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'
Links of the week November 11 2024 (46)
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 November 2024
British author Katherine Rundell will give all the royalties from one of her books to climate charities in response to the re-election of Donald Trump.
The author of bestsellers for children and adults has said she will donate 100% of author royalties earned from sales of The Golden Mole, her 2022 book on endangered species, "in perpetuity". The book was published in the US on Tuesday under the title Vanishing Treasures. So far she said she has donated more than £10,000, and hopes it could eventually be much more.
The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell.
The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell. Photograph: Faber"The election of a climate-change denier to the US presidency is a catastrophe for all of us," said Rundell. "It comes at a time when the planet has never more urgently needed our protection.
"It has rarely been so tempting for anyone who cares about the fate of the living world - of the Earth itself, of the parliament of the non-human, of the terrible human suffering that climate chaos will bring - to despair. But it's much too urgent and important for despair."
Jo Nolan takes a wry look at the fine art of self-publishing
This is a cautionary tale. It lifts the lid on the immense effort, rollercoaster and learning curve involved in self-publishing: getting a book onto readers' shelves. A book which costs £10. The price of two coffees and a croissant in your average café, a nice bunch of supermarket flowers, a bottle of wine. So, not a huge layout, really.
Anyway.
A bit of background. I'm an academic - I've written a handful of books about dead languages, and I'm a total word nerd. During Covid, all my research collaborations went on hold, so I was casting around for a new project - which then found me. Standing in the queue on my designated blue circle outside the supermarket and reading my list, I was struck by the thought that this was so very much MY list, and parts of it at least would have been incomprehensible to anyone but me and my immediate family. With a bit of time on my hands, and a lot of nervous energy to manage, I embarked on what would become my little book about all things list, Listful.
A conversation with the author of 'White City'
I don't even remember how I came across Vine Street, British author Dominic Nolan's third crime novel, because it is published in the UK and not readily available in the U.S., but by the time I finished the first chapter, I was hooked. This was a major talent with an original voice. The story, which jumps between the 1930s, the 1960s, and the early Aughts-spending most of the time in the ‘30s in London's seedy Soho neighborhood between the wars-follows Leon Geats, a vice cop who likes the criminals he's supposed to police far more than he does most of the coppers he works with.
Despite the gruesome murders-based on the real-life murders of foreign sex workers during the period-Geats' passion wears off on the reader and you find yourself wanting to inhabit this shady world and the big and burly and broken hearts that love it. And without giving anything away, I'll say that the twist at the end is perhaps the best sleight of hand I've read in any book. Just masterful plotting.
Who is the primary readership for your book? And have you stretched it too far or too thin in your book proposal's target audience section?
Of all the areas I try to help nonfiction authors better understand, this one can be the most confounding, as I've discussed before. It's common for writers to describe a readership that's too broad to be meaningful, in the hopes of demonstrating the wide appeal or potential. For example:
"This book is for Baby Boomers." That's about 75 million people; not all of them are really your audience.
"This book is for people seeking greater happiness in their lives." But who isn't seeking greater happiness?
"Women make up more than 60 percent of all book purchasers and will be the main audience for this book." It's always a mistake to describe the US book buying audience as your audience.
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. For authors, it eases the path to nationwide distribution and retail placement; both Amazon and Ingram use the technology (on their own or through printers for hire) to fulfill orders. And for bigger publishers, it has meant not losing sales when being caught short of stock, whether because of a prize win, a current event, or scheduling problems-any number of reasons, some better than others.
Broussard's position is that POD is being used for convenience and not for really good reasons. From his perspective, I'm guessing a good reason might be fulfilling the extraordinary demand for specific titles in June 2020, after George Floyd's murder. Titles on race filled the top 10 on the New York Times bestseller list in a way that no publisher could've ever anticipated. Ingram's print-on-demand capabilities ensured that spike in demand could be met. Would it have been better to make readers wait? If so, they might have been waiting a very long time given supply chain problems during the pandemic. And I don't think the authors of those books wanted readers to wait any more than the publishers did. Every retailer and distributor will tell you that if the book can't be bought when the customer wants it, you've lost the sale.
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?"
When Rob Hart and Alex Segura sat down to write "Dark Space," which combines a "Star Trek"-style space opera with a John le Carré-infused spy story, they faced exactly that sort of challenge. Fortunately, they both have deep experience in writing multiple genres-in addition to his crime-fiction work, Hart has written two speculative-fiction novels ("The Paradox Hotel" and "The Warehouse"), while Segura is the award-winning writer of multiple novels and comic books.
"Dark Space" weaves two narratives together. One takes place aboard the Mosaic, a huge interstellar ship that begins experiencing mysterious, potentially catastrophic issues; its pilot, Carriles, becomes increasingly suspicious about the true cause of those problems. The other is set on an off-world settlement where a burned-out spy, Timony, finds herself sinking into a deadly conspiracy. The two are connected, of course, and ultimately personal for both Carriles and Timony as they fight to stay alive.
