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Article: It ain't heavy, it's my book club Book clubs have invigorated sales and created new literary stars - but at a price. As publishers and booksellers rush to cash in, Debbie Taylor reports on the rise of Lit Lite
- Article from:
- The Independent on Sunday (London, England)
- Article date:
- January 22, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2006 The Independent on Sunday. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The world of publishing and bookselling has turned upside down in
little more than a decade. The traditional arbiters of literary
success - fiction editors, prize judges, broadsheet book reviewers -
have been replaced by a completely different set of people. The new
literary arbiters are the central buyers of bookshop and supermarket
chains and the controllers of the new media book clubs that have
sprung up on TV, talk radio and in newspapers.
Yet despite a healthy increase in book sales, Waterstone's,
Borders, W H Smith and the like have all seen their profits fall in
recent months, squeezed by an ineluctable pincer movement. On one
flank, they are up against supermarkets like Tesco, who ...