In January, thanks to a sale of 467,000 copies in its first week on shelves, Prince Harry's Spare (Bantam Books) became the fastest-selling nonfiction book since Nielsen BookData's official sales records began in the late 1990s. With a £28 recommended retail price (RRP) in the U.K., it is one of the most expensive books to have topped the weekly bestseller lists, and certainly one of most expensive memoirs-beaten only by Barack Obama's A Promised Land (£35 RRP), which spent three weeks at number one in the run-up to Christmas 2020.
Links of the week April 24 2023 (17)
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:
24 April 2023
High advances will no doubt be a factor behind the relatively expensive RRPs for both, but market forces (Brexit, the rising costs of paper, energy, and manufacturing, the pandemic) are forcing all publishers to reconsider RRPs generally. And, at the same time, book-buyers are of course facing similar pressures of their own.
Recent reports from Nielsen reveal book-buyers are already switching to paperbacks (Books and the Consumer survey, March 2023), while they plan to reduce their book purchases and increase their library borrowing (National Literacy TrustUK-based organisation which has campaigned since 1993 to improve literacy standards across all age groups. Excellent research information and details of the many initiatives the charity is currently involved in. www.literacytrust.org.uk. It also has a useful page of news stories on UK literacy, which links to newsletter http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/TheLibrary.aspx research into spending on children's books, February 2023). The current cost-of-living crisis is certainly putting a squeeze on consumer spending.
The UK publishing industry had a "record-breaking year" in 2022, with a total income of £6.9bn.
A Year in Publishing, a look at the state of the book market by trade body the Publishers Association , found that sales were up 4% from 2021In 2022, 669m physical books were sold in the UK, the highest overall level ever recorded.
In consumer books, print sales were up 2%, to £1.8bn, while digital sales were also up 2% to £423m and audio downloads saw an 8% increase to £164m. Fiction was up by 9% to £797m of sales, and children's books were up by 1%. Non-fiction saw a decrease of 2%, but still accounted for £1bn.
Rebecca Smart, chair of the Association's consumer publishers council and co-CEO of DK Books, said that while it was "disappointing to see a modest decrease in overall sales at home, it is great to see fiction and audio doing particularly well as people continue to seek entertainment and discovery through books".
United Talent Agency (UTA) has said it is aiming to continue to scale up either organically or with further acquisitions, as it concludes its first London Book Fair following the purchases of Curtis BrownSee Curtis Brown listing and Fletcher & Company (F&C).
Christy Fletcher, the F&C founder who became co-head of UTA Publishing with Byrd Leavell after she sold her agency in January, told The Bookseller that the strategy going forward was certainly growth and "would not rule out any further acquisitions". But she added that the emphasis "is also being the best home for writers".
A prominent aspect of this going forward will be harnessing some of LA-headquartered UTA's resources, such as UTA IQ, the agency's data, research and digital strategy division: "I think it's going to be really differentiating. It's a very thoughtful way UTA currently uses [analytics] for clients, and how we will use it to help inform strategy for our own publishing clients is going to be amazing."
Agents and publishers have hailed a "proper" return to London Book Fair this year, reporting back-to-back meetings and standing room only at packed-out events.
AI and ChatGPT dominated conversations on the trade's future, while discussions about supply chain difficulties and rising costs rumbled on.
Mary Mount, Picador publisher, told The Bookseller this year's fair was "particularly lively" and "one of the most positive fairs I've ever been to. Last year felt like it was a gathering together after the lockdown, whereas this year it feels very much like it's properly back. Very crowded, loads of meetings, very buzzy. I think what's also been striking in the lead up to the fair is there's been a lot of great fiction.
Speaking at Bonnier Books UK's party on Wednesday night (19th April), c.e.o. Perminder Mann said it was "fantastic to see so many international colleagues back at London Book Fair this year", though she noted "challenges" with "supply chain pressures, rising costs, a spiralling cost of living crisis, and the dark cloud of the invasion of Ukraine". "In a tricky year, books have proven once again to be resilient," she said.
More than half of authors (54%) responding to a survey by The Bookseller on their experiences of publishing their debut book have said the process negatively affected their mental health. Though views were mixed, just 22% of the 108 respondents to the survey described a positive experience overall with their first publication.
Among the majority who said they had a negative experience of debut publication, anxiety, stress, depression and "lowered" self-esteem were cited, with lack of support, guidance or clear and professional communication from their publisher among the factors that contributed.
One respondent noted: "I've been exhausted and anxious since about two months before publication until now, about a year on. I have developed quite severe anxiety, for which I am now taking medication." Another respondent, published by one of the Big Four, said: "It has taken me a long time to reconcile the train wreck of my debut. I had to work hard to recover from it, both professionally and mentally."
