In 2017, almost 50% more short story collections were sold than in the previous year. It was the best year for short stories since 2010. Booksellers are reporting a surge in popularity for the form, commentators note publishers are buying more collections and issuing them with greater care and enthusiasm; in December the newcomer Kristen Roupenian cut five- and seven-figure deals in the UK and US after her New Yorker story "Cat Person" went viral
Links of the week March 5 2018 (10)
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:
12 March 2018
Plodding through these random explosions of joy, the short story continues to exist with or without the glare of widespread attention. Each year, good collections are published; some are noticed, some are not. Most don't sell many copies (a debut collection from one of the major publishing houses might have a print run of 3,000, with little expectation of a reprint). When a collection is fortunate enough to be reviewed, it will very often be a discussion not just about the book but also the form generally.
The standard how-to-find-an-agent advice goes something like this: search databases and websites and the acknowledgments pages of the books you love for the names and contact info of agents who might have an affinity for your style; write a svelte and compelling query letter that captures the essence of your book and the meat of your bio in under 500 words; include said query in the body of an email; attach the first 50 pages of your manuscript; and wait, sometimes for months, for your dream agent to request the entire book or send you on your way.
I met my agent as a student in NYU's M.F.A. program, at an agent/writer meet-and-greet. I had three meetings, including one with Claudia Ballard, from William Morris Endeavor. We talked less about my unfinished novel than we did about the books we both loved. A few days later, I sent Claudia some stories; she asked for my novel. I sent her an essay; she asked for my novel. I sent her 100 pages of my novel, attached to an email that, in place of a query letter, included a list of disclaimers; miraculously, she asked for a meeting.
Author platforms: we're still talking about them because they're such a crucial part of introducing new books and new authors to a wider readership. And, for indie authors, having a robust author platform can mean the difference between giving up your day job or staying put for a while.
Unfortunately, many authors seem to think that their author platform is located somewhere on social media sites, although those certainly play a part. But savvy authors realize that having direct access to their readers - and a larger universe of people interested in the types of things they write about - is the most valuable asset of all for anyone hoping to write and publish books for a living. The way you get that direct access is by appearing in people's email in-boxes. Still not convinced? Here are seven reasons why authors should build email lists.
Women are used to living off scraps that fall from the table. Whether we're being patronised by politicians touting for our votes, or being told by advertisers we're "worth" a £3 bottle of shampoo, we have learned to take any crumb of grudging appreciation. And we even have a day each year - 8 March, International Women's Day - to feel special.
In this context, the decision by bookseller Waterstones to banish the boys and give over the entire front page of its website to "celebrate" women's writing on International Women's Day seems par for the course. But while it may be good PR, it isn't enough in a market that would collapse without women, whether readers, writers or publishers.
A 2014 analysis of 40,000 of its members by book review website Goodreads revealed that though we tend to stick to our own gender when reading - 90% of men's most-read books of the year were by male writers, with a similar figure for women - what we hold in highest regard are books by women. On average, both genders rated books by women at 4 out of 5 stars, with the efforts of men marked lower.
When a writer is born into a family, the Polish poet Czesław Miłosz said, that family is finished. Yes, but when a writer dies that family's troubles have only just begun. Wills may be contradictory and instructions to literary executors confused. Works left behind on computers or in desk drawers may be of uncertain status: were they intended for publication or not? And if the writer is famous enough, there'll be biographers to deal with: can they be trusted to paint a kindly portrait? In their lifetime, authors have a measure of control. Once they're gone, it's left to others to guard their reputations.
Literary management is back in the news because the will left by Harper Lee has been made public. It was signed only eight days before her death in 2016 and, while naming as heirs her niece and three nephews, appointed the lawyer Tonja Carter as her literary executor. Lee's sister, Alice, used to perform that role, but after Alice's death in 2014 at the age of 103, Carter assumed control. It was she who discovered the "lost" manuscript of Go Set a Watchman in a safe deposit box and, two months after Alice's death, arranged for it to come out, despite Lee having maintained for 55 years that To Kill a Mockingbird was the only novel she would ever publish.
