Writing Bestsellers
Love, Money, and Creative Practice

A new perspective of art and the market, that sees them as productive together, with evidence from bestselling writers.

Kim Wilkins (Author), Lisa Bennett (Author)

9781108725637, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 October 2021

75 pages
17.8 x 12.7 x 0.6 cm, 0.99 kg

While the term 'bestseller' explicitly relates books to sales, commercially successful books are also products of individual creative work. This Element presents a new perspective on the relationship between art and the market, with particular reference to bestselling writers and books. We examine some existing perspectives on art's relationship to the marketplace to trouble persistent binaries that see the two in opposition; we break down the monolith of the marketplace by thinking of it as made up of a range of invested, non-hostile participants such as publishing personnel and readers; we articulate the material dimensions of creative writing in the industry through the words of bestselling writers themselves; and we examine how the existence of bestselling books and writers in the world of letters bears enormous influence on the industry, and on the practice of other writers.

Introduction
1. The 'Bestselling Writer' Paradox
2. Behind the Magician's Curtain
3. Bestselling Writers and their Influence on Industry
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Publishing industry & book trade [KNTP], Fiction & related items [F], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literary theory [DSA], Literature & literary studies [D]