In the two years since the covid-19 pandemic, Britons have been trapped by social distancing policies, unable to watch movies, travel, visit museums for a long time, spend most of their time at home in reading, and readers hope to escape from daily work and trivial life, relax their minds, shift their attention to interesting and engaging stories, fully enjoy leisure time, and have a good vision of their future life.
It is common practice in the British publishing industry that authors send new works to their favorite literary agents, who recommend manuscripts to the publisher's editors, and provide a publication proposal, from which the editors select new books worth publishing. According to the market demand, the value of the author and the work and the commercial potential, the agent will recommend the most valuable book manuscript and the best-selling potential in the market to the publisher's editor.
The British literary agency recently gave an interview to Bookseller magazine, revealing the content of the new book it was looking for. This shows what the UK readers most want to see in the new book of 2022. As can be seen from the statements of many agents, this year's readers are looking forward to books that will bring happiness, works that can help them break away from real life and immerse themselves in them, and will also look for inspiring, relaxed and happy, real and interesting works.
Fiction focuses on reasoning, thriller and love
Fictional works such as speculative fiction and thriller novels have always been the main category of attention of literary agents. According to Nielsen BookScan, sales of fictional books in 2021 (42 weeks after 2021, that is, mid-March to the end of the year) increased by 21% compared with the same period in 2019 before the epidemic, and the market share has reached 23.8%. Nearly 1/4 of the share allows publishers to focus primarily on this segment.
Speculative fiction is an important branch of fiction. Beginning in 2020, British tv host Richard Osman created a market hit with his debut film, The Thursday Murder Club, driving cosy crime, a branch of speculative fiction that, unlike the dark and violent black mystery novels that weakened the sexual and violent elements and provided a warm atmosphere, and Haussmann's subsequent "The Man Who Died Twice" returned to the public eye Man Who Died Twice) and Janice Hallett's The Appeal continue to have a bigger impact and become a hot book in the market.
The escapist realism brought about by the epidemic quarantine has spawned a re-sale of Shuyi speculative fiction and become more active in the digital market. The company of Viper Books, which publishes the Ottoman series and Appeals, also published Catriona Ward's The Last House on Needless Street. Therese Keating, the company's senior editor, said the popularity of Shuyipai's works is not only because readers are willing to read crime novels, but also because readers and publishers of such novels have a broader horizon and are looking for good stories and unique plots. She believes that Shuyi speculative fiction will continue to be a hot seller. Now there is a greater divergence in the genre of speculative fiction, including cheerful and relaxed speculative fiction and black speculative fiction. She also noticed that speculative fiction was shifting in the direction of high-IQ secret room mystery fiction.
Uthman's agent Juliet Mushens agrees that black thrillers still sell well: "Rather than going from darkness to comfort, readers want to escape from the pandemic and the uncontrollable reality and immerse themselves in interesting, exhilarating fictional narrative situations." ”
Selina Walker, publisher of Century, points out that the Chamber of Secrets mystery novels appeared before Ottoman, but Ottoman drew readers' attention to the genre. This kind of secret room crime solving works will continue to sell well, and its wonderful thing is that it brilliantly restores the criminal process of the criminal. More new writers will enter this creative field. Editors of publishing houses are also willing to find authors to create in this field.
Just as prominent as Shuyi's speculative fiction are high-IQ, post-apocalyptic thrillers. In recent years, driven by film and television works, the popularity of thriller novels has been heating up. According to Jonny Geller, curtis Brow's agent, "Writers who want to write softer, futuristic thrillers rather than hard science fiction will have more post-apocalyptic stories and more challenging ways of writing on the market." ”
Police procedurals are an important force in the mystery and thriller novels section. According to Nielsen statistics, in 2021, 140 of the TOP200 list are police novels. With the help of TV series, sales of cop novels have continued to grow. As soon as the BBC announced the broadcast of a new season of the TV series "Happy Valley", it also immediately aroused the strong interest of the audience, who wanted to participate in the fast-paced solving of the case.
Tim Bates of PFD says readers still want to read comfortable reasoning and traditional mystery novels, but publishers also need to innovate to develop other trusted genres for them.
In 2021, sales of mystery novels of all genres have grown. Readers through the case of the novel to analyze the case, immersed in it, temporarily withdrawn from reality, good speculative fiction touches the dark side of society, help readers understand the world. The pandemic has re-energized old books, and such novels are ideal for sale on Wattstone display tables and supermarket shelves, replacing the excessive space for thriller novels. According to Nielsen Book Monitor, from mid-March to the end of October 2021, mystery and thriller novels increased sales by 18% and revenue increased by 16% compared with the same period in 2019. The main increase came from two works by Ottoman, generating £3.36 million in revenue.
Johnson & Alcock's Anna Power also notes that nature literature and travel literature, which are common in nonfiction, will infiltrate fiction, which can help readers detach themselves from reality and feel different landscapes.
Works that focus on women's topics, romance novels with dark elements are also targets for British publishers. On BookTok's recommendation, the romance novel market has upgraded to the popularity it reached 10 years ago when "Fifty Shades" went public. According to Nielsen Books Monitor, in the 42 weeks after 2021, love and legend book (R&S) revenue rose by 41.6% to £29.1 million. In 2021, when there are no super bestsellers, the market performance is surprising.
The publisher said that readers want to see a happy ending to the love story. Good stories, perfect endings, and works with a certain depth can serve as a mirror of modern society, allowing readers to escape from reality. Readers want the work to have a new perspective and a protagonist that is relevant to the reader. Many romance novels published a few years ago have also become blockbusters under the recommendation of Tik Tok bloggers.
In addition, driven by Netflix web dramas, dystopian works are still hot. Jonny Geller, CEO of Curtis Brown, said that amazing thriller novels and speculative novels can allow readers to open their horizons and ideas, bring new challenges in reading, and through reading, they will also lead readers out of their own small world, pay attention to the past, present and future of the world, and bring readers a sense of relevance, imagination and new hope in 2022.
Nonfiction is passionate about environmental, historical, and natural subjects
In the non-fiction book sector, history and politics books dominate the market, and climate crises and environments are becoming the focus of attention. Harry Illingworth, director of copyright at DHH Literary Agency, said more authors are paying more attention to environmentally-related topics and creating works related to them.
Bev James, founder and CEO of Bev James Management, said that in 2022 he focuses on works that explore the climate crisis from a practical perspective, such as how to make efforts to improve climate change in daily life, and small actions can have a big impact. Such books are more likely to be liked by readers. Many publishers classify such books as lifestyle, taking care of environmental issues from a more nuanced perspective such as skin and beauty.
Carrie Plitt of Felicity Bryan's agency said that family narrative and travel nonfiction books will continue to attract attention and spawn new genres. This year, she wants to find narrative history books that help re-evaluate the world's groundbreaking political works, as well as interesting works that are latest advances in science and philosophy related to life. I would love to see more beautifully written memoirs, especially works with historical backgrounds and clear themes. Powell says she's looking for nonfiction books that bring new feelings to readers from different perspectives, including popular science, psychology, cultural criticism, and history.
Celebrity biographies have always been on the list. The Blair Partnership's Rory Scarfe said he hopes to find more touching memoirs from entertainment stars. In addition, science stories will continue to be popular in the wake of the pandemic. Stories of progress and authenticity in the face of adversity will continue to perform well in the market, the World Cup will bring publishing opportunities to England's famous stars and coaches, and works on thinking, leadership and culture will also be loved.
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Source: China Publishing Media Business Daily
Reviewer: Pan Qiwen
Editor: Min Sun