The big adult fiction title of this past fall was Margaret Atwood's The Testaments. The sequel to the author's 1985 bestseller The Handmaid's Tale was unveiled with a 500,000-copy first printing. At the time, The Handmaid's Tale was benefitting from a surge of interest in its wildly popular TV adaptation on Hulu, and from a renewed interest in dystopian tales following the election of Donald Trump. Now, with the globe seized by a pandemic and millions of Americans hunkered down because of shelter-at-home orders, editors say they are interested in lighter fare-mostly.
Links of the week May 11 2020 (20)
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:
18 May 2020
So what are publishers interested in buying during a pandemic? According to a number of editors and agents who specialize in adult commercial fiction, escapism is on the rise, to an extent.
"This is the question I think we're all dealing with right now," said Harper editor Sara Nelson, when asked if she's looking for different kinds of books since the Covid-19 outbreak. "On the one hand, we're so obsessed with our current moment that it's hard to know what we, let alone most readers, will want to read a year, or a year and a half, from now. I don't generally buy dystopian fiction anyway, but I am pretty sure I won't find dystopian novels appealing for the near future."
As authors from Chaucer to Hollinghurst have shown, sex reveals our emotions, instincts and morals. The question is not why write about sex, claims author Garth Greenwell, it's why write about anything else?
There is a widely held belief, among English-language writers, that sex is impossible to write about well - or at least much harder to write about well than anything else. I once heard a wonderful writer, addressing students at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, say that her ideal of a sex scene would be the sentence: "They sat down on the sofa ..." followed by white space. This is a prejudice I can't understand. One of the glories of being a writer in English is that two of our earliest geniuses, Chaucer and Shakespeare, wrote of the sexual body so exuberantly, claiming it for literature and bringing its vocabulary - including all those wonderful four-letter words - into the texture of our literary language. This is a gift not all languages have received; a translator once complained to me that in her language there was only the diction of the doctor's office or of pornography, neither of which felt native to poetry.
World-building is an essential part of all fiction writing. Sure, with fantasy genres, writers have to create a whole new world (don't you dare close your eyes). But, If you're reading a novel set in New York, then you'd expect the author to tell how New York looks, sounds, and smells. You'd want to know absolutely everything about the people who live there, too. What they eat and drink, what they love and hate, what they do for fun. So, world-building is a vital skill that all fiction writers need to master.
Now, the nice thing about stories based in the real world is that you don't have to invent details about the setting. Stephen King sets his novels in his home state of Maine because he has an intimate knowledge of that world. When you read one of his books, even if you know nothing about Maine, King's knowledge comes through the text. There's nothing generic about one of King's fictional towns like Castle Rock or Derry. The people talk a certain way, they eat certain foods, they have particular vocations. They are unique. The challenge for fantasy and sci-fi writers is to match the unique charm of the real world in an imaginary one. When creating an imaginary world there are ten broad categories that you need to address.
Not going to Bologna was unthinkable. The shock of the pandemic and how life everywhere was being affected was the most horrifying aspect, but we also had to deal with the logistics and the loss of deposits and flights already booked and paid for. After we forced ourselves to put all that aside because those were issues beyond our control, we realized the specific impact of the cancellation.
What of the zillion conversations, both planned and impromptu, that happened during our time in Italy? We spend countless hours during many months before descending upon the Bologna Fiere preparing to meet face to face with publishers, editors, and subagents. Our goal is to talk about those glorious books that could perhaps be perfect for young readers beyond North America. Yet, we had to pivot-Covid-19 made sure of that-and so the Gallt and Zacker Literary Agency did. We shifted the way we thought about our rights guide, how we would present it, and how to have the fruitful conversations regardless of our location. Our clients and their books deserved that.
As the latest step in its efforts to become a global entertainment giant, Wattpad Corp., which began as an online platform that allows writers to self-publish, is starting to develop TV and film projects based on fiction that has appeared on their website.
The 14-year-old Toronto digital company has built one of the top Canadian-based consumer internet businesses, with more than 80 million monthly users, primarily young women. Millions of writers post fiction, often serialized, on its online platform. Readers access the content primarily on their smartphones and post comments as they read, often interacting with the authors themselves.
Wattpad generates revenue from its mostly free platform in a range of ways. It sells advertising on the platform and offers an advertisement-free paid subscription service, and charges pay-by-the-chapter fees for access to certain popular stories.
It is a challenging time to be 16 and, like his peers, Dara McAnulty must currently endure a form of house arrest that means no seeing friends, no GCSEs. Unlike other locked-down teens, McAnulty is also dealing with the harsh mischance of having his first book, Diary of a Young Naturalist, published during the coronavirus crisis. He was supposed to be touring festivals but every date is cancelled. "I feel like my being is suffering from a slow puncture," McAnulty tweeted in March. "I honestly feel like my world is falling apart right now."
There is a genuine buzz around his debut, a combination of nature book and memoir, a warm portrait of a close-knit family and a coming-of-age story. Robert Macfarlane has hailed his "extraordinary voice and vision"; Chris Packham has become a friend; Steve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes, called him "inspiring". The teenager's environmental activism has led to comparisons with Greta Thunberg.
