The average sales of a work of literary fiction in its year of publication is under 500 copies. This is due to many factors, none of which will be its quality.
The success of literary fiction is down to luck. And when I say 'success', I mean any number between 1,000 and 200,000 copies sold. Apparently 200,000 is the slightly permeable transparent ceiling for works of literary fiction. Think Hilary Mantel.
When I say 'luck', I mean: a Waterstones fiction buyer happens to like the cover; the judges of a prize happen to be disposed to what the writer is doing; enough independent booksellers happen to read the same novel among all the novels they receive, love it, and handsell it to customers.
One of the above is not enough. You need all three.
The car crash economics of publishing [Weatherglass Books, 18 July 2023]
Use the link below to visit the Substack blog of independent UK publisher Weatherglass Books:
https://weatherglass.substack.com/
You might also enjoy:
The Write Advice 048: HILARY MANTEL
The Write Advice 052: SARAH WATERS
The Write Advice 153: AVNI DOSHI
No comments:
Post a Comment