AustLit

'Works of genre fiction are a source of enjoyment, read during cherished leisure time and in incidental moments of relaxation. This original book takes readers inside popular genres of fiction, including crime, fantasy, and romance, to reveal how personal tastes, social connections, and industry knowledge shape genre worlds. Attuned to both the pleasure and the profession of producing genre fiction, the authors investigate contemporary developments in the field—the rise of Amazon, self-publishing platforms, transmedia storytelling, and growing global publishing conglomerates—and show how these interact with older practices, from fan conventions to writers’ groups.

'Sitting at the intersection of literary studies, genre studies, fan studies, and studies of the book and publishing cultures, Genre Worlds considers how contemporary genre fiction is produced and circulated on a global scale. Its authors propose an innovative theoretical framework that unfolds genre fiction’s most compelling characteristics: its connected social, industrial, and textual practices. As they demonstrate, genre fiction books are not merely texts; they are also nodes of social and industrial activity involving the production, dissemination, and reception of the texts.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The cultural and commercial operations of the publishing industry have been dramatically reshaped by digital technologies, yet little is known about how these effects are differentiated across sectors of the industry. This article analyses data about the production of Australian-authored fantasy, romance and crime fiction titles to explore the specific publishing ecosystems of different genres and the roles played by multinational, small press and self-publishing in each. First, we show that there has been across-the-board growth in each genre and for each type of publisher. Second, we argue that multinational publishing activity in these genres has been characterized by broad stability, punctuated by experimentation with genre-specific imprints for romance and fantasy titles. Third, we find that small presses make diverse contributions to genre ecosystems, able to both activate prestige and experiment with formats. Finally, we note the immense growth in self-publishing, particularly in romance, and argue that self-publishing now operates in tandem with traditional publishing to create hybridized publishing ecosystems - with greater potential to transform the traditional publishing model than e-books.' (Publication abstract)

'This brief introductory essay serves two purposes. The first is to introduce the study of contemporary Australian popular fiction with reference to our wider research on ‘genre worlds’. Using a literary sociological approach that draws on Howard S. Becker’s Art Worlds, our research recognises the multiple dimensionality of popular genres: as bodies of texts, collections of social formations that gather around and produce those texts, and sets of industrial practices with various national and transnational orientations. [...] The second purpose of this essay is to introduce a themed cluster of four essays by Australian researchers, each of whom looks to both Australia and the world for examples of the cultural and commercial functions that contemporary popular fiction can perform.'

Source: paragraph two.

Special edition of Australian Literary Studies, drawing from the research project Genre Worlds: Popular Fiction in the Twenty-First Century.

‘Genre Worlds: Australian Popular Fiction in the Twenty-First Century’ is a research project funded by an ARC Discovery Project Grant between 2016 and 2018 (DP160101308). 

The research project aims to systematically examine 21st-century Australian popular fiction, the most significant growth area in Australian trade publishing since the turn of the century. Its three areas of investigation are: the publishing of Australian popular fiction; the interrelationships between Australian popular fiction and Australian genre communities; and the textual distinctiveness of Australian popular novels in relation to genre. Research will centre on thirty novels across three genres (fantasy, romance and crime), building a comprehensive picture of the practices and processes of Australian popular fiction through detailed examination of trade data, close reading of texts, and interviews with industry figures.'

Source: Project website.

'This volume moves the debate about literature and geography in a new direction by showing the significance of spatial settings in the enormous and complex field of popular fiction. Approaching popular genres as complicated systems of meaning, the collected essays model key theoretical and critical approaches for interrogating the meaning of space and place across diverse genres, including crime, thrillers, fantasy, science fiction, and romance. Including topics such as classic English ghost stories, blockbuster Antarctic thrillers, prize-winning Montreal crime fiction, J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, and China Miéville’s Bas-Lag, among others, this book brings together analyses of the real-and-imagined settings of some of the most widely read authors and texts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to show how they have an immeasurable impact on our spatial awareness and imagination.' (Publication summary)