How Have Literature Changed Over Time

The last two decades have seen a revolution in how Britain consumes printed media. This has been, mostly, good news for consumers. New and old books are now easier to find and access than ever. For consumers who invest in a laptop or e-reader, they can now often be downloaded almost instantly for a flat fee. Retailers have offered periodically lower prices and better deals to compete with each other.

However, the future for British bookselling remains uncertain. Changes have placed pressure on brick and mortar retailers, aspiring authors, and publishing companies. Old restrictions and gatekeepers to publishing have been removed and increasing internal and external pressure has been placed on the demand for literature. Some have therefore

There is no way to gloss over it. Books are currently a buyer's market and hopeful authors are more than abundant. Market demand for any sort of book is notoriously hard to predict, which means that publishers tend to be conservative with creative risks and attach themselves quickly to proven fads that may not even involve literature, such as adult colouring books. Market oversaturation can also be a problem, particularly in popular areas such as fantasy.

Advances for manuscripts are therefore handed out cautiously. Bonuses are almost never paid to authors by publishing houses alongside royalties, which can often only be to the value of one print run. Typical printed media royalties are c.8-12% of the cover price, although this can be negotiated. You will receive nothing for used or resold books.

Large sums of money can nevertheless be earnt, but through an unpredictable and often arduous process. Writing should be considered a high risk, astronomically high reward profession. A certain fantasy series about a boy wizard was rejected 12 times before acceptance in 1997 and is now worth more than a billion dollars,

Partly due to the shrewd business practices listed above, British publishers are still going strong. The big players in book publishing are practically British institutions, with some having been established for close to a century. Corporate publishers often benefit from deals that give them up to 35% of the cover price for each book sold. However, they have also had to deal with major market challenges of late.

The advent of e-readers and ebooks and the growth of online mega-retailers such as Amazon have fundamentally altered the bookselling landscape. Authors can bypass traditional publishing houses altogether for better deals and publicity is seemingly built increasingly on word of mouth.

Much as with digital media, piracy can also eat into the profits of some popular books. The relative decline of the local British library and high street retail have arguably shrunk once lucrative direct markets.

Subsequently, British book publishing is somewhat squeezed and no longer enjoying its mid-century golden age. Outside of specialist technical literature, it is difficult to enter into this market without a large initial outlay and the acceptance of a high possibility of failure. Digital publishing may represent a future possibility for the savvy