The rise of 'literary' fiction

[LeMarchand]

Many years ago - when the choice of bookseller in most towns was WHS or a dingy independent - apart from the odd exception (like Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose"), 'literary' authors might get great reviews, but their sales were awful. Now even the supermarkets seem to sell reasonable quantities of 'upmarket' authors.

What has caused this shift? Are we becoming a more literate nation? Is it the rise of the 'big' bookstore like Waterstones and Borders? The fall of the net book agreement (that meant stores were able to offer discounts on books - though obviously prices went up, so the customer saw little benefit)? Better marketing/publicity? The rise of the 'style' culture (people buying the books they are 'told' are good)? Something else? A combination of the above?

Has anyone got any ideas/theories or better yet figures? Also, do people actually read the books or do they just buy them because they are the books to buy?

[maxi29]

Has anything really change? A quick glance at last week's top-selling paperbacks reveals a list stuffed with Dan Brown, Martina Cole, Lynda LaPlante and some 'chick-lit' authors. I'd imagine that if you looked at the top 10 list from 10 or 20 years ago, it would be full of thrillers and romantic fiction.
The only book in the top 10 that could be called 'upmarket' fiction is one by Louis de Bernieres. But, as you say, in the 80s books like Name of the Rose and Midnight's Children made it into the top 10.
I commute into work everyday and see what people are reading and, at the moment, it's Harry Potter or Dan Brown , so I can see no sign of people wanting to be seen with a more literary book.

[woofgang]

While I agree that we haven't all become eggheads (including me) I do think that the greater availability of lit. books and the cut in prices does mean that it is less of a "financial risk" to buy a book that you might not like.

...and never mind Waterstones (who are still expensive IMHO) take a look at Amazon and Tesco.net!

[LeMarchand]

If most people are reading HP and the fun-but-rather-rubbish Dan Brown, maybe people are just buying and not reading the books.

Back when I started in bookselling (with WHS), we would dutifully stock the Booker winner (for instance) and sell a handful of copies (if we were lucky). Now even the shortlist sees a significant sales spurt. I just don't think that 10 or 20 years ago you would have seen titles like The Curious Incident...  and The Time Traveller's Wife even Ian McEwan gets decent sales these days!

I no longer have access to sales figures, and you're right about Bookseller Top 10 (full of HP, DB, Sudoku and chicklit), but judging by the quantities of stock in the shops I still suspect that "literary" fiction is doing better these days.

[maxi29]

Since I posted my original response, I've thought a bit more about this. My gut feeling is that more books are being sold these days and while the percentage of more literary books remains quite low, there's actually a greater number being sold. Perhaps LeMerchand could say whether that's true as he's got some experience in the trade.
Common sense tells me that Waterstone must be doing well to keep expanding - and it's not just down to Harry Potter :-) But I just don't see people reading these books: perhaps they're being bought as presents because they're what the giver thinks the recipient should be reading.

[LeMarchand]

I left the trade a couple of years back, but quantities in stores lead me to conclude that things are fairly similar to when I left. I would say that "Lit Fic" was both selling in (significantly) higher volume and (slightly) higher percentage.

I guess that from the comments here that it's being read as little as ever!