Buy a book for Christmas!
Three more shopping days until Christmas so not too late to buy books for your loved ones. I've read two articles in the paper over the last couple of days, both of which are upsetting for all of us who love books and reading. We all know that public libraries are being slowly strangled to death. The latest statistics from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy confirm that loans of books have dropped by a quarter over the last five years and that spending by local councils on libraries has fallen by £66m in the past year alone. It's children and young people who are impacted most - we are snatching one of the most important pleasures and life skills out of the hands of young people as austerity hit councils cut and cut again on local services. Libraries are also the only place these days where you can get free access to the internet and for folks on benefits who don't have their own smart phones, their library can literally be a lifeline. It's not so long ago since I joined neighbours here in Hanwell to campaign to keep our local Carnegie Library open and I bet we'll have to re-group before long.
The second upsetting article I read was about the decline in fiction book sales and in advances, such that few authors can support themselves through writing alone. A report commissioned by the Arts Council and carried out by the digital book publisher Canelo, found that the fall in both hardback and paperback fiction sales over the past several years has not been made up by ebook sales - while the average price of a novel has fallen in real terms over the past 15 years. Researchers are predicting that only the best-off writers will in future, be able to support themselves, Hence the Arts Council intervening with plans to offer grants to authors of literary fiction and independent publishers, to ensure continued diversity, especially outside of London.
So if you can't support your local library for whatever reason, I urge you to buy a book for Christmas - and make it a novel!
The second upsetting article I read was about the decline in fiction book sales and in advances, such that few authors can support themselves through writing alone. A report commissioned by the Arts Council and carried out by the digital book publisher Canelo, found that the fall in both hardback and paperback fiction sales over the past several years has not been made up by ebook sales - while the average price of a novel has fallen in real terms over the past 15 years. Researchers are predicting that only the best-off writers will in future, be able to support themselves, Hence the Arts Council intervening with plans to offer grants to authors of literary fiction and independent publishers, to ensure continued diversity, especially outside of London.
So if you can't support your local library for whatever reason, I urge you to buy a book for Christmas - and make it a novel!