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Figures for 2009 just released by the big UK
publishers show just how tough a time they had and what a difficult book market
we’ve had in the past year .
Seven of the top UK publishers had negative sales
growth last year measured by the Total Consumer Market figures, as did half of
the top 20 publishers. The only one of the top four to do well was the market
leader Hachette and that was because of Stephenie Meyer, whose £29.4m ($46m) of
sales accounted for an extraordinary 10.2% of the group’s total UK sales.
News Review reflects on what all this means for authors.
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News Review looks at the battle of the titans
which has just commenced: 'This has been one of those weeks when there’s been
so much happening that it’s difficult to cover it in a single column. Apple has
broken the news of its iPad and, amidst the focus on that, Amazon has already
started to fight back. This could be a turning-point and how publishing, books
and authors come out of all this is hard to predict...'
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'So are agents really feeling the pinch now? Long
regarded as the fats cats of the industry, there are signs that the London
agency constituency is really beginning to join in the pain. You cannot
escape the conclusion that there will be redundancies, closures and mergers of
agencies. Independent agents have few enough overheads in any case and will cut
back on the new authors they take on. But some of the larger agencies have
become quite big businesses and they will find it difficult to sustain their
cost bases. News Review examines the latest news from the agency world.
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There's better news from the UK book trade. 2009 was down just 1.2% down in value and only 0.5%
down in volume in a year which has seen a contraction in the overall economy of
5%, so the book trade can justifiably claim that book sales have held up
reasonably well. News Review reports.
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‘Every agent has
their own style. Ed Victor goes to a party and signs up someone. Luigi Bonomi goes and talks to a film company or football agent. But I like doing
it this way (through his website) because it brings in interesting books, often
ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I love the range and serendipity…'
Andrew Lownie on finding agency clients through the web.
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‘According to Amazon Kindle's vice-president, Ian
Freed, the success of the Kindle signals the end of physical books: 'The only
question is does it take three years, five years or 20 years?' I remain to
be persuaded that e-readers are capable of matching the varied activities we
engage in when reading. More is required to satisfy the dedicated reader than
replicating the content and appearance of a printed book, or emulating the
action of "turning pages" using a tap on a touch-sensitive screen.'
Lisa Jardine in A Point of View on BBC Radio
Four
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'We all know the adage of 'everyone has a book in them'
- but how many truly have the commitment, courage, tenacity - and skills - to
write a series of novels? Writing a novel is not about ‘burning ambition’ -
where ambition is solely about publication or money or fame. For a novel to be a
good novel - and worthy of the generous readers who part with their cash to buy
it - it can only arise from the author’s absolute desire to write that story out
of their system - and being blessed with the necessary talent to do so...'
Freya North, in a Bookseller blog
'The ideal audience the poet imagines consists of the beautiful who go to
bed with him, the powerful who invite him to dinner and tell him secrets of
state, and his fellow-poets. The actual audience he gets consists of myopic
schoolteachers, pimply young men who eat in cafeterias, and his
fellow-poets. This means, in fact, he writes for his fellow-poets.'
W H Auden
Help for Writers
Check out this page to find links to the huge number of useful articles on this site,
including Finding an Agent
and Making Submissions.
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'Do you find it difficult to get started on your writing? Is it always
easier to put off finishing that research/ starting that novel/embarking on
the second draft? You are not alone, for many writers suffer from
procrastination.'
Chris Holifield looks at how to get yourself going.
'This is primarily because writing is such a uniquely lonely job. Where else
would you be sitting by yourself and supplying your own self-discipline?
Most jobs have a structure and a time-frame which really help the individual
to get on with the job. Even consultants and freelancers have deadlines to
meet, but for the writer there is generally no specific outside pressure to
help things along – it’s up to them to get themselves motivated, get started
and get on with it.'
From Gillian Clarke, National Poet for Wales, a beautiful poem which
is a lament for Haiti.
This book by the former editor of Writers’
Forum, our columnist John Jenkins, is packed with answers
to all the questions you have ever thought of asking.
Chris Holifield's review concludes that: 'All in
all, this is a valuable resource, especially for the new writer, but
also for anyone who has tried to work their way through the writing
jungle.'
John Jenkins' February
column
In his latest column John deals with the famous piece of advice to
writers: 'Show, don't tell'.
If you've ever wondered exactly what this means in practice, John's
examples provide a quick tutorial and will help you to make your own
writing work much better.
International Book Fairs 2010
Our updated line-up of the year's book fairs across the world, a
unique feature of the site which is much in demand. Is there a
book fair near you? It might be worth planning to attend it if so.
John's January column looks at a Robert Altman film, the Gingerbread
Man, based on a discarded story by John Grisham.
This week's success story is the talented Evie Wyld, who has just won the
prestigious John Llewelyn Rhys Prize with her novel After the Fire, A
Still Small Voice.
New Categories series
So you want to write historical fiction?
Well, your timing is good, because historical fiction is fashionable
again after many years in the doldrums. In fact it’s so popular that it
has virtually reinvented itself as a category.
Our latest article in this series explores the market and approaches
to writing historical fiction.
Writing Romance
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writing Crime Fiction
Writing non-fiction
Are you having difficulty deciding which service might be right for you?
This useful new article by Chris Holifield offers advice on what to go for,
depending on what stage you are at with your writing.
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In the fifth part of this series, Chris Holifield gives an update on
writers' routes to their audiences:
It is a supreme irony that at time when creative writing courses are
turning out large numbers of keen writers and almost everyone seems to think
they have a book in them, it has never been so hard to find a publisher.
First article:
Bookselling
Second article: Publishing
Third article: Print on Demand and the
Long Tail
Fourth article: Self-publishing - career
suicide or 'really great'
Read the two winning poems from the gifted young 7-8 and 9-11
year-old poets who have won first prizes in this international competition.
Zoe Jenny, who was born in Switzerland but is shortly publishing her
first book written in English:
'Now that I am writing in English I have to start all over again, earning
my credentials in a new market. I am essentially back to square one. But
maybe that is the most exciting place to be.'
My Say 7: Timothy Hallinan on the Writing
Session.
My Say 8: Jae Watson on the magic formula which
enables writers to 'cross that fine, elusive line dividing unpublished and
published writers'.
Joanne Phillips' article on Indexing looks at why non-fiction books need
them, why it's a specialist job and why computers can't achieve the same result
as a skilled indexer.
A professional index is essential for any work of non-fiction. Readers expect
to find a useful, well-presented index at the back of a book, and can get very
frustrated if the index doesn’t quickly lead them to the information they seek.
- Are you an author planning to compile your own index?
- Have you been asked by your publisher to provide an index for your
book?
- Are you self-publishing your work? If so, don’t let your readers
down by offering them a sub-standard index.
A professional index will set your work apart from other self-published
books. Indexing need not be expensive – and an effective index is the key to a
good non-fiction book.
Improving your writing, Learning on the job, New
technology and the Internet,
Self-publishing - is it for you?,
Promoting your writing (and yourself), Other kinds of writing, Keep up to date
and Submission to
publishers and agents
Our Editorial
Services for writers
Check out the 17 different editorial services we offer, from Reports to
Copy editing, Typing to Rewriting.
If you're thinking
about self-publishing, this is the place to find out what's
involved. If you're ready to go ahead, our high quality service is second
to none and there's an economy version for those who want to
tackle some of the work themselves. You can
estimate
the cost for yourself.
Our huge section on technology and the web, and how writers can make use of
them, takes you from beginner-level articles to advanced technology.
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