Category - Authors

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The Top 20 Best-Selling Novelists Ever
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My Year In Books
3
10 Books About Christmas
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Are These The 12 Best-Selling Books Of All Time?
5
My Year in Novellas
6
8 Authors Who Committed Suicide
7
Record Breaking Old & Young Authors
8
My Top 5 Transgressive Novels
9
7 Famous Drug-Addicted Authors
10
The Evolution of Books

The Top 20 Best-Selling Novelists Ever

After hours of arduous research I have concluded that the following are the top 20 best-selling novelists of all time. Unfortunately I didn’t make the list.

Pile of Books

20. Dan Brown(Born: 1964) – Brown is a thriller fiction author, whose seminal work was the 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code.
Total Books Sold: circa 210 million

19. J. R. R. Tolkien(1892-1973) – High fantasy novelist Tolkien is best remembered for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Total Books Sold: circa 240 million

18. Horatio Alger(1832-1899) – All of 19th Century American author Horatio Alger’s books are about boys from poor backgrounds, who become successful.
Total Books Sold: circa 250 million

17. Louis L’Amour(1908-1988) – L’Amour is the top-selling author of Western novels ever. He wrote 105 books.
Total Books Sold: circa 300 million

16. James Patterson(Born: 1947) – This American thriller and romance author is one of the World’s bestselling living authors.
Total Books Sold: circa 310 million

15. Stephen King(Born: 1947) – Contemporary author Stephen King is a prolific author of horror, science fiction, fantasy and supernatural fiction.
Total Books Sold: circa 350 million

14. Robert Ludlum – (1927-2001) – Ludlum wrote 27 thriller novels. His most famous being The Bourne Trilogy.
Total Books Sold: circa 370 million

13. Leo Tolstoy(1828-1910) – This iconic Russian novelist and short story writer is best remembered for his epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
Total Books Sold: circa 380 million

12. Corin Tellado(1927-2009) – Tellado published more than 4,000 novels. In 1994 she was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having sold the most books written in Spanish.
Total Books Sold: circa 400 million

11. Sidney Sheldon(1917-2007) – After a successful career writing for television Sheldon started writing novels at the age of 50.
Total Books Sold: circa 400 million

 Typewriter2

10. Dean Koontz(Born: 1945) – This American author of suspense thrillers is one of the world’s best-selling living authors.
Total Books Sold: circa 450 million

09. J.K. Rowling(Born: 1965)Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling is the United Kingdom’s best-selling living author.
Total Books Sold: circa 460 million

08. Jackie Collins(Born: 1937) – English novelist Jackie Collins has written 29 novels, all of which went on to become best-sellers.
Total Books Sold: circa 500 million

07. Georges Simenon(1903-1989) – This prolific Belgian author wrote nearly 200 novels in addition to many shorter works of fiction.
Total Books Sold: circa 550 million

06. Charles Dickens(1812-1870) – Widely regarded as the greatest writer of the Victorian era, Dickens is also one of the biggest selling authors ever.
Total Books Sold: circa 550 million

05. Gilbert Patten(1866-1945) – The King of the dime novels is best remembered as the author of the Frank Merriwell stories.
Total Books Sold: circa 600 million

04. Danielle Steel(Born: 1947) – American romance and mainstream fiction novelist Danielle Steel is the World’s bestselling living novelist.
Total Books Sold: circa 800 million

03. Harold Robbins(1916-1997) – The New York born playboy and master of publicity penned 25 bestselling novels.
Total Books Sold: circa 800 million

02. Barbara Cartland(1901-2000) – This prolific romance author penned 723 novel over the course of her long life.
Total Books Sold: 1 billion    

01. Agatha Christie(1890-1976) – The Guinness Book of World Records lists the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple as the best-selling novelist of all time.
Total Books Sold: 2 billion

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My Year In Books

This time last year I devoted a blog post to the books that I had read in 2013. I have decided to do the same for 2014. In addition to releasing my second novel, the satirical black comedy Necropolis, I read 34 books.

Here is a breakdown of the books I read in 2014.  Click on the links to read my reviews.

2014

 

Non Fiction

If you are interested in African history you might like:

King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild – The Belgian King, Leopold II, had grown envious of his European neighbours’ portfolio of colonies, and longed for a colony that he could call his own… (More)

Classics

I read a couple of books that could be termed Classics in 2014, including:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Brother Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Transgressive Fiction

Click here for a definition of Transgressive fiction. Here are 3 very different Transgressive novels that might be of interest if you haven’t read them already.

