This topical, lively and wide-ranging book examines the material conditions under which the contemporary English novel is produced and consumed. Its starting point is the general economic emergency which showed up these conditions with unusual clarity in the early 1970s. The first section of the book, 'Crisis and Change', considers the changing patterns of institutional book-purchase, inflation and novel-production, the 'Americanisation' of the British book trade, and the present state of fiction reviewing. The second section, 'State Remedies', surveys such interventions, and failed interventions, as Public Lending Right, Arts Council patronage, and university support for creative writers. The third section, 'Trends, Mainly American', selects specific areas (paperback publishing, self-publishing, book-clubs, television work) which offer pointers to significant future developments in British literary culture. Fiction and the Fiction Industry pays close attention to actual novels, combining literary criticism with its examination of the book trade.
- ISBN10 1472513150
- ISBN13 9781472513151
- Publish Date 7 November 2013 (first published 1 December 2000)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 262
- Language English