Dear emerging authors, illustrators and creatives trying to get a foot in the door of publishing; welcome to the news!

Specifically tailored for you, as decided by me, a recovering emerging author and steadfast optimist despite the headlines. The summer holidays are coming to an end and it is time to stretch ourselves just a little further to make it to the end of the year. Now, because of all the back-to-school vibes in the air, this time of year also brings great opportunities. So let’s focus on the ways publishing reported growth in August, and what that means for the future of emerging authors.

A record year looms as print sales pass £1bn at their earliest point

Do not believe the digital hype – print is alive and kicking, and apparently making a lot of money. Sales are also ahead of their projections from last year, and it turns out people are buying much more widely; spreading their coins across multiple books and authors rather than just one. It seems like a reflection of our current times; that reading tastes are as diverse as the people that make up the UK, and people are visiting bookshops to buy physical books.

This is great news for emerging authors. For a long time, you’ve been told that the direction is digital, that books are not being acquired as much and paperbacks are being reduced, and the literacy crisis (which is a legitimate concern) means that readership will be on a steady decline in the near future. All of these things might be true, but people continue to buy books, read them and love them. And guess what? Fiction sales are also on the rise in an unexpected way. The numbers don’t lie; it is a good time to be writing, there are readers out there for a multitude of stories, and they’re excited to hold your book in their hands.

And speaking of physical media:

HMV hires books team and rejoins BA with major plans to expand offering

Anyone remember His Master’s Voice, or even old enough to know that’s what the acronym HMV stands for? Millennial gems aside, HMV is back to reclaim the high street and rejoin the Booksellers Association (who knew they once sold books?). They’ve hired a brand new books team and plan to work with publishers and authors to host more in-person events and reclaim their spot as the go-to high street place for physical media – which includes books on a grand scale. As I said, print is not dead. 

The numbers don’t lie; it’s a good time to be writing, there are readers out there for a multitude of stories, and they’re excited to hold your book in their hands

They are putting in big efforts to meet demand for people who want to own things again and not just out of nostalgia – items that artists have taken the time to create, like CDs, records, games and books. It as a depressing fact that if the internet goes down or electricity fails us, a lot of people’s reading materials – and access to more of the world and broader ideas – goes with it. Books are the enduring thing that keeps the story of a place alive, even when it is no longer there. Whether it is HMV or some other national chain, there are places opening doors for more books. The people have spoken and they want it, so don’t be discouraged into thinking you’re writing into a future where books will be obsolete. You’re absolutely not.

Now to also go against type:

A Homer run: Poetry poised to hit its all-time UK high

If you haven’t seen Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey yet I won’t spoil it, but you know, it is based on a nearly 3,000-year-old poem by Homer so you might come across some spoilers. Anyway, naturally the film has boosted book sales of Greek mythological poetry, alongside multiple translations of The Odyssey that have been published in recent years. It has also boosted sales of poetry overall, as it should.

So poets, step forward. You are often the quiet ones working on sentence structures and etymology and creating some of the most beautiful writing in the world; penning passages writers of other genres would kill for. And you are, of course, extremely under-appreciated. In fact for a long time now, it has been accepted that there is even less space for poets in the publishing game than ever before but, once again, the sales numbers tell a different story. People are reading poetry in droves, and not just the classics but the new, the modern, the appointed ‘Insta-poets’. But all of these poets take risks with their work, just as their forebears did during their own time periods, before we dubbed them ‘the classics’. To be true to your poetry is to be a rebel, to go against the status quo and force the reader to feel something unexpected.

There is space for that after all; people are more desperate than ever to feel something – both physically in their hands in the form of a book and otherwise.

One more time for those in the back: the numbers do not lie, so it is time to get on with that writing project you have been avoiding. The readers are waiting.