High Rise by J. G. Ballard

Post Office by Charles Bukowski

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Black Comedy

I read a couple of books that could be termed black comedies, including:

Death and The Penguin by Andrey Kurkov – Kiev resident and journalist Viktor lives in a small flat with Misha, his pet Emperor Penguin, purchased from the near destitute city zoo…(More)

I also wrote a black comedy, which I would highly recommend.

Necropolis by Guy Portman – Dyson Devereux is Head of Burials and Cemeteries for the local council … (Click here to read Crime Fiction Lover’s review of Necropolis)

Necropolis

Crime Fiction

I read a fair bit of Crime fiction in 2014 including:

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Chasing The Game by Paul Gadsby

Slur by Diane Mannion

Real Crime

The best Real Crime book that I read this year was Helter Skelter.  It is about the Manson murders.

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi In one of the most infamous mass murders in history, Sharon Tate, the Hollywood actress and pregnant wife of film director Roman Polanski, is brutally slain in her home,…(More)

Best Novella

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway – Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba, this is a tale about an old man, a boy and a colossal Marlin…(More)

The Old Man And The Sea

Books about Drug Addiction

I read some good books about drug addiction in 2014 and some not so good ones. I would highly recommend these 3:

Junky by William S. Burroughs

Wasting Talent by Ryan Leone

Novel with Cocaine by M. Ageyev

Biggest Disappointments

I am a big fan of Easton Ellis and Palahniuk, but these two books failed to meet my lofty expectations.

Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis

Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk

Favourite Book

Post Office by Charles Bukowski – Henry Chinaski is a heavy drinking, womanising, race track frequenting low-life, who works at the post office.  The story follows his menial existence of twelve-hour night shifts, sorting post, …(More)

Post Office

10 Books About Christmas

I am not a Christmassy person. However, in the spirit of Christmas I am dedicating this week’s blog post to a Christmas related subject, namely Christmas books. Here are 10 books about Christmas from the last 170 years. They are presented in chronological order.

Xmas Tree

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843) This iconic novella is about a miser called Ebenezer Scrooge.  Scrooge learns to embrace the joys of Christmas after being visited by the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come.

The Admiral’s Caravan by Charles E. Carryl (1891) – This story’s protagonist is a girl called Dorothy.  Dorothy goes on a journey with three wooden statues.  On Christmas Eve the statues come alive. The book features pictures by Reginald Bathurst Birch.

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry (1905) – This is a sentimental story with a moral lesson about giving presents. The subjects of the tale are an impoverished married couple who plan to buy secret Christmas gifts for each other.

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie (1938) – Having invited his family for Christmas, millionaire Simeon Lee plays a sadistic game with them, which culminates in murder. It is left to Detective Hercule Poirot to sift through the evidence and solve the crime.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss (1957) – This illustrated children’s story written in rhyming verse is about a creature called The Grinch, who disguises himself as Santa in order to steal a family’s Christmas presents. The Grinch comes to embrace Christmas.

The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth (1975) – A De Havilland Vampire pilot is heading home on Christmas Eve when his aircraft suffers an electrical failure. He ends up being shepherded to a disused RAF dispersal field by a WWII fighter-bomber.

The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans (1993) – In this sentimental story a man called Richard finds a Christmas box in the attic of an elderly lady’s home. The letters in the box lead to Richard discovering the true meaning of Christmas.

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham (2001) – This comedy novel features a couple called Luther and Nora Krank.  The Kranks set out to ignore the Christmas furore.  However a series of unforeseen events see their plans go awry.

The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore (2004) – An angel called Raziel is sent to earth to grant the wish of a child. Raziel ends up accidentally raising zombies from their graves. The zombies attack the local town’s residents.

The Gift by Cecelia Ahern (2009) – This magical, fable-like Christmas story is about a successful executive who is frustrated that he has to spend more time at work than with his wife and two young children.

Xmas Holly

Happy Christmas.

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Are These The 12 Best-Selling Books Of All Time?

This blog post is dedicated to 12 of the best-selling books of all time. It is with a heavy heart that I announce that none of my books made the list.

The Bible is omitted by design. After all half of the World’s Bibles have been given away for free, and are currently gathering dust in hotel room drawers. I have also ignored Mao’s Little Red Book for similar reasons.

