The Globe and Mail has a dispatch on “the great fiction crash of 2005.” Writes the Globe‘s Michael Posner: “Agents