Lecture Series: The Literary Market in the UK

This lecture series is part of a thematic focus on market influences on contemporary literary fiction. It asks how literature actually comes into being in Britain:

A number of professionals from British publishing will first address questions of literary production, such as creative writing classes, the mediating function of literary agencies in the contemporary publishing industry, and the influence of the editor on a manuscript.

The second part of the lecture series will be concerned with the structure of the British book market and with the marketing of literary fiction: how is a particular text
(or a particular author) advertised and presented nowadays? Which restrictions do authors, editors, and booksellers face in this process?

Finally, the reception of literary fiction will be addressed: how do we as readers get to know about those works of fiction that are considered 'worthwhile reading'?

This lecture series brings together professionals both from academia and the British publishing industry and sets out to offer students a glimpse behind the scenes of book production, as well as a cultural studies approach to the relevance of economic influences on cultural production.