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Local book merchant Josh McPhee said book worms on the local scale and beyond are turning more often to the narratives that relate to the real world.
Interestingly, the shifting popularity of life writing, encompassing genres in biography, autobiography and memoir, has sparked a shift in the exclusivity of the publishing scene.
“If people like books, they are going to buy books and read books,” Josh said last week.
The Dust Jacket in Inverell was gearing down after hosting a highly successful dinner toasting recently published local author Judy Osborne.
Judy recently released a tale that traces her family’s wartime history and Josh said it is stories like hers that are making a splash on the publishing scene lately.
“I think people like to share and at the same time are interested in other people’s stories, especially if it is real or relatable,” he said.
The Australian publishing scene has had a changing identity as the digital age integrates with the historic industry, and Josh said the shift has had its effect on the local level.
What he called the “eBook panic” has cooled off as the electronic reading craze established a strong market share, but Josh said the more traditional book readers have made no signs of slowing down.
“eBooks have reached a plateau, well and truly,” he said.
“That panic of books becoming obsolete has gone. I think instead of hundreds of per cents of growth eBooks have had, I think last year it was 10 per cent.”
“So, it has established its market share, it is handy for travelling, it’s handy for people who want a lot from an author, but a lot of book people are saying ‘no, we still like books’.”
Josh said the growing popularity of the life writing enterprise, including explosive micro-genres like food writing and blogging, is closely linked to making literature more relatable.
“People do enjoy reading other people’s stories, then they can think ‘something similar happened to me’, or ‘this person lives in Tamworth, I know Tamworth, I feel like I know them’,” he said.
Judy Osborne is has been enjoying a niche of local success at the Dust Jacket continues to chalk up strong sales of her debut novel ‘Memoirs of an Anzac’ coming off the back of her visit to the local store and café.
“She was a fantastic speaker,” Josh said.
“It went really well, we had lots of positive feedback.”