The 12 books are:

Amazon6

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – 65 million copies sold – Reclusive author J.D. Salinger’s seminal work was published in 1951.  The iconic book continues to sell at a rate of approximately 250,000 copies a year.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill 70 million copies sold – Published in 1937, Think and Grow Rich remains the best selling self-help book of all time. It certainly made its author rich, though not sure the same could be said for its readers.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – 80 million copies sold – This Christian themed mystery thriller complete with conspiracy theories has become a global best seller. I am probably merely one of millions who don’t like Dan Brown, but nevertheless own a copy of The Da Vinci Code.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis 85 million copies sold – Published in 1950, this Christian themed children’s fantasy tale, which has been adapted for the stage and big screen, continues to sell well to this day, and no doubt will continue to do so.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James – 125 million copies sold – Published in 2011, this, the first instalment of the Fifty Shades erotic fiction trilogy, more than makes up for any perceived lack of literary merit with massive global sales.

She: A History of Adventure by H Rider Haggard – 100 million copies sold – Published in 1887, She is about two men who discover a lost kingdom in Africa. Perhaps I shouldn’t be admitting this, but I had never even heard of it (I mean She) prior to writing this post.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – 100 million copies sold – Prior to inspiring an unnecessary incredible three films in consecutive years, all based on different sections of the book that inspired it, The Hobbit was known as the bestselling prequel to The Lord of the Rings.

Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin – 100 million copies sold – Mao’s Little Red Book is not the only bestselling Chinese book with the word ‘red’ in its title. Written in the 18th century, Dream of the Red Chamber is a semi-autobiographical account about the author’s family and friends.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie – 100 million copies sold – Best selling, prolific mystery writer Agatha Christie’s top selling book is about 10 people lured to an island and then murdered, following the pattern of the nursery rhyme Ten Little Indians.

Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – 140 million copies – Voted the best book of the 20th Century in France, this novella, complete with watercolour illustrations, tells the story of a pilot stuck in the desert, who meets a little prince.  

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien – 150 million copies – Another Tolkien book, another Peter Jackson directed film. The Lord of the Rings is the second best selling book ever. Tolkien’s two entries on this list add up to 0.25 billion books sold. That is more than the population of Brazil and Colombia combined (2014 estimate).

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – 200 million copies sold – A Tale of Two Cities is the best-selling book of all time. This iconic piece of historical fiction set during the French Revolution continues to grace bookshelves around the globe, including mine, though I must confess I haven’t read it yet.

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My Year in Novellas

A novella is a fictional, prose narrative that is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. Novellas are generally about 20,000 – 50,000 words.

These are my Top 5 novellas that I have read this year:

 

 5. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha

Siddhartha is a concise and philosophical novella with a graceful prose style that incorporates both Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. This story about destiny had a cathartic effect on this reader.

My Review: Siddhartha, a Brahmin’s son, finding village life increasingly unrewarding, leaves his family and sets off on a spiritual journey with best friend and devotee Govinda. Travelling as Samanas, they survive on donations and from begging … (More)

 

4. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis is a bleak and unsettling story about a man who turns into a beetle. It utilises dark humour and explores existentialist, nihilist themes. In this reader’s opinion The Metamorphosis is a good introduction to Kafka’s writing.

My Review: …protagonist Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find that he has been transformed into a beetle.  This awkward situation is exacerbated when Gregor’s boss turns up at his house seeking an explanation for his non-attendance at work that day… (More)

 

 3. The Legend of the Holy Drinker by Joseph Roth

The Legend of the Holy Drinker

This is a compact, concise, compassionate and profound novella about a tramp who lives under the bridges of the river Seine in Paris. The Austrian-Jewish author and journalist Joseph Roth is one of my favourite non-English language writers.

My Review: Set in Paris between the wars the story is about an alcoholic tramp by the name of Andreas, who lives under bridges of the river Seine.  Andreas finds himself in luck when he is given two hundred francs by a stranger, … (More)

 

2. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Truman Capote’s masterful ability to develop character is on full display in this compelling and at times humorous tale about an independent young society figure with a past shrouded in secrecy.

My Review: Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a novella set in New York in the 1940s about a young woman called Holly Golighty. The story follows Holly’s ambiguous relationship with a nameless narrator, whom we are told almost nothing about, apart from that he is a writer... (More)

 

1.  The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man And The Sea

This is a carefully constructed and evocative novella written in Hemingway’s trademark simple, concise, economy of prose style. It is the most memorable novella I have read this year, and I look forward to reading more Hemingway.

