Links of the week July 8 2024 (28)

Howe, an academic and a T S Eliot Prize-winning poet herself, will publish Danez Smith, Romalyn Ante, Ruth Padel and Leo Boix and welcome new voices to the list such as Mona Arshi and Karen Downs-Barton's debut.

Chatto & Windus will publish up to five collections a year, with at least one of these reserved for a new or debut poet.

Instead of browsing her parents' bookshelf or wandering down bookstore aisles, Arielle's introduction to romance was a little more contemporary - a book recommendation on YouTube.

"I had never read a romance book before," she said.

"Up until two years ago, I was not a reader at all."

It's hard to picture now, given Arielle's floor-to-ceiling bookshelf ... exclusively stocked with romance novels.

 

In an industry that sees five hundred thousand to a million new titles published each year in the United States alone, there are very few ways to make a book stand out. In recent years, programmatic celebrity book clubs-mainly Oprah's Book Club (Oprah Winfrey), Reese's Book Club (Reese Witherspoon via her media empire, Hello Sunshine), and Read With Jenna (Jenna Bush Hager via the Today show)-have exercised significant influence over which books garner buzz both among readers and within publishing companies, elevating sleepy debut novels to best-seller status and making big books even bigger.

First, a disclaimer to any self-important readers expecting a fiery takedown of the celebrity-book-club format: As someone who wants to see more books in the hands of readers, I am wholeheartedly in support of famous people using their immense clout and privilege to promote books instead of the many other products they could be paid handsomely to endorse. An article built on cynicism for something so overwhelmingly positive would be disingenuous click-bait, and you will not find that here.

 

Frank Cottrell-Boyce doesn't believe in pessimism. Even being announced as the UK's brand-new children's laureate in the week when all eyes are focused on Westminster and the polling booths makes him hopeful that people will turn to a cheerier story in search of relief, meaning he can leap into the classic "and finally" spot on news bulletins. "I'm happy to be that skateboarding duck," he grins as he chats over Zoom from his home on Merseyside.

But to be chipper is not merely a function of his temperament, as his speech at the acceptance of the title made clear. Quoting William Beveridge, whose groundbreaking report laid the foundations for the modern welfare state, Cottrell-Boyce insisted that "scratch a pessimist and you'll find a defender of privilege"; and it's his intention, during his two-year tenure, to demonstrate that making children's lives better by increasing their access to books, reading and what he calls "the apparatus of happiness" is critical to the prospects of the generations to come - and that the cost of ignoring that is unthinkable.

 

Last month, the annual "What Kids Are Reading Report" - which has tracked the reading habits of children over the past 16 years - showed a 4.4% drop in the number of books being read by young people, and showed that this is particularly a problem among secondary school pupils. This year and the first year of the pandemic were the only times that the results have shown a decline since 2008.

The PA's c.e.o Dan Conway said the body is "ready to work with the new government" to address the barriers that prevent children from reading books for enjoyment, which the research suggests remains a priority for parents and caregivers across the country.

The researchers from the consultancy Savanta interviewed 2,867 adults across the UK from 29th June to 1st July 2024, asking them how they feel about children's access to books and the significance of this issue. According to the PA, 92% thought that it is important for children to have access to books to read for fun, while 68% said this is "very important" to them.

 

There is no one to whom a blue dress has meant more to his career than author Walter Mosley, with the possible exception of his biggest fan, President Bill Clinton.

Mosley's Devil in a Blue Dress had been critically acclaimed prior to Clinton telling the world Mosley was one of his favorite writers. But after Clinton's endorsement, Mosley's books traveled from bookstore mystery shelves in the back of the store, to storefront windows and entryway co-op tables in less time than it takes to complete a book signing.

Not since President John Kennedy sang the praises of Ian Fleming, the father of James Bond, has an author's work been jumpstarted so successfully. And Mosley started at a younger age and had a much longer writing career to build on that slightly delayed initial success.

 

"Going down the steps with a gun in his hands"

Our family's criminal history used to be a secret. Before Google, it was easy to hide your past.

When my grandmother Effie Satterwhite was 17, she had a boyfriend named Jim. According to her brother's court testimony, he once caught them "conducting themselves in what he thought a very unbecoming manner on the front porch." He ordered Effie inside, and told Jim never to come back. But Jim declared he wished to marry her.

A few months later, when the young couple returned from a date, Jim tried to kiss her, but Effie pushed him away. When the town clock rang eleven, Jim said he had to go. This time she did let him kiss her.

Once inside, Effie saw her father run down the porch stairs with a shotgun, then heard a shot. She tried to run to Jim, but her father shouted at her, telling her she had gotten him into trouble with her hugging and kissing.

 

If you've ever used digital advertising to market a book, you've used AI. All the major digital platforms use AI and machine learning to optimize ads. Simply put, the platforms automatically serve the best-performing ads to the demographics that are clicking on them the most.

But the advent of generative AI-like Midjourney-and the ability to create images ‘out of thin air' and copy from a prompt herald a new era of opportunity in Advertising and Publishing.

Books have a fundamental problem when it comes to marketing. They are packed full of ideas, lessons, imaginings, creativity, wonder, and all manner of richness that feeds the soul and nourishes the mind of a reader. But all of this is often left underused in marketing because most books have only one visual marketing asset: their cover.

 

I have spent a week in a multilingual country with 60 million inhabitants, many races, terrific political instability, and a huge gap between rich and poor.

This could have been describing my home, the United Kingdom, but it was South Africa. I was invited to travel there by Jonathan Ball Publishers, the largest sales, marketing, and distribution partner of a distinguished roster of international publishers: HarperCollins, Bloomsbury, Simon & Schuster, Faber, Thames & Hudson, Hachette, and many others, large and small.

I was principally there for Ball Publishers' sales conference held in Walkersons Private Estate near Dullstroom on the very high veld. The estate is brilliantly run by Alex Band and Fiona Scott-Berning.

Anyway, to business. Last year saw retail book sales of 7.6 million units generating 1.8 billion ZAR or South African Rand (US$98.1 million, £76,9 million) with an average unit selling price of ZAR234 (US$12.75, £9.99).