Operations Director Jane Rowland gives her annual summary of what could be big in publishing in 2021!
Most years, I take a look at the trends and genres that are likely to be ‘big’ in publishing over the next 12 months. Predicting anything 12 months ahead at the moment feels like a fool’s errand, so instead let me look at the changes as well as predictions.
I’ve spent so much time in front of a screen, working, socialising, studying, partying and doing my (now online) yoga, that I had an epiphany in December. Having always loved my Kindle for the sheer ease (any book, any time) which helps keeps my abibliophobia (the fear of running out of reading material) at bay, I suddenly realised that I could not look at a screen anymore in my leisure time. I shut down the Kindle and went back to the bookshelves. And I am loving it… rediscovering old favourites, and new classics. Christmas helped, a big stack of beautiful books just waiting to be discovered. Ebooks sales were big in 2020 and will continue to be so in 2021, in my heart I suspect that it will be the beautifully printed book that will soothe readers when it’s time to turn away from a screen.
In terms of genre… the ongoing situation has impacted nearly every aspect of our lives and it makes sense that our reading habits will change. Escapism, philosophy and self-help are areas where I anticipate big growth. In my case, in the absence of being able to travel (another of my passions), I have turned back to classic travel fiction… Bruce Chatwin, Jan Morris – and rediscovered an appetite for more. I want to be taken far away by a book (and as I type and it’s sleeting outside, preferably to the humidity of South East Asia!)
For the past two years, I have mentioned diversity in my prediction round-up. Reviewing the mainstream publishing output at the end of 2020 it felt to me like there was a tangible change in this for the first time, with books covering a more diverse range than a year before – offering wider opportunities for all readers to immerse themselves in new voices and stories. Interestingly, self-publishing has always been a platform for diverse stories and readers – and I don’t see that changing.
The disruption to school and education, and its long term impact on reading, will be interesting, especially for those children who have no access to reading material at home, for example. Figures from the National Literacy Trust have reported a widening of the reading engagement gap between girls and boys during lockdown – with boys engaging less (the gap widening from 2.3 percentage points at the beginning of 2020 to 11.5 percentage points during lockdown). Future figures about how screens continue to replace books, especially after such a disrupted year, will be interesting once they are available. Talking of screens, TV and streaming services boomed, and many, such as Netflix, are turning to books for their next big hits.
Disruption always brings change. The book trade itself has had to change how it works – remote working, selling to customers when the bookshops are closed, launching new books when there are no ‘in-person’ author events. A disrupter last November was Bookshop.org, who want to take on Amazon’s monopoly of online bookselling. Matador is signed up as an affiliate with them and I am predicting continued growth – especially while Tier 4 persists and indie bookshops are closed. We can also expect ‘Local’ to be a buzzword in 2021. With many of us staying closer to home, we are buying local and supporting local as never before. Will this turn into a bigger movement? Perhaps. But I’d say there has never been a better time to shout about being a local author.