A new campaign has been launched to help authors hold publishers to account when it comes to sustainability.
Tree to Me has been created by the Society of Authors, which says the campaign "adds authors' voices to efforts to achieve net zero in the publishing industry".
The campaign is the latest in a series of initiatives launched by the publishing industry to help it become more sustainable, including the launch of the Sustainability Industry Forum, a cross-industry initiative designed to tackle the negative impact of the book business.
Publishing's environmental impact is significant, and includes the manufacture of paper, the transportation of books from printers - oftentimes in China - to warehouses and then to retailers, and the use of chemicals in things such as inks. Tree to Me sets out 10 questions authors should ask their publishers around sustainability, covering topics including which materials are used in book production and packaging to finding out which sources of energy are consumed.
A new PENSupported by eminent writers, this is the English branch of International Pen, which has centres in nearly 100 countries. It fights for freedom of expression and against political censorship. It campaigns for writers harassed, imprisoned and sometimes murdered for their views. http://www.englishpen.org/ America report documents how state legislation across the country is driving an alarming spike in book bans in schools.
The report, Banned in the USA: State Laws Supercharge Book Suppression in Schools, expands on two previous PENSupported by eminent writers, this is the English branch of International Pen, which has centres in nearly 100 countries. It fights for freedom of expression and against political censorship. It campaigns for writers harassed, imprisoned and sometimes murdered for their views. http://www.englishpen.org/ America reports tracking the intensifying wave of book bans and laws aimed at limiting access to school and library books. Since July 2021, when PEN America began tracking public school book bans, the organization recorded more than 4,000 bans books through December 2022, including 1,477 individual book bans affecting 874 unique titles during the first half of the 2022-23 school year-a 28% increase over the previous six months.
Another new trend highlighted in the report: the mischaracterization of books as "pornographic" or "indecent." The reports notes that "alarmist rhetoric" from right wing activists and politicians about "porn in schools" has been a significant factor driving book bans and legislative action.
Politicians and activists who endorse clampdowns on books that middle and high school students are permitted to access in libraries, as well as in their coursework, are having their moment. In school districts across the country, they're enacting an agenda to shield children from information that's portrayed as being harmful to personal esteem, pride in country, or proper understanding of society, science, history, and economics.
But while these officials and advocates are racking up wins, they're unknowingly setting up their own and others' children for debilitating disappointments. When the tweens and teens whom they aim to protect begin their adult lives, the by-product of this educational narrowing will be millions of young adults who will be unable to function, collaborate, and prosper in college and the working world.
New research by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) claims authors who self-publish currently earn more than traditionally published authors.
ALLi circulated the survey to its members and subscribers, as well as "through other key self-publishing and author organisations" in February 2023. It was answered by more than 2,000 respondents - 60% of whom were in North America, with 21% from the UK and 8% respectively for Australia/New Zealand, and Europe. It found the the median revenue for independent authors in 2022 stands at $12,749 (£10,229).
This compares to the findings of a report into authors' earnings commissioned by The Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and published in December 2022, which showed that median earnings from writing alone for authors with third-party publishers stands at approximately $8,600 (£7,000).
The ALCS' report showed "a sustained fall in professional writers' real terms income from writing over the past 15 years of around 60%, pushing median earnings down to minimum wage levels," a trend which ALLi suggests self-published authors are "bucking" in light of its survey's findings, which suggest average incomes of self-published authors are rising, with a 53% increase in 2022 over the previous year.
In my early books, my main characters didn't have children. At the time of writing them I didn't think that this was a decision I had made consciously, but looking back I'm sure it was. As a mother of three, I've felt the overwhelming emotions being a mum brings daily for almost 30 years now, and until recently I wasn't sure I was ready to cope with my characters' emotions as well as my own. Because, although I love being a mum more than anything else in the world, the worry about children never ends, no matter how big they grow.
Writing books for me has been cathartic. A way for me to try to make sense of a world that at times can feel senseless. Drawing upon my own experiences brings with it an uncomfortable feeling of vulnerability. With The Gift, it wasn't too much of a stretch to imagine how my character felt when confronted with a sudden, life altering change of health. Although I hadn't had a transplant and needed to do extensive research on the medical background, the emotions in the novel were based on how I felt on becoming suddenly disabled in my 30s and the impact that had on my mental health. Even though, ultimately, I found the process healing, exploring dramatic events in my children's lives still wasn't something I felt ready for.
I live in Bern, the capital of Switzerland, which has a magnificent medieval core, and I'm currently working on the fourth mystery in my Polizei Bern series, which is set in and around the city's Gothic church, the Berner Münster.