My Review: Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba, this is a tale about an old man, a boy and a colossal Marlin.  The old man, Santiago, is a veteran fisherman, who is on a run of bad luck having been eighty-four days without catching a fish. (More)

8 Authors Who Committed Suicide

Admittedly this is a rather depressing subject for a blog post, but it is an interesting one. Here are 8 famous authors who committed suicide:

Anne Sexton

Anne Sexton

(November 9th 1928 – October 4th 1974)

Anne Sexton was a Pulitzer Prize winning American poet. Themes in her confessional style verse included her mental instability and depression. On October 4th 1974 the 45 year-old poet put on her mother’s old fur coat, poured herself a glass of vodka, locked herself in her garage, started the engine of her car and died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

 

Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter Thompson

(July 18th 1937 – February 20th 2005)

The father of Gonzo journalism was an iconic figure in the counter-culture.  Hunter S. Thompson suffered from health problems in later life, culminating in him shooting himself in the head aged 67. His ashes were fired out of a cannon in a ceremony funded by friend and star of the movie adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Depp.

Click here to read my review of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

 

Yukio Mishima 

Mishima

(January 14th 1925 – November 25th 1970)

Yukio Mishima is widely considered to be Japan’s greatest ever author. On November 25th 1968 Mishima and 4 members of his private militia barricaded themselves in the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japan’s self-defence forces. Having delivered a speech from the balcony to the soldiers below, Mishima committed Seppuku, a Japanese ritual suicide consisting of disembowelment followed by beheading.

 

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

(July 21st 1899 – July 2nd 1961)

Ernest Hemingway is today remembered as a pillar of American literature. His accolades include winning The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1953) and The Nobel Prize in Literature (1954). In the early morning hours of July 2nd 1961, following a period of deteriorating health and depression, Hemingway shot himself in the head with his favourite shotgun.

Click here to read my review of The Old Man and the Sea

 

John Berryman

John Berryman

(October 25th 1914 – January 7th 1972)

John Berryman was an American poet, scholar, and a key figure in the Confessional school of poetry. The poet was a heavy drinker for much of his life. He also suffered from periods of emotional instability. On January 7th 1972 Berryman met his demise when he plunged to his death from a bridge in Minneapolis.

 

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

(January 25th 1882 – March 28th 1941)

Novelist and critic Virginia Woolf was an influential interwar writer and one of the foremost modernists of the 20th Century. Shortly after finishing the manuscript of her last novel, Between the Acts, Woolf entered a deep depression.  On the 28th March 1941 the author put on her overcoat, filled her pockets with stones and walked out into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex.

 

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 

Akutagawa

(March 1st 1892 – July 24th 1927)

Akutagawa was a Japanese writer, who is considered to be the father of the Japanese short story. Japan’s premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. The author suffered from deteriorating physical and mental health, and at the age 35 he committed suicide by taking an overdose of Veronal.

 

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

(October 27th 1932 – February 11th 1963)

Sylvia Plath was well known for her poetry during her short-life. Examples of her early success included winning The Glascock Prize for poetry in 1955. Plath, who had a history of depression, committed suicide in 1963, by poisoning herself with carbon monoxide in her own kitchen. She went on to achieve posthumous fame.

Click here to read my review of The Bell Jar

 

 

Record Breaking Old & Young Authors

I have written numerous author themed blog posts. Topics include – the most prolific authors ever, drug addicted authors, posthumously famous authors, and the longest and shortest time it took to write a novel. Earlier this week I took to thinking about who were the oldest and youngest authors to achieve various literary milestones. This is what I discovered:

 Walking Stick

Oldest Best Selling Author – Helen Hoover Santymeyer was an American writer, educator and librarian, whose seminal work …And Ladies of the Club was published when she was 88. The book became a best seller in 1984, after it was selected for the Book-of-the-Month Club.

Oldest Winner of Nobel Prize for Literature – British playwright and author Doris Lessing was 88 when she won the prestigious prize. In 2008 The Times ranked her 5th on a list of ‘The 50 greatest British writers since 1945’. The author died last year aged 94.

Oldest First Time Author – Bertha Wood was a pioneer of the holiday camp movement, who became the oldest first time author ever when on her 100th birthday, her memoir Fresh Air and Fun was published.