Unit sales of print books continue to defy expectations that the coronavirus crisis will lead to a plunge in sales. In fact, just the opposite is occurring. Last week, unit sales of print books had their second consecutive week of double-digit growth over the previous week at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. For the week ended May 9, 2020, print units were up 10.5% over the prior week, and rose 9.9% over the week ended May 11, 2019.
All four of the major categories had sales increases over the week ended May 2. In adult fiction, print units had a 14.7% increase over the prior week. Religion fiction led the increase, with units up nearly 44%, helped by the release of Karen Kingsbury%u2019s Someone Like You, which sold nearly 11,000 copies in its first week on sale. The action/adventure segment had a 31.6% unit increase, driven by the releases of the mass market paperback editions of The Oracle by Clive Cussler and Contraband by Stuart Woods, which were in the first and second spots on the category bestseller lists. The general fiction segment saw a solid 19.6% rise over the previous week.
The Sensuous Dirty Old Man (1971) is credited to "Dr. A"... but "the secret is out," admits a paperback edition, naming the author as Isaac Asimov, "undoubtedly the best writer in America" per the Mensa Bulletin. A response to a then-popular book called The Sensuous Woman, Asimov's book instructs dirty old men on how to leer ("don't peep at girls-STARE!"), make suggestive remarks ("What a magnificent dress... or am I merely judging by the contents?"), and fondle.
January 2, 2020 marked the centenary of Isaac Asimov's birth; at least, of the birth date the late author celebrated. (In his native Russia, the date of Asimov's birth wasn't precisely recorded.) The anniversary passed with little notice, although Asimov was a towering presence in science fiction and one of the most prolific writers to ever live. A Golden Age grand master and a protegé of Astounding Science Fiction editor John W. Campbell, Asimov coined the word "robotics" and wrote the Foundation series.
The Foundation stories beat J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings to win a 1966 Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series. Today, Tolkien commands a much more visible pop-culture presence than Asimov, but the Foundation stories are still widely read; bring them up in any group, and one or two people are likely to say they devoured the books.
London, 19 May 2020 - The shortlist for the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing has been announced, featuring five stories that "speak eloquently to the human condition" through a diverse array of themes and genres. This year's shortlist was determined virtually by the judging panel.
The shortlisted authors for this year's Prize are from Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania.
The Chair of judges, Director of The Africa Centre, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, said: "We were energised by the enormous breadth and diversity of the stories we were presented with - all of which collectively did much to challenge the notion of the African and diaspora experience, and its portrayal in fiction, as being one homogeneous whole.
"These brilliant and surprising stories are beautifully crafted, yet they are all completely different from one another. From satire and biting humour, to fiction based on non-fiction, with themes spanning political shenanigans, outcast communities, superstition and social status, loss, and enduring love. Each of these shortlisted stories speak eloquently to the human condition, and to what it is to be an African, or person of African descent, at the start of the second decade of the 21st century.
"Together, this year's shortlisted stories signal that African literature is in robust health, and, as demonstrated by the titles alone, never predictable."
11 May 2020
The pandemic has thrown publishing and booksellers into crisis - and left customers struggling to obtain books when they most want them. But some in the industry sense an opportunity to drag it into the 21st century
When the lockdown began on 23 March, the ramifications for the book industry were extremely grave. Waterstones closed all 280 of its branches, its chief executive, James Daunt, having previously insisted the chain was no different to a pharmacy or a supermarket and would therefore stay open (the U-turn came after some staff complained they felt at risk, and had been given no protection or hand sanitiser). Britain's independent book stores also shut their doors (at the end of 2019, there were 890 such shops in the UK and Ireland). Supermarkets, which sell popular books in large quantities, focused their efforts on food and ceased ordering from publishers. Meanwhile, Amazon suddenly and dramatically "de-prioritised" book sales in favour of what it deemed to be essential goods (food, yes, but also, it would seem, hair dye and DIY equipment).
Last fall, Kyle Hall's bookstore was destroyed by a tornado. This spring, it was almost wiped out by a pandemic.
For the past two months, ever since Texas ordered nonessential businesses to shut down, Mr. Hall, the manager and co-owner of Interabang Books in Dallas, has taken one unprecedented step after another to keep the store open. In March, Interabang transformed from a brick-and-mortar shop into an online retail business. When the stay-at-home order was lifted at the end of April, it became a curbside takeout operation. Staff members redesigned the storefront display, cramming 100 titles in the window so that customers could browse at a safe distance.
Among retail businesses, bookstores, especially smaller independent stores, face particular challenges as they navigate reopening. Many indies occupy cramped spaces with warrens of bookshelves, and serve as community centers and cultural outposts as much as retail operations. Book lovers often come in to linger, browse and chat with the staff about what to read next, all behaviors that in a pandemic are potentially life-threatening.
The financial results of the four publicly held book publishers that recently reported on their first quarters all revealed the same pattern: sales were solid until the spread of the coronavirus forced most physical bookstores and schools to close. "Sales were fairly good for the first two months of the year and then dropped off in mid-March," said Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster.