A Manchester-based author whose debut novel was initially rejected by British publishers has won one of the world's richest literary prizes.
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi - who's from Uganda and moved to the UK 17 years ago - has won one of the Windham Campbell Prizes from Yale University in the US.
She will receive $165,000 (£119,000). "I haven't been earning for a long, long time," she says.
"I really put everything into writing. So for this to happen is unbelievable."
The prize money is more than double the amount that the Booker Prize winner gets, and organisers say it's the richest award dedicated to literature after the Nobel Prize. Makumbi is one of eight writers to receive Windham Campbell Prizes this year spanning fiction, non-fiction, drama and poetry - and is the only winner to have published just one full-length work.
Last week the internet all but imploded with the news that Reese Witherspoon, queen of the book-to-screen adaptation, will be giving another tome the Big Little Lies treatment. The star announced the news about Little Fires Everywhere by posting a photo of herself alongside fellow actress and producer Kerry Washington - both clutching copies of the Celeste Ng-penned hardcover, of course - and caused a firestorm to the tune of almost a quarter of a million likes and countless news stories.
These clubs exist entirely online and almost entirely on Instagram - Belletrist has 160,000 followers and Reese's Book Club has 390,000. Each month the actresses select a title for their fans to check out and offer their own opinions, discussion topics, and exclusive interviews with the authors - in addition to the chance for readers at home to feel like they're following the novels alongside their celebrity idols. And for the chosen authors, the benefits are practically endless.
Romance writing has done the impossible. Hard to say how this even happened, but... it's gotten whiter.
This is from the second of two annual studies done by the Ripped Bodice, our fair nation's only all-romance specialty bookstore. As we wrote back in October, only 7.8 romance books out of 100 published in 2016 were written by women of color.
Another statistic makes that one look even worse: there were 5.5 percent more romance books published in 2017 then in 2016. And, as Lenker writes this month in Entertainment Weekly, reporting on the Ripped Bodice's newest study, -half of the publishers surveyed showed no improvement or had decreased the number of books written by authors of color - since last year. (Linker's piece is great, and features some helpful infographics.)
5 March 2018
I just completed my ninth novel, the first volume in the Adventures of Jonathan Lambshead series, working title "I am Squishy" (that will change, I'm sure). I'm also working on the tenth novel of my career, Hummingbird Salamander. This doesn't include a number of unfinished or crappy novels written in my teens-or hundreds of short stories.
If nothing else, being a novelist for decades gives you some hopefully useful ideas about process. I'm loathe to ever suggest that there is only one way to do something-it's different for every writer. But I do think that examining someone else's process can be of use for your own, even if it's just to reject everything another writer does!
So, with that caveat, here's what I've learned over time. If some of it seems basic, that's important, too. Because at the end of the day, there is no magic solution, no short-cut, to writing something that hopefully will last. No matter how we search for one. I also believe strongly in letting the things about writing that should be organic remain organic, but also working in targeted ways on those things that can be improved mechanically.
Q: Years ago, I read that publishers were going to end the practice of bringing out hardback editions before paperbacks. But it never happened. Why do they still do this, and does anyone apart from libraries buy hardbacks? I never do.
Phil Goddard
Yes, hardbacks are still popular. Hardback fiction brings in about £70m annually (roughly 20% of the printed fiction market), according to sales data from Nielsen BookScan.
But the format's worth is about more than just its monetary value. The hardback is a mark of quality and a demonstration of intent on behalf of the publisher: it shows booksellers and reviewers that this is a book worth paying attention to. In fact some literary editors will still only review fiction (on first publication) if it's published in hardback. Similarly, a hardback signifies to authors and agents that this is a book their publisher cares about, so much so that some agents (and authors) will insist upon it.
The chief executive of the Society of Authors has challenged publishers to reveal how much they pay writers in their annual financial accounts.
