Books in the recession

'My guess is that it will be 'all change, all stay the same'. The notion that the economic environment will change people 's taste in one sweep I think is fanciful. The usual five celebs will have their 'autobiographies' fight it out at Christmas and everyone will be looking for a zeitgeist humour break out - nothing last year interestingly. In 'serious' non-fiction, there will be the usual motivations for buying: narrative, terrific individuality to the writing, the stories of lives... but here, like everywhere, sales numbers may be allied to keen pricing and awards won . I think there may be a mid year drift toward escapism and jollity. Fathers Day may spearhead this with lots of books about bad behaviour.

Commercial fiction will be interesting. I have a feeling there's changes in taste afoot: a move back to more 'big', 'airport' novels; historical moving into different eras; a real reduction in 'chic'. The established brand authors will be a safe haven and it will be more difficult to persuade retailers to take a chance on new authors. But smart, well packaged, well written books of all types will still sell. How many? That's largely up to us.'

Trevor Dolby, Publisher of Preface at Random House UKPenguin Random House have more than 50 creative and autonomous imprints, publishing the very best books for all audiences, covering fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s books, autobiographies and much more. Click for Random House UK Publishers References listing