Comments on: Ebook Sales Are Being Driven By Downmarket Genre Fiction

By: Philippe Parker

Philippe Parker — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:26:27 +0000

That Bram Stoker was a rubbish writer of genre fiction. He couldn’t even write a novel but just put together some pretend letters. Contemporary classics like We Need To Talk About Kevin wouldn’t employ such pathetic techniques. I only use my eReader for dross and sarcasm.

By: Ed Renehan

Ed Renehan — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:21:04 +0000

“Dross” – as you call it – has generally risen in traditional “old market” publishing as well. Mass market fiction has always outsold trade fiction on a unit-basis. When it comes to sales, Dean Koontz and Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark and a score of Romance writers easily outperform just about any writer of “literary” fiction you might name. If left with only the elites to support them, most publishers would have succumbed long ago. From my perspective, the relative popularity of adjacent streams of literature is not changing at all – only the containers in which they are delivered.

By: Dan Thornton

Dan Thornton — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:01:17 +0000

What a load of old rubbish.
Firstly, the idea that ‘genre’ fiction can’t deliver classics
Secondly, it’s not only pricing that plays a part in genre fiction’s relative success, although it’s a big part. What about the point that genre authors have embraced marketing themselves far more than writers of supposed classics.

Or the big secret – high brow works aren’t necessarily big sellers in any artistic form…