The quarterly results all had a second thing in common: solid increases for digital products, and not just for the rapidly growing downloadable audiobook market. E-book sales at S&S were up 13% in the quarter and were running 25%-50% over 2019 since the end of the quarter, Reidy said. Not that downloadable audio did badly at the trade publishers: Lagerdère reported that downloadable audio had a "sharp rise" at HBG in the quarter and accounted for 14.4% of the group's revenue in the period, up from 10% a year ago.
No longer able to take my long twice-daily walk from Penn Station to Rockefeller Center as I was no longer commuting into the city, I'd initially worried (along with dozens of other worries) that quarantine would turn me into a chair-potato. I needn't have fretted.
That very first day home, an unexpected form of exercise immediately presented itself. I call it "letting out the animals." It goes like this: Immerse yourself deep into a line edit of a manuscript. Hundred-pound dog will hit Let Me Outside bell. Let out the dog. Pick said manuscript back up. Count to four; let out one cat. Dog back in. 10 seconds later, another cat goes out.
Genre is a funny thing.
I've been a science fiction and fantasy nerd for as long as I can remember. And I'm not sure when I started to register that some of the speculative books I love weren't all marketed or categorized the same way.
What makes 1984 or The Handmaid's Tale more literature than science fiction?
And what makes James Rollins' or Michael Crichton's books mainstream thrillers?
You could argue - and many people do - that these genre divisions are, in some sense, imaginary. Writers write books; marketing departments at publishers come up with the most cunning angle to sell them. Or so the saying goes. Like almost any other attempt at categorizing broad or varied groups, genre boxes are clumsy labels that can never quite encapsulate all the fabulous tendrils of creativity. They're for convenience, marketing, signaling, nothing more - right?
New York - Novelist N.K. Jemisin was a teenager the first time she read Octavia Butler, and nothing had prepared her for it. It was the 1980s, and the book was called "Dawn," the story of a black woman who awakens 250 years after a nuclear holocaust.
"I remember just kind of being stunned that a black woman existed in the future, because science fiction had not done that before," says Jemisin, whose "The City We Became" is currently a bestseller. "There was just this conspicuous absence where it seemed we all just vanished after a while."
A revolutionary voice in her lifetime, Butler has only become more popular and influential since her death 14 years ago, at age 58. Her novels, including "Dawn," "Kindred" and "Parable of the Sower," sell more than 100,000 copies each year, according to her former literary and the manager of her estate, Merrillee Heifetz. Toshi Reagon has adapted "Parable of the Sower" into an opera, and Viola Davis and Ava DuVernay are among those working on streaming series based on her work.
Families! Look no further for a source of fears. Having children can change your life-indeed, I think it should-and the changes may include how a writer writes. After he and his wife had their first child the late James Herbert declared that he would never subject children to horrors in his tales again. By contrast, Stephen King and I seem driven to imagine the worst that can happen, perhaps in a bid to inoculate reality against our fears. This produced at least two of Stephen's greatest novels. Pet Sematary grew out of an actual fear, happily proved baseless, for a child.
What would happen if your toddler died? What extremes might you go to in order to bring them back, and how dreadful might the consequences be? The author finds his own book lacking in hope, but I'm not so certain. Surely if interfering with the afterlife brings forth horrors, this implies the hereafter itself may be benign.
It's been 15 years since Little, Brown published Stephenie Meyer's Twilight-a book that sold more than 100 million copies, launched a multi-billion-dollar movie franchise, and kicked off a vampire craze in YA and adult fiction alike. The trend eventually flamed out, and for a few years, vampires were relegated to the literary shadows.
But then, in 2019, there came hints of a possible resurrection. Renée Ahdieh released The Beautiful (Putnam, 2019), a duology-launching bestseller featuring 1870s-era New Orleans vampires. (Book two, The Damned, publishes this July.) Kiersten White published Slayer (Simon Pulse, 2019), a book set in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe, followed this past January by a sequel, Chosen. January also saw the release of Lana Popović's Blood Countess (Amulet), a novel based on the real-life inspiration for Countess Dracula. And this summer, Meyer will release Midnight Sun (Little, Brown, Aug. 4)-a long-awaited Twilight companion novel told from Edward's perspective.
Will 2020 be the year of the vampire? We spoke with a quartet of authors and editors whose new and forthcoming books promise to breathe fresh life into the centuries-old monster of myth.
You can't have a good thriller without a nasty and formidable opponent for your hero. But it isn't enough to just write a character and call him "the bad guy." Just as it's important to create a well-rounded, three-dimensional hero, you must create a villain who is well-developed and not just your standard killer, robber, or kidnapper.
So how can we write a well-developed villain who is a worthy opponent to your protagonist?
Create a backstory Unless you%u2019re writing fantasy or sci-fi or the like, your villain will also be human. They will have a personality all their own and, in most cases, they%u2019ll have a painful past, so you must tell their story, just as you would with the hero. You want him to be everything that makes us human%u2014fallible, flawed, and complete with a backstory that explains their motives and their reason for being so downright nasty. First, think about what made your villain turn out the way he did. Why is he killing people? Or why is he so hostile and angry?