Canelo / Arts Council England

Canelo / Arts Council England | 
51

Literature in the 21st Century: Understanding Models of Support for Literary Fiction
Against all that though weighs the problem that successful, specifically 
literary experiments are few and far between. Much of the audience for 
literary fiction still wants things on paper, without accoutrements such 
as video and audio. Any move to produce something genuinely new 
and liable to get featured on the App Store homepage, the 
sine qua non
for app success, will cost a lot of money and require a dedicated team. 
Writers of literary fiction are back to square one, hoping for third-party 
investment in a tough climate. It is too early to say with any surety what 
impact all of this will have and whether emerging models of support will 
ever rival the traditional ones. Crowdfunding, self-publishing and new 
kinds of writing are all exciting. But for the most part neither are they 
easy, nor are they the saviour of literary writing.

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Canelo / Arts Council England | 
52
 
Literature in the 21st Century: Understanding Models of Support for Literary Fiction
Conclusion 
When it comes to the book world, the glass is perennially half empty, 
but for a period of time in the late 20th century, this was unfair: actually 
the world of books was thriving. Advances and book sales were on the 
up. Now, however, the lot of the literary writer is tending back towards 
its historical norm – they are becoming unable to support themselves 
through literary writing alone. Everyone we spoke to worried about 
the future of literary fiction; no one had a wholly positive gloss on the 
situation and in general, especially in our discussions with agents, 
editors and buyers, the outlook appeared particularly grim. 
The fundamental problem is this. Sales of literary fiction have been 
falling. The value of those sales has been falling in real terms. 
Meanwhile the ebook sales that have boosted commercial fiction have 
not come through to the same extent for literary fiction. The market is 
at best static, at worst quite seriously down on its position a decade 
ago. Despite ‘green shoots’ for the book industry as a whole this hasn’t 
translated into significantly improved prospects for those working with 
literary fiction. Support for literary writers is hence difficult. Everything – 
from the closure of bookshops to the unevenness of advances – flows 
from this. We expected to see a divergence from those at the very top 
and everyone else. What this data suggests though, is that even those 
at the top are down overall. 
In general, then, the old models of literary support are in trouble. Yet 
the relentless pessimism evidenced in our survey is not wholly justified. 
Publishers are maligned for shedding risk, not marketing and dropping 
advances – but they have, at least, survived and continue to publish 
large quantities of high quality literary fiction. They continue to invest 
in marketing, often in new ways. Yes, they can always do more and 
maybe they often do not do enough; but equally whatever they do, it 
is likely that it’s not enough for everyone. Advances are falling across 
the board, but so are book sales; as the number of writers inexorably 
increases, competition amongst writers for attention increases too. And 
we shouldn’t forget that many books do still earn large advances. There 
are notable bright spots around some prizes, film and translation rights, 
and crowdfunding. At the same time, literary fiction is still seen by many 
as a closed shop, an insider network. 
There is, undoubtedly, a need for more support and new models of 
support for literary fiction. That we are returning to a position where 
only the best-off writers can support themselves should be a source of 
deep concern.

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