Statistics from UK book sales monitor Nielsen BookScan show that sales grew by just over 12% last year, for the second year in a row. In total, 1.3m volumes of poetry were sold in 2018, adding up to £12.3m in sales, a rise of £1.3m on 2017. Two-thirds of buyers were younger than 34 and 41% were aged 13 to 22, with teenage girls and young women identified as the biggest consumers last year. – The Guardian
Category: words
Rewrite The Bible? Well, Yes, Actually
Robert Alter’s method of peeling down to the strangeness of the original in order to reveal another kind of beauty can be bracing, like seeing a familiar painting with its accumulations of smoke and varnish gone. — The New Yorker
How Amazon Creates Instant Best-Sellers
To promote these works, it has tools other publishers can only dream about owning, including Amazon First Reads and Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s e-book subscription service. Together, they reach an estimated 10 million or more customers who can read offered titles with a few keystrokes. “They aren’t gaming the system,” literary agent Rick Pascocello said. “They own the system.” – The Wall Street Journal
Report: UK Publishing Industry Workforce Fails To Reflect The Population
The industry has failed to represent the working population of the capital, and continues to fail to connect with regions outside London. “The report shows we have a passionate industry full of people who are having to move away from their homes across the country in order to work in books – but we’ve also neglected to include the local population.” – The Guardian (UK)
Why Would Writers Sign Morality Clauses For Twitter?
“Off the top of my head, too-hot-to-handle topics now include anything to do with gender, sex, race, immigration, disability, social class, obesity and Islam (surely that list is too short). Writers who sign contracts with morality clauses would naturally shy from expressing views that depart from the dominant political orthodoxy, lest whole manuscripts be rejected and their advances be withdrawn.” – The Spectator
Why Is The Font From The Covers Of Old Pulp Novels Suddenly Popular Again?
“In its first era of popularity, [Lydian] was all pop and pulp, but now it seems reserved for the task of adding just the slightest bit of a smirk to extremely straight-faced endeavors: elegant magazines, important books, experimental theater, and $80 ceramic pipes.” — Vox
What Emojis Are Teaching Really Young Kids About Language
Kids still get picture books read to them. But now that we all communicate in writing so much more often, kids also read text messages. For a kid to get a text message written directly for them, and read directly to them, which they can reply to in some fashion, it teaches them something powerful about the written word—that it can be used to connect with people you care about. – Wired
Nasty, Brutish, And Short: Early Children’s Stories Were Shockingly Violent
“The history of children’s literature is a shocking affair, offering death, murder, abuse, death, racism, death, and damnation. … For most of history, authors have used their words to render children speechless. Some of the books scarred generations; some merely gave their readers insomnia that would last until puberty.” — Literary Hub
Women Writers: Busting The Preconceptions For Commercial Success
Ann O’Loughlin: “All women writers face an uphill struggle to have their work recognised in the same way as their male counterparts, but for those of us writing bestselling commercial fiction, there is a mountain to trudge up every time.” – Irish Times
Is Amazon Killing Incomes Of Writers? No, Protests Amazon
Amazon is frequently blamed for not just disrupting the way people buy books, but for making it difficult for writers to make a living. Now the company is fighting back, taking aim at an Author’s Guild report last week that detailed a catastrophic drop in author incomes. – The Guardian