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Bestsellers

Is Literary Fiction Losing Its Place in Culture?

August 4, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 146 Comments

Throughout this past year there’s been a persistent idea percolating around the literati: could literary fiction really be dead? No for real this time? No less an authority than Philip Roth wondered last year whether people still had the patience to read novels. Last month Lee Siegel wrote an article wondering “Where Have All the […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Bestsellers, Culture, Dan Brown, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, James Patterson, Literary Fiction, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight, You Tell Me

Writing vs. Storytelling

August 3, 2010 by Nathan Bransford 146 Comments

In the comments section of last week’s post about the one question writers should never ask themselves when reading (retroactive spoiler: the question is “do I like this?”), some people took the post to mean that I was essentially saying that if a book is popular it must be well-written, ergo the most popular books […]

Filed Under: Writing Advice Tagged With: Bestsellers, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer, writing advice

This Week in Publishing 11/20/09

November 20, 2009 by Nathan Bransford 125 Comments

Lots of links this week, so let’s get to it. First up, there has been a huge controversy sparked by Harlquin’s announcement that they would be forming a self-publishing arm called Harlequin Horizons. Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware wrote a very helpful initial roundup of the plan and controversy, Kristin Nelson wondered if it was […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Bestsellers, Cormac McCarthy, E-books, Future of Publishing, Jacob Wonderbar, Oprah, Publishing Economics, Self-publishing, Stephen King, This Week in Publishing, Twilight

Moving the Needle

November 12, 2009 by Nathan Bransford 104 Comments

Hi everyone, this was originally posted yesterday in the Huffington Post, where I will be blogging from time to time. I thought I’d re-post it here. During my meetings with editors, agents, sales assistants, marketers, and other assorted publishing types in New York this past week, there was a common theme that kept cropping up […]

Filed Under: Publishing Industry Tagged With: Bestsellers, Future of Publishing, How to Promote a Book, Publishing Economics, publishing industry, Twitter

Making Taste Overly Personal

October 6, 2009 by Nathan Bransford 149 Comments

In the annals of Great Ways to Annoy Literary Agents (TM), saying you wrote your book because you couldn’t find any good books to read (or, its crass corollary: because so many books are “trash”) may not be in the top 10, but it is at least in the top 5,000. (The list is infinite, […]

Filed Under: Literary Agents Tagged With: Bestsellers, Dan Brown, Publishing Myths, Reading Like a Writer, Stephenie Meyer, writing advice

Interview With S.E. Hinton

May 14, 2009 by Nathan Bransford 96 Comments

I had the immense pleasure of meeting S.E. Hinton in Tulsa last month, and not only did I discover that she is a faithful lurker around these parts, she very graciously agreed to an interview. Her debut novel, THE OUTSIDERS, which she wrote when she was sixteen, revolutionized the children’s book world upon its publication […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Bestsellers, How to Write a Novel, Life of a Writer, literary agents, Why Do I Need A Literary Agent?

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About Nathan

Hi, I’m Nathan. I’m the author of How to Write a Novel and the Jacob Wonderbar series, which was published by Penguin. I used to be a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. and I’m dedicated to helping authors achieve their dreams. Let me help you with your book!

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My Books

How to Write A Novel
Cover of How to Publish a Book by Nathan Bransford
Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapo
Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp

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