Women over 40 are writing much of the new erotic
fiction
I'm off to Edinburgh's Book Festival, as I write. It's 30
years old and the biggest of around 40 such bookfests around Scotland,
stretching through the year and from Shetland to Wigtown, Scotland's national
book town.
They have been a big success in bringing authors and readers together, and showing the appetite for public debate on the issues tackled in books and beyond.
Making that link is one of the key ways of selling books these days. The once solitary life of an author is now more often on the road, promoting and building audience for the next book.
That's also one of the ways bookshops are fighting off the cut-throat cut-price battle with online retailers. Author events give readers an authentic experience. Bookshops are adding coffee and scones too, from which the margins are rather healthier than for the average paperback these days.
Tricky time
That much I've learned from researching this week's Business Scotland programme.
Electronic readers have changed the face of the
publishing industry
Bookselling and book publishing are probably the sector that's faced the biggest impact from the challenge of technology.
It was the first one to face the rivalry of Amazon for printed book sales. That was just as the industry came off the "net book agreement", which had long ensured that books in Britain could not be sold for less than the cover price.
Allied to that has been the arrival of the downloaded e-book, in which Amazon has again been a key player, via its Kindle.
Oh yes, and there's been a recession too. It's been a tricky time in the book trade, taking advantage of the opportunities from technology, while facing unprecedented challenges from it.
Boddice-ripper
Demonstrating the opportunities, EL James found, in publishing Fifty Shades of Grey, that you can by-pass reluctant publishers, fire up your boddice-ripper on free or very cheap software, and go straight to the customer.
Her success has spawned a vast number of imitations, many erotic, and many not. Research recently showed these wannabes are mainly women and mainly over 40. Somehow, that much comes as no surprise.
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