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| Literary fiction is in crisis. A new chapter of funding authors must begin | Literary fiction is in crisis. A new chapter of funding authors must begin |
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| Finally it’s official: literary fiction is in crisis, and writers across the land are burning the midnight oil in their garrets, teaching or slogging away in unrelated jobs to keep the fire ablaze in the grate. This Dickensian picture was revealed by Arts Council England today in a report that suggests it may have to shift its funding priorities in order to save a population whose economic and cultural solvency has been chipped away over the years. | Finally it’s official: literary fiction is in crisis, and writers across the land are burning the midnight oil in their garrets, teaching or slogging away in unrelated jobs to keep the fire ablaze in the grate. This Dickensian picture was revealed by Arts Council England today in a report that suggests it may have to shift its funding priorities in order to save a population whose economic and cultural solvency has been chipped away over the years. |
| So why has it come to this, and how much does it really matter? The first thing to be clear about is that people are not necessarily reading less – print sales of books across fiction, nonfiction and children’s titles rose almost 9% in the UK last year, while on Tuesday market analysts Nielsen BookScan will reveal that sales over the all-important Christmas period have risen 20% since 2013. | So why has it come to this, and how much does it really matter? The first thing to be clear about is that people are not necessarily reading less – print sales of books across fiction, nonfiction and children’s titles rose almost 9% in the UK last year, while on Tuesday market analysts Nielsen BookScan will reveal that sales over the all-important Christmas period have risen 20% since 2013. |
| But it’s undoubtedly true that in the age of the smartphone and streaming services, books face unprecedented competition for our attention; and that when we do choose a book over a film or social media feed, we are choosing less adventurously. Last year’s chart-topper was JK Rowling’s (and Jack Thorne’s) play script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Rowling also appeared in 12th, 28th , 64th and 95th place, the latter as her alter ego, crime writer Robert Galbraith – a success due to the combination of branding and familiarity that can keep a bandwagon rolling for years if not decades. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials follow-up, La Belle Sauvage, has sold nearly a quarter of a million copies since October. | But it’s undoubtedly true that in the age of the smartphone and streaming services, books face unprecedented competition for our attention; and that when we do choose a book over a film or social media feed, we are choosing less adventurously. Last year’s chart-topper was JK Rowling’s (and Jack Thorne’s) play script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Rowling also appeared in 12th, 28th , 64th and 95th place, the latter as her alter ego, crime writer Robert Galbraith – a success due to the combination of branding and familiarity that can keep a bandwagon rolling for years if not decades. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials follow-up, La Belle Sauvage, has sold nearly a quarter of a million copies since October. |
| Authors who have become intergenerational as their original young readers have grown up do particularly well from this tendency for familiarity to breed affection. But it is not confined to children’s writers. The final volume of Hilary Mantel’s very literary, very grownup Thomas Cromwell trilogy will be guaranteed mega-sales when it finally hits the stands. | Authors who have become intergenerational as their original young readers have grown up do particularly well from this tendency for familiarity to breed affection. But it is not confined to children’s writers. The final volume of Hilary Mantel’s very literary, very grownup Thomas Cromwell trilogy will be guaranteed mega-sales when it finally hits the stands. |
| This continuity imperative has long been built into the foundations of commercial publishers, who expect many of their most successful writers to cough up a book a year. And as publishing has become more centralised, with much of its power now concentrated in three giant conglomerates, it has become more ruthless. | This continuity imperative has long been built into the foundations of commercial publishers, who expect many of their most successful writers to cough up a book a year. And as publishing has become more centralised, with much of its power now concentrated in three giant conglomerates, it has become more ruthless. |
| The brutal truth is that through the 1980s and 90s it was possible for the literary novelist to make a living on advances that didn’t “earn out”. They were supported by an old-fashioned value system that sanctioned the write-off of losses for the kudos of association with an “important” writer and a belief that literary value could be offset against the profits of more pragmatic publishing. | |
| But it’s easy to become glibly nostalgic. If you look at the literary novels cited by the Arts Council as having sold more than a million in the last couple of decades, another trend becomes apparent: Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife might not owe their original success to the films that were made of them, but they have profited from the lucrative market for tie-in editions. | But it’s easy to become glibly nostalgic. If you look at the literary novels cited by the Arts Council as having sold more than a million in the last couple of decades, another trend becomes apparent: Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife might not owe their original success to the films that were made of them, but they have profited from the lucrative market for tie-in editions. |
| Unlike the performing arts, publishing has always been a largely commercial sector that has had to square its own circles. This is reflected in the fact that it gets only 7% of the funding cake handed out by the Arts Council, compared with 23% to theatre and 11% to dance. | Unlike the performing arts, publishing has always been a largely commercial sector that has had to square its own circles. This is reflected in the fact that it gets only 7% of the funding cake handed out by the Arts Council, compared with 23% to theatre and 11% to dance. |
| Most of that money has gone to support publishers who produce poetry and literature in translation, which have never been able to pay their way. So there will be blood on the carpet if existing resources are shifted to support literary novelists. | Most of that money has gone to support publishers who produce poetry and literature in translation, which have never been able to pay their way. So there will be blood on the carpet if existing resources are shifted to support literary novelists. |
| There will be those who argue that this just shows that literary fiction is a hangover from the past, and the poor dears should knuckle down and resign themselves to writing what people actually want to read. But few would dare to make the same argument about experimental theatre or dance. And it doesn’t allow for the fact that – like both Pullman and Mantel – it may take writers decades to hit the jackpot. | |
| Moreover, research from the New School for Social Research in New York last year suggested that literary fiction has a measurable social value, increasing empathy levels in readers where more popular forms of genre fiction do not. | |
| So, assuming that we are not going to tell writers what to write, and that we do not want literature to become the exclusive preserve of those who don’t need to earn their living, we need to find ways of enabling other kinds of novelists to continue. | So, assuming that we are not going to tell writers what to write, and that we do not want literature to become the exclusive preserve of those who don’t need to earn their living, we need to find ways of enabling other kinds of novelists to continue. |
| This can’t just mean cutting the existing share of the cake into smaller, or different, portions; it has to involve speaking up loudly and forcefully for the size of the share to be increased. Even ignoring their intrinsic value, where would the worlds of film or theatre be without all those literary novels and short stories to adapt? | This can’t just mean cutting the existing share of the cake into smaller, or different, portions; it has to involve speaking up loudly and forcefully for the size of the share to be increased. Even ignoring their intrinsic value, where would the worlds of film or theatre be without all those literary novels and short stories to adapt? |
| • Claire Armitstead is the Guardian’s associate editor, culture | • Claire Armitstead is the Guardian’s associate editor, culture |