Publishers' profits have grown while authors' pay has shrunk in recent years, Nicola Solomon has argued in an article for The Bookseller. As a result, the chief of the trade body is calling on publishers to state in their financial accounts how much they pay authors, illustrators and translators in advances, royalties and secondary income.
Solomon suggested publishers were reaping larger annual profits at the expense of "suffering" authors. The latest author pay study of the Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society (currently in the process of being updated) showed that the average annual income for an author in 2013 had dropped 29% since 2010 to £11,000.
Meanwhile, two of the biggest English language trade publishers have seen large increases in their profit margins, she said. Simon & Schuster Inc's profit margin surged from of 9% in 2008 to 16% in 2016, Solomon argued, and Penguin and Random House have almost doubled their profit margin to 16% since merging, she noted according to their own figures.
His Dark Materials author condemns way book industry ‘allows corporate profits to be so high at a time when author earnings are markedly falling'
Speaking in his capacity as president of the Society of Authors, the His Dark Materials author hit out at the fact that while profit margins in publishing are rising, the money authors are paid is going down.
"To allow corporate profits to be so high at a time when author earnings are markedly falling is, apart from anything else, shockingly bad husbandry. It's perfectly possible to make a good profit and pay a fair return to all of those on whose work, after all, everything else depends. But that's not happening at the moment," said Pullman. "I like every individual editor, designer, marketing and publicity person I deal with; but I don't like what publishers, corporately, are doing to the ecology of the book world. It's damaging, and it should change."
I've nurtured my dark side very carefully. I'm not someone who's ever wanted to get rid of my demons. I don't want them to take over, but I couldn't empathize with my screwed-up and dark characters and disturbed narrators unless I had pieces of them.
Scott Turow once told me something along the lines of, "You've just been strapped to a rocket. Hold on tight, enjoy the ride, and don't take it too seriously. Its a small, weird club, and I'm there if you need me."
The growth of self-publishing has been great news for authors - and for providers of self-publishing services such as editing, art and design, and production. But as services have proliferated, it has become more important than ever for indie authors use a discerning eye when seeking out assistance. Being able to identify when a particular service is overcharging-or just overstating what it can actually deliver-is an important skill for any indie author to master.
The first step an indie author should take when determining whether a publishing service or consultant is worth tapping is to get a clear sense of the company's background.
"[I]f you're not dealing with a specific individual whose resume you can study, figure out who's behind the service," says Jane Friedman, a publishing expert and consultant with 15 years experience in the industry. "Do you trust who's behind it? Are there specific names attached? (There should be!) Do these people have experience that applies to what you're trying to accomplish? How many years of experience?"
T.C. Boyle's excellent latest novel, The Terranauts, is about eight people entering E2, a sealed three-acre world that's part of the vision of a billionaire futurist. With 16 novels under his belt, Boyle shares his writing secrets.
Writing is hard work. It makes you sweat, builds your muscles and gives you a real cardiovascular workout (if you combine it, that is, with a ten-mile run, each and every day). What I'm saying is that above all, it takes discipline. To complete a project, whether it be short story or novel, you must stay after it seven days a week for as long as it takes to arrive at those last celebratory lines. Here are five tips to help you on your way.
The education ministries in all Canadian provinces and territories-except for British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec-and the school board of Ontario have filed a lawsuit against Access Canada, the organization that licenses and collects fees for third-party use of creative content. The ministries are seeking to recoup C$27.5 million ($21.5 million) they paid between 2010-2012 for materials used in K-12 classrooms.
In the years since the Modernization Act, many educational institutions have paid Copyright Access nothing at all, taking advantage of the vague language of the act. The result has been an unmitigated disaster for Canadian educational publishing, with estimated losses of some C$50 million in payments to publishers over the last five years. For 2017, Access Copyright estimated payouts dropped from C$11 million in 2016 to C$5 million. Most education publishers have also claimed a reduction in textbook orders, some as much as 90%, over the same period. Meanwhile, Access Copyright estimates that the education sector copies 150 million pages from copyright-protected works each year.