Canelo / Arts Council England

Canelo / Arts Council England | 
54

Literature in the 21st Century: Understanding Models of Support for Literary Fiction
There were 19 women and 15 men amongst the group of interviewees. 
A large proportion of the group wished to remain anonymous, or have 
parts of the discussion kept off the record. Once this was assured, it 
does not seem to have impeded free and frank discussion. Interviews 
were conducted in person, over the phone or via email, with a 
preference for the first two. The approach was to start with the set of 
questions of the survey to offer consistency across the methods but 
then broaden the discussion from there in line with the interviewees 
personal knowledge and take on the subject. The base questions are 
listed again below: 
1.) Are sales of literary fiction rising or falling in your view? 
2.) Is there less appetite for risk/marketing resource in the market 
today than there was? 
3.) Are advances falling and are writers taking on more financial risk 
themselves? 
4.) Is there a particular concern for writers from a BAME or any other 
background? 
5.) What other models of support are available to writers – what 
grants, funding or sources of income might be on offer? 
6.) Are there new opportunities for writer support? Are there new 
business models, organisations, companies or technologies that 
might help?
III – About the Authors and Arts Council England 
Arts Council England
champions, develops and invests in artistic and 
cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. It supports a range of 
activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital 
art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. By 
the end of its current investment period, from 2015 to 2018, it will 
have invested £1.1 billion of public money from government and an 
estimated £700 million from the National Lottery to help create these 
experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.
artscouncil.org.uk 
Canelo
is a London-based digital publisher, dedicated to finding the 
most exciting fiction and bringing it to the widest possible audience. 
www.canelo.co 
Michael Bhaskar
is Co-Founder and Publishing Director of Canelo and 
author of 
The Content Machine and Curation: The Power of selection 

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