New research by the Booksellers Association, commissioned by Arts Council England, has revealed the "range and depth of bookshop contributions to our culture and society".
If a publisher's titles aren't available on Amazon, it might as well close shop and find a new line of business. Even the biggest publishers are no match for Amazon's death grip on the book market.
Amazon is already facing a potential lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission, and now, a group of authors, booksellers, and an antitrust think tank is calling on the agency to investigate the e-commerce giant's stranglehold on the bookselling market, as previously reported by The New York Times.
This week the Guardian suggested that books could continue to outperform other entertainment goods as the wider economy faces financial uncertainty, asserting that readers would return to books as other more expensive modes of diversion are cast off.
Almost 4m books were sold in the UK in the first six days after bookshops reopened last week - a jump of over 30% on the same week last year as desperate readers returned to browse the aisles for the first time in three months.
More than 1,300 writers including Kerry Hudson, David Nicholls, Sally Rooney, Michael Rosen and Val McDermid have backed a campaign for Waterstones booksellers to be paid the living wage.
Independent booksellers often talk about their tight bonds with their local communities, and, increasingly, one of the many ways in which they are engaging with those communities is by stocking self-published titles by local writers. Read more
As someone who's on their sixth novel and has had their ups and downs, I'm aware of how privileged and lucky I have been, and what a shock it can be for debut writers - all the reality of that world, and that new voice and when the book doesn't quite take off, it's a shock. Read more
‘Starting with a blank page is part of what makes writing a book so vulnerable. A novel can be anything, and the way it turns out is highly personal.'
This week we have broken through 10,000 pages on the WritersServices site! Our huge site contains an enormous amount of information which can be accessed through the homepage or through Advice for Writers, which gives a breakdown of what is on the site.
‘Georgette Heyer was my favourite author, then and now.
Mashing genres can be a tricky business. Do it right, and you've created a short story, book or movie that remixes those respective genres' elements in new and exciting ways-for instance, Philip K. Dick memorably using a detective narrative to explore the post-apocalyptic setting of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
POD started off being closely associated with the self-publishing market, as it allows authors to publish for hundreds of dollars, if not zero dollars. It has never really shaken off that association, even though it has been a godsend for authors and publishers alike. Read more
Royalties earned from The Golden Mole, published in the US this week as Vanishing Treasures, will be given towards counteracting ‘the election of a climate-change denier'
'I've been lucky'
As someone who's on their sixth novel and has had their ups and downs, I'm aware of how privileged and lucky I have been, and what a shock it can be for debut writers - all the reality of that world, and that new voice and when the book doesn't quite take off, it's a shock. Read more