Over the Münster's central doors is a fifteenth-century Last Judgement scene made up of over three hundred colorful sandstone sculptures. It shows men and women who emerge from their graves, are judged by a stern Jesus, and then find themselves sent on their separate ways by the archangel Michael, the saved rising to heaven and the damned falling into hell. The sculptors had a great time with hell, portraying it in gruesome detail with flames, grinning demons, tortured souls, and a large green Satan presiding over all.
Being immersed in medieval imagery for the sake of my present writing project is probably to blame for the idea I'd like to propose, which is that modern mystery novels have something in common with medieval morality plays.
Roald Dahl's books are being edited to make them less offensive. Joke is, nothing has really changed. No matter how many tweaks are made to try and push classics like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into more politically correct territory, Dahl's books are still harmful. There are a number of things that make defending Roald Dahl a questionable move, but I'd like to address the way his books reinforce stereotypes about physical attractiveness. Dahl wasn't creative enough to make his antagonists' actions reveal their character, and his shortcuts in using negative physical descriptions as a stand-in for actual development have damaged generations of readers.
Dahl's books repeatedly describe villainous characters as ugly and fat, but he doesn't stop there. He describes clothes as tight as sausage casings, rolls of flesh bulging. He talks about bottle-dyed hair and caked-on makeup and wrinkles and hairy upper lips and moles with obvious disgust. Through his descriptions of antagonists, and especially as they're placed against the lithe, lovely descriptions of his heroes, Dahl sends a clear message that a person's physical descriptions will match the way they act.
The result is two-fold: there is a good way to look and a bad way to look, and if you look bad, you are bad. I can hear eye rolls from here. I know that people will be on the defensive, insisting that I am oversimplifying. It's okay to be wrong. Yes, I've read his quote about thinking good thoughts and they'll shine out of your face like sunbeams and make you lovely no matter what you look like. It's crap and does not match the way he wrote characters throughout his entire career.
When I admit Ken Follett to the Zoom, he is not in front of his computer but at the other end of his office, his back to me. And it is a long way across as-at least from my depth of field-his office is sizeable. But cosy: late Victorian edging to Arts and Crafts furnishings, wallpaper of warming yellow and red, soft lighting. The seconds tick on and still he does not turn and I half-wonder if this is a sort of power play to disconcert an interlocutor, the kind of device the scheming Bishop Waleran Bigod, one of the main villains in Follett's first Kingsbridge novel The Pillars of the Earth, might employ.
Turns out Follett is just tending the fire (the poker he is using is shaped like a Mediaeval sword) and he scuttles quickly back to his computer when he realises I am waiting. I perhaps thought of Bishop Waleran as we are here to chat largely about the Kingsbridge series, which takes in around 900 years of British history through the people and events in a fictional Wiltshire wool-producing market town. The series has sold more than 50 million units worldwide (overall, Follett has shifted around 190 million copies), and Pan MacmillanOne of largest fiction and non-fiction book publishers in UK; includes imprints of Pan, Picador and Macmillan Children’s Books is throwing a party at this year's London Book Fair to launch the fifth and final Kingsbridge title, The Armour and the Light.
Perry's 1979 debut novel, "The Cater Street Hangman," and her 1993 historical mystery, "A Sudden, Fearful Death," are among the author's numerous period thrillers. But for nearly two decades of her soaring literary career, no one knew that the crime writer "Anne Perry" was actually the teenage murderer Juliet Hulme.
The Pulitzer prize-winning novelist on discovering Ralph Ellison as a child, his passion for pop culture encyclopedias and why he loves World War Z
The book that changed me as a teenager
I was 19 when I underwent my big Pynchon summer and dived into Gravity's Rainbow. Systems, rebel forces, counter-histories, a little bit of hope - that you could cram so much of the world from page to page was exhilarating to discover.
James Bond has two origin stories. One starts on a February morning in 1952. Seeking distraction from his upcoming wedding, Ian Fleming sat down at his Royal portable typewriter in Jamaica and wrote what-after a few amendments-would become an immortal line in literature, and my favourite opening of any novel: ‘The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.' The authority of this sentence hints at the other, earlier origin for James Bond, more than a distraction from impending married life. When World War Two broke out, Ian Fleming went from a career of exciting journalism, and then boredom as a banker, to joining naval intelligence.
In 1944, as a commander-Bond's later rank-Fleming created the intelligence-gathering 30 Commando Assault Unit, which he dubbed ‘Red Indians', that would assist in the invasion of Normandy. That same year, Fleming told a friend: ‘I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories.' Eight years on, Fleming hammered out two thousand words a day between dawn and the first cocktail at his villa GoldenEye in Jamaica (a creative process I can only hope to emulate). James Bond might have been conceived partly as escapism, and has indeed given countless readers the joy of escape since 1953, but even more than this, Casino Royale would, as Fleming promised, become the spy story to reinvent spy fiction forever. Like the perfect martini, all the right ingredients are here.