World’s Oldest Ever Author – Ida Pollock died last year at the age of 105, just weeks before her 125th book was published. The romance author sold millions of books over the course of her long lifetime.

 Baby Bottle

Youngest Best Selling Author – Christopher James Paolini is an American author, who is best known for his series the Inheritance Cycle, which consists of 5 books. Paolini became a New York Times bestselling author at the tender age of 19.

Youngest Winner of Nobel Prize for Literature – Rudyard Kipling is the younger ever winner of the Nobel Prize in literature. He was 42 when he achieved the accolade in 1907.

World’s Youngest Ever Author – Dorothy Straight is on record as being the youngest published author ever. At the age of 4 she wrote a story for her grandmother, which went on to be published by Pantheon Books in 1964 when the author was 6.

My Top 5 Transgressive Novels

Definition: Transgressive literature is a genre that focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who break free of those confines in unusual and/or illicit ways.

Here are my Top 5 Transgressive Novels:

Fight Club

FightClub

Chuck Palahniuk’s seminal work is about a nameless narrator, who starts a fight club with a charismatic anarchist by the name of Tyler Durden. Their fight club concept becomes very popular and spreads across the nation.

My Review: The protagonist, who remains nameless, is an insomniac leading a bland corporate existence, investigating accidents for a car company, whose only concern is profit.  Unable to find meaning in a faceless consumerist society, he instead seeks solace in… (More)

 

American Psycho

American PsychoAmerican Psycho is a satire of the yuppies culture of the 1980s that caused outrage when it was published due to its explicit violent and sexual content. It went on to become a cult classic.

My Review: American Psycho is a highly controversial novel that brought its young author Bret Easton Ellis instant fame.  The book is written from the perspective of a young Wall Street financier, Patrick Bateman… (More)

 

Junky

Junky

Junky is a sardonic, dark and humorous semi-autobiographical account of William S. Burroughs’s years spent using heroin. Its protagonist Bill Lee struggles to escape a cycle of drug dependency whilst trying to find meaning in his life.

My Review: Set in 1950s America and Mexico, Junky is a confessional novella about drug addiction. Its protagonist Bill Lee chronicles his drug-centred existence, which entails searching for his daily fix, scoring, and intravenous drug consumption …(More)

 

Post Office

Post Office

Post Office is a darkly humorous, semi-autobiographical work about Charles Bukowski’s years spent working for the United States Postal Service. It describes the banality, dehumanisation and hardship of unskilled drudgery.

My Review: Henry Chinaski is a heavy drinking, womanising, race track frequenting low-life, who works at the post office.  The story follows his menial existence of twelve-hour night shifts, sorting post, delivering mail, observing his fellow colleagues and facing countless disciplinary measures… (More)

 

Necropolis

Necropolis

Necropolis is a satirical black comedy about a sociopath called Dyson, who works for the burial and cemeteries department in his local council. Okay, so I might have left myself open to accusations of hubris in including my own book alongside these four iconic texts…

Review: ‘The book is full of razor-sharp satire. No politically correct madness escapes unscathed, and no sacred cow remains un-butchered and served up in freezer packs.’ (More)

 

7 Famous Drug-Addicted Authors

As my blog posts about famous authors have proven to be popular with my followers and fellow authors I have decided to write a further instalment. Some of you may remember my series of posts about alcoholic authors. This week I turn my attentions to drug addicted authors.

Here are 7 famous drug addicted authors:

 

Stephen King 

Stephen King

(Born: September 21st 1947) 

Stephen King is a prolific, bestselling author, who has sold in excess of 350 million books over the course of his long and illustrious career. In the mid 1980s, King, who was already a heavy drinker, became a cocaine addict. That was until his wife Tabitha organised an intervention that began with her emptying a bin bag full of stuff she had collected from his office in front of him. The stuff included coke spoons, baggies, Xanax and Valium.

  

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge

(21st October 1772 – 25th July 1834)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, whose most famous poems; The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, are still widely read to this day. Coleridge, an avid opium smoker from a young age, wrote Kubla Khan whilst under the influence. He was initially successful in keeping his addiction a secret, but when it became public knowledge his reputation was damaged. In later years the poet suffered respiratory and heart problems that contributed to his demise at the age of sixty-one.

