Book Awards. And we don't need to worry about the Nobel Prize - that is basically a lifetime achievement award, not for a single book like the Booker, and the Nobel committee hasn't quite recovered from the bizarre decision to give it to Bob Dylan a few years ago.
So all of that leaves a clear run for the Booker to become really very big indeed.
Andrew Wylie has gone all rock and roll. Well, by his own accounts, he's always been rock and roll, but the last few weeks he's been giving interviews a-go-go, reminding us that he's a risk-taker, a rebel, a renegade, a shocker, a rocker, defender of those who are big enough to defend themselves, picker of fights and settler of scores, scourge of all that is quotidian, all that is hebdomadaire. Wylie, by his own imprimatur, is a man of taste in a publishing industry awash with cultural low-lifes, basement Barnums. The hierophant of the haute monde.
He's quoted as saying in his early days: "I looked at the bestseller list and I thought, 'Well, if that's what you have to do to be in this business, then really and truly, fuck it, I'll be a banker.'" Later, he is said to have told sociologist JB Thompson: "We would corner the market on quality, and we would drive up the price."
Or was that a car dealer in Rotherham? All very clever 30 years ago. Now? Not so much. Does anyone still wear a hat?
So, this flurry of interviews, picked up by pretty much every broadsheet and magazine both sides of the Atlantic. Lazy headlines like "The Day of the Jackal", "Andrew Wylie's Rules for Life", "Andrew Wylie: The Truth about Martin Amis" (a nepo baby, his father was a much better storyteller) and "Days of the Jackal: How Andrew Wylie Turned Serious Literature Into Big Business".