Canelo / Arts Council England

Canelo / Arts Council England | 

8

   

Literature in the 21st Century: Understanding Models of Support for Literary Fiction

with the data. We wanted to see to what extent the assumption that 

literary fiction was struggling was shared. We were also conscious of 

the likelihood of bias creeping in. Those with a particular perspective 

were more likely to reply. But by how much? The survey was not 

just multiple choice, but also asked for comments, both around each 

specific question and more generally to see if respondents thought 

there was anything else pertinent to the topic. 81 respondents left 

extensive comments, and collectively provided a wealth of insight 

into what people believe to be happening. Of those who filled out the 

survey 55% were writers, 13% publishers, 2% journalists or bloggers, 

1% literary agents, 1% from arts or writing organisations,  

1% booksellers and 27% marked themselves as other.