The Bookseller's Author Day conference opened this year's FutureBook Week on Monday (30th November). It was the inaugural staging of a conference expressly meant to bring together publishing professionals, traditionally publishing authors, and self-publishing authors. Our term for the conference's intent is "issues-driven," by which we meat that it was not the more commonly staged how-to conference or inspirational gathering for writers.
Links of the week December 21 2015 (52)
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:
28 December 2015
There is a predictable and deep sense among many writers at the Author Day conference that a commercial motive has vastly outweighed aesthetics and literary meaning in much of publishing. Interestingly, I think it's safe to say that we may hear this more frequently from traditionally publishing authors than from independent authors, perhaps because so many successful indies work in entertainment genres.
Author-centric publishing is a mindset, an attitude for all future-facing members of the publishing community. But more than that-it is a business model for relevant imprints or units, and even more than that a prism-or a decision, if you like-by which larger, multi-purpose publishers can update their approach and systems to develop authors, readers, awareness, channels and, of course, sales.
An author-centric publisher is not just about flowers and parties, updates and niceties. It is a ruthless focus on the journey from writing author to engaged reader.
Well, it's all about the authors isn't it? It's not all down to our design, distribution or marketing skills, is it? It's authors who write the game-changing books. Who slave through three quiet novels to produce one that touches a chord with enough people to make a bestseller. Authors who have hit their stride at an apposite moment, with a publisher who can help them capitalise it, can shape culture. They can become a part of a generation's collective consciousness, spawn movies, merchandise, change habits. Create wealth. Employment. Inspire. Change lives. On and on. No wonder everyone wants in... An author-centric publisher takes what an author knows about the reader's interests and lives, and works it really, really hard.
When did you first know you were going to be a writer?
From the age of about five or six, writing was my main hobby and pretty much the only thing I was interested in doing. I never wanted to do any of my school work. Stories and poems were what I wanted to do instead.
Does being a poet feed the crime writing or vice versa? Or do you feel the two hats don't even belong on the same hatstand?
I think the themes that I am interested in writing about are similar in my crime fiction and in my poetry. I want to write about people, the way they behave, their psychology, the whole gamut of relationships - romantic partnerships, family, friendships. Even formally, I think poetry and crime fiction have a lot in common. In a tightly plotted crime novel and a highly metrical poem, for instance, structure is crucially important. Every single element has to be in the right balance and proportion to everything else. I am a real structure freak and I think that's one of the reasons both poetry and crime fiction appeal to me.
The absence of any black, Asian or minority ethnic writers on next year's World Book Night list provoked an outcry and a Twitterstorm. We asked writers and leading figures within the industry what can be done to encourage greater diversity in British publishing.
Nikesh Shukla, writer Latest work: Meatspace (Friday Project) I'm writing this hoping it'll be my last piece on diversity in publishing. I am tired. Tired of fighting for representation for writers of colour, pushing for more black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people to be in positions of management in the industry. I am tired of sitting on panels about diversity, writing pieces about diversity, and tweeting about prizes, review coverage and lists that ignore diversity. Which is why I lost my patience at the end of November when the titles announced for the 2016 World Book Night - when free books are distributed to encourage reading - failed to include a single BAME author. It might seem heartless to criticise a brilliant charity for wanting to put books in the hands of non-readers, and, in response, World Book Night expressed frustration that no publishers had put forward any BAME writers.
NAIROBI: The 5th biennial Kwani? Litfest took place in Nairobi from December 1 through 6th. It was themed Beyond the Map of English: Writers in Conversation on Language, and hosted both local and international writers at different venues around the city. Two books were launched in the course of the event, Nurrudin Farah's 12th novel Hiding in Plain Sight and the Kwani? 08 journal, which is largely predicated on politics and language.
For me, two writers stole the show: Nurrudin Farah and Taiye Selasi. Nurrudin (pronounced Noo-roo-dean) is a Somali-born 2feminist and nationalist writer" and author of 12 novels. He started his writing career at the age of 9 by writing letters on behalf of adults (in three languages) in order to earn pocket money. In 1970, at the age of only 22, he wrote the seminal novel From a Crooked Rib. Centering on a young girl who flees an arranged marriage to an old man, it is highly esteemed by feminists and remains one of Africa's towering novels. He left a socio-politically intolerant Somalia in 1974.
When Rebecca Thornton got the debut novel jitters, a community of Bonnier authors came to her help.
I'd harboured dreams of being a novelist for years. I wrote, pretty much all that time. Mainly in secret. Mainly when my career wasn't quite right, i.e. always, or I felt at a crossroads in my life. "Oh, I know," I would think, "I'll write a book. It'll be totally easy and it'll change everything." It wasn't, and at that point it didn't.
It was in my mid-30s that I felt courageous enough to admit this to people. I was often met with a look that translated as: "Good luck with that one," (they were right) or, more commonly, "I'm writing one too." This all coincided with having my first child. I used to go out to parties all the time, but after I gave birth, I found I didn't want to. Now is the time to go for this hell for leather, I thought. The first step was being open about what I was doing. Owning the fact that I wanted to write. I applied to the Faber Academy Writing A Novel course, and after some disastrous attempts at a romantic comedy, one of my course mates suggested I try writing in the first person. With that came the voice for The Exclusives, and after that my amazing agent, Nelle Andrew.