"The school curriculum has become so packed and so prescriptive that it is very hard to make schools places where books can be enjoyed"
What is Michael Rosen Day?
A day to celebrate books and reading-and if people want to discover my books that would be great too! For the day itself, we are offering an activity pack which is suitable for a wide range of children, enabling teachers or parents/carers to create a fun and engaging celebratory moment centred around books and reading. This pack sits alongside a free-to-access virtual event, where I will be joined by MC Grammar at 10am on the day itself (there will be options to watch later!).
Why did you decide to launch Michael Rosen Day?It wasn't my idea! My publisher Walker Books suggested that we should mark the anniversaries that are happening in 2024 (50 years of being published and 35 years of We're Going on a Bear Hunt) with a day of celebration-and I am keen to support anything that means encouraging a love of books and reading! Finding space in a busy curriculum or home life for the joy and connection books can bring is just as vital as ever.
Men don't just think about the Roman Empire - they're also more likely to want to read about it.
The gender gap in the United States also extends to reading.
Men are more likely to read nonfiction over fiction, while the opposite is true for women, according to a study conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The study showed that in 2012, 55% of women read fiction and 48% read nonfiction. When it came to men, the same study showed that only 33% of men read fiction and 36% read nonfiction.
ADVERTISINGA 2017 NEA survey similarly showed that 50% of women were likely to read novels or shorts stories compared to 33% of men.
One of TikTok's defining subcultures is arguing over whether books are political, "red-listing" authors, and looking for guidance in speculative fiction.
TikTok creator @lizabookrecs had a question: When did BookTok become political? It was in the hours after Donald Trump had won the election for US president and the subset of TikTok that likes to talk about literature was already starting to fracture. People had started unfollowing fellow BookTokkers whose views didn't align with their own - mostly people who'd expressed support for Trump-and a lively debate was growing about whether or not the space was a political one. In her post, @lizabookrecs professed, "We don't need politics ruining a good thing we have going."
By the following Monday, it seemed as though this crumbling of BookTok had already come to pass.
Legal letter follows complaints aimed at CBS News, the Washington Post, and the Daily Beast.
The letter, addressed to lawyers at the New York Times and Penguin Random House, arrived a week before the election. Attached was a discursive ten-page legal threat from an attorney for Donald Trump that demanded $10 billion in damages over "false and defamatory statements" contained in articles by Peter Baker, Michael S. Schmidt, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner.
It singles out two stories coauthored by Buettner and Craig that related to their book on Trump and his financial dealings, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success, released on September 17. It also highlighted an October 20 story headlined "For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment" by Baker and an October 22 piece by Schmidt, "As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator."
The factories may have closed, but Sheffield's crime writers are still going strong.
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, Northern England. Once the powerhouse of the British Empire's steel manufacturing - hardly a house or hotel in the British Empire didn't have knives and forks stamped with the "Sheffield Steel" logo. It still exists, but late twentieth century deindustrialisation has seen the city fall on harder times and have to look for new industries. Perhaps the worst of the loss of manufacturing (coal and manufacturing as well as steel) is behind Sheffield now but it's still a tough town, as its crime writing reflects....
Booker Prize-winning author Samantha Harvey has revealed how she nearly "lost her nerve" when writing her novel Orbital, over fears no-one would want a read a book by "a woman who had never been to space".
The space-set novel won the £50,000 award on Tuesday evening (12th November), 15 years after the author was first longlisted. She is the first woman to win in five years and the 136-page book is the second shortest book to take the prize in 45 years. The win has been widely celebrated by the trade, shifting the biggest number of any of the shortlist with 29,000 copies sold this year. The publisher has pledged a reprint of 100,000.
Harvey described the win as "very unusual, exhilarating and very shocking". She told The Bookseller: "I was totally shocked by result, overwhelming-but am delighted... I haven't slept very much, I got to bed at 2am and was too tired, and then had to get up at 7am anyway."
While the Kent-born author believes she would be a "hopeless astronaut-I would be travel sick, terribly anxious, I'd probably have a panic attack," she enjoyed poring over books by astronauts, and describes how "you could spend your whole life on the NASA website".
MWA Grand Master Peter Lovesey launched his crime writing career with 1970's Wobble to Death, the first of eight novels featuring Victorian-era Metropolitan Police sergeant Daniel Cribb. In 1991, he introduced curmudgeonly contemporary cop Peter Diamond with The Last Detective, and brings the series to a close with Against the Grain (Soho Crime, Dec.). Lovesey, whose numerous accolades include a lifetime achievement award from the U.K. Crime Writers' AssociationA networking society for some 400 British crime writers (widely defined) and links to their sites. Membership for published writers only, but award a Debut Dagger for the best unpublished crime novel. Some articles from their magazine Red Herrings are posted on the site and there are links to many individual crime writers' websites., spoke with PW about how both Peters have evolved over the course of 22 whodunits.