 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Browning

(6th March 1806 – 29th June 1861)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of England’s most famous poets during the Victorian era. In addition to producing poetry at a prolific rate, she campaigned for the abolition of slavery and influenced reform in child labour legislation. Browning was fourteen when she was prescribed laudanum (tincture of opium) for various illnesses. In adulthood the poet was adamant that her heavy opium use was helpful in sustaining her prolific writing output.

  

Aleister Crowley

Crowley

(12th October 1875 – 1st December 1947)

Aleister Crowley was a controversial English novelist, poet and occultist, who maintained a prodigious writing output for much of his life. In 2002 a BBC poll placed Crowley seventy-third in a list of 100 Greatest Britons. After being prescribed a medicine containing heroin for his asthma, Crowley became addicted to the drug. Though his addiction was short-lived, he continued to experiment with a variety of substances, including marijuana, cocaine and peyote.

 

William S. Burroughs 

WilliamBurroughs

(5th February 1914 – 2nd August 1997)

William S. Burroughs was at the forefront of the Beat generation, influencing the likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.  His works include eighteen novels, in addition to a number of novellas and short stories. One of his most famous books, Junkie, is a semi-autobiographical account of Burroughs’s heroin and opioid addiction, an addiction that lasted for nearly fifteen years. The iconic author lived to the relatively old age of eighty-three.

Philip K. Dick

Dick

(16th December 1928 – 2nd March 1982)

Philip K. Dick was a science fiction novelist, short story writer and essayist, who published 44 novels and 121 short stories. In 2007 Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series. Although the author experimented with a variety of substances, his drug of choice was amphetamine, as he felt that it enhanced his writing productivity. Dick died aged 53 after a series of strokes.

 

Thomas De Quincey

de Quincey

(15th August 1785 – 8th December 1859)

Thomas Penson De Quincey was an English essayist and journalist, whose seminal work, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, was the first book written about addiction in the Western world. Though De Quincey first used opium in 1804 to relieve his neuralgia, he initially used the drug no more than weekly, but in 1813 his use spiralled out of control and he became an addict. De Quincey continued to use opium for the rest of his life although he had periods of abstinence.

The Evolution of Books

At the beginning there were papyrus scrolls. Later came handwritten bound books. With the invention of the printing press in the 15th Century books became accessible to the masses for the first time, changing the course of history.

Today ebooks and online retailers are revolutionising the publishing industry once again.  The low costs associated with creating and distributing ebooks has seen a proliferation in the number of books being published.

1960 – 8,100 ISBNs issued.

2013 – 1.4m ISBNs issued.

This is largely due to the number of self-published authors entering a marketplace that was traditionally reserved for authors signed with publishing houses.

Printer(courtesy of gallery hip)

There has also been a marked increase in the number of book genres. Yesterday’s readers would no doubt be surprised to find genres such as Amish Fiction, Steam Punk, and an infestation of Romance sub-genres, including Nascar, Amish (again) and Centaurs. So frequently when online am I accosted by book front covers depicting half-dressed cowboys and period clothed cavorting couples in various states of undress that I am seriously considering having a sick bag dispenser installed at my desk. My reading tastes aside, genre fiction, particularly Romance, are performing well in this new era of publishing. Evidence of this is the fact that female Romance authors have been dominating recent Smashwords self-published bestseller lists.

Amazon has been at the forefront of this publishing revolution. Jeff Bezos, a man who was once described as a ‘hyper-intelligent alien with a tangential interest in human affairs’ founded the company in 1994.

Pile of Books

Amazon’s war with publishing is well documented. Most recently its battles with publishing behemoth Hachette has seen Amazon accused of aggressive tactics, including delaying deliveries of Hachette books, halting the sale of others, and displaying banners on their website alongside their books with the words, ‘Similar items at a lower price’, in what could be described as the modern equivalent of the medieval siege. Back in the 15th Century the inventor of the printing press, Johannes Guttenberg, died near penniless due to legal battles over his printer.  What will be the fate of today’s publishers? Perhaps they will be forced to flee their plush offices and seek refuge in the ruins of closed bookshops, as Amazon drones darken the skies above. A more likely scenario is that they will find ways to adapt to the rapidly changing marketplace.

Although some major authors have been vociferous in their criticism of Amazon, many less famous authors, including myself (Charles Middleworth & Necropolis), have welcomed the high profits Amazon offer, in addition to their advanced recommendation systems that have proved invaluable in assisting authors to find new readers.

Necropolis

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