Thursday News: The book market, 2015 book news, stalking, and authors dressed as their favorite heroines
Self-Publishing & Big Five Dominate Book Market, According to Nielsen – There are a number of interesting observations that Joe Wikert makes in this article (consumers tend to want digital and print books, not one or other other; price correlates with interest in digital books over print), but the claim in the article’s title struck me as troubling. I know it’s great for self-publishing to be vying with the Big Five for market dominance, but look at who’s being shut out – independent publishers that are not self-published authors. So again, we’re looking at less, not more, competition:
Self-publishing and the Big Five are crowding out everyone else – According to Nielsen’s data, from Q1 2014 to Q1 2015, self-published books have grown from 14% to 18% of the overall market. In that same period the Big Five’s share has grown from 28% to 37%. Meanwhile, the rest of the market — all the large, medium, and tiny publishers — have seen their share decrease from 58% to 45%. – Book Business Magazine
Book news 2015: Nostalgia, blockbusters and controversy – This timeline needs to be turned into a quiz. How many of these things do you remember, and doesn’t it seem like some of them happened years ago, already??
Perhaps 2015 will be remembered — at least in the book world — as a year of nostalgia. The publication of Harper Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman” sent readers back to their junior high editions of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” leaving many to yearn for the earlier, more upstanding Atticus Finch. Others reached for their crayon boxes and pencil cases to take up an activity once relegated to preschool: Adult coloring books filled bestseller lists and book store shelves, luring budding artists with the promise of calm. (Ironically, one of the best-selling children’s books of the year is “The Day the Crayons Quit,” by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers.) There were blockbusters from EL James, a new mystery from J.K. Rowling (writing under a pseudonym) and a cascade of memoirs from candidates, female rockers and a Japanese neatnik who convinced us that we’d all be happier if we tidied up. – Washington Post
Stalker jailed after targeting self-help author Kristine Carlson for seven years – This is super creepy. After a psychic told Mark Jury that he would meet his future mother-in-law on a plane, sitting next to author Kristine Carlson on a flight apparently convinced him that she and her teenaged daughter were his future family. After rejecting Jury’s attempts to become close to her (flowers, chocolate, etc.), Carlson, who has written (with her late husband, Richard) those “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” books, endured years of harassment, and it was only after the FBI sent a file to UK police that Jury was apprehended:
Jury mocked Mrs Carlson’s attempts to block him online by setting up fake profiles on Twitter and Facebook.
Mr Jones said Jury told her: “They must have developed Twitter for stalkers.”
The court heard that in 2010 when Kenna Carlson turned 18, Jury began to target her “in the belief they were destined to be together”.
In 2011 he signed legal forms brought by Mrs Carlson’s lawyers agreeing to stop contacting the family – but he started again after just eight days. – The Telegraph
5 Rising Authors Play Their Favorite Characters – These photos are so very awesome.
Celebrating heroines real and imagined, we asked five novelists to share their favorite characters from literature and then dress the part. Playing make believe off the page in the season’s latest clothes, many of these rising authors chose to honor writers who have influenced their work, from Toni Morrison to Patricia Highsmith. “In my mind she was like a literary foremother,” Naomi Jackson said of her character’s author, Jamaica Kincaid. – The Cut/New York Magazine
Ahhhhh that stalking article. AHHHHHH. SEVEN YEARS of stalking and terrorizing her and her daughter, that’s how long it takes for it to be taken seriously?!