What was your original concept for Peter Diamond?
To begin with, he was meant to be a rather sort of outmoded copper getting towards the end of his career, a bit of a dinosaur on the force. I wanted him to be this "last detective,"
because I felt that probably there would not be many who would act as he did, using his old-fashioned methods, in the future. Police work these days involves teamwork. But he was a bit of a loner, and wanted to carry on as a loner. And it was only with reluctance that he turned to his team, and he was rough, and brusque with them.
Fiona Lucas reports on the testimonies of coma travellers
I like writing stories about difficult emotional issues, things that are sometimes gritty and very much grounded in real life. But I also love to let my imagination take flights of fancy, so if I get a chance to combine these two things when I'm writing, I'm never happier.
When I had the first spark of an idea for my latest book, Always and Only You, I had to find a way for my main character to experience a different version of her life without it actually being her life. While she was in the midst of it, it had to feel utterly real and compelling, so just saying, 'It was all a dream!' wasn't going to cut it. Or so I thought...
But then I stumbled upon a social media post that reminded me of something my friend Mary had told me. In 2012, she suffered a massive stroke, and was rushed to hospital. When her husband, Aaron, was told her chances were 50-50, he went to the hospital chapel and pleaded with God to spare his wife of 20 years.
Ten years ago, Jeff VanderMeer penned the unsettling, swampy, bureaucratic hellscape of Area X: a contaminated region off of the Floridan coast that became the setting for his immensely popular Southern Reach trilogy, comprised off Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance. The books were devoured by fans across the world and appear especially urgent now as we slide further into our own real-world dystopia of warm waters and toxic air.
That VanderMeer has now published a fourth book in the series, Absolution - a follow-up that's just as unnerving, obsessively researched, and rich in detail-serves as a strong testament to the novels' enduring resonance. "The line is so permeable that the place where you begin to go off into imagination and the place where the real world is unimaginable seems wonderfully amorphous," remarked fellow fantasy writer Victor LaValle when the two got on a call hours before Hurricane Milton was set to make landfall last month. In conversation, the two got to talking about their horror-fiction roots, VandeMeer's beloved social media photo diary, and whether he'd ever consider making another return to Area X in the future.
At the turn of the century a company called Napster launched a service that allowed music lovers to share downloaded tunes via a peer-to-peer online network. The company was sued by copyright owners, and ultimately filed for bankruptcy just three years after its founding. Although Napster's business was ultimately shut down, its influence over how music is listened to was profound. Its heirs, iTunes and Spotify, benefited from a habit change that Napster first signalled.
From our point of view, the lessons from Napster were gleaned more than a decade ago. When publishers were threatened with online piracy, their adoption of e-reader technology, led by Amazon, Microsoft and Sony, helped establish a legitimate trading environment for published content distributed digitally. When Amazon accelerated the format shift with its low pricing, they moved to restrict the retailer's ability to undercut print prices. Their approach to audio has so far been similar, adopting a form of subscription that listeners are drawn to, but on a restricted basis.
The advent of artificial intelligence brings a fresh challenge, however. As far as this change goes, we are back in the Napster phase. We can see the contours, but can't quite yet see where it leads. Last month a number of authors - and others - launched an open letter opposing the use of their material unfettered in the development of AI that might undermine their value. "The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted," it read, following a similar pattern to past open letters, which I hope leads to some redress.
HarperCollins has confirmed that they have struck a licensing agreement with an undisclosed AI company will "allow limited use of select nonfiction backlist titles for training AI models to improve model quality and performance," per a company statement shared with PW.
Authors who opt into the program will receive $2,500, per an email shared on Bluesky by author Daniel Kibblesmith, sent by the agent who represented his 2017 picture book title Santa's Husband, illustrated by A.P. Quach, requesting his permission to allow the book to train the model. The email added that "HarperCollins has been required to keep this company's identity confidential" as part of the agreement.
A massive, multi-story building in the Washington, DC, neighborhood of Georgetown welcomed back a former occupant this month that had been gone for over a decade.
In a move that's perhaps more symbolic than business-minded, Barnes & Noble, America's largest retail bookseller, has reclaimed the flagship store it vacated in 2013.
It's just one of over 60 new locations opening this year as part of an ambitious expansion plan that seemed impossible before CEO James Daunt took over in 2018.
Daunt referred to the return to the Georgetown branch as a "dramatic example of the ongoing revival of brick-and-mortar bookstores."
Before Daunt's arrival, Barnes & Noble appeared to be on the same path as most struggling US retailers. Sales had plunged - leading to hundreds of store closings - as consumers continued buying from online retailers like Amazon.
But Barnes & Noble would revamp its business model. It began prioritizing customer preferences over promotions and catered to a community of readers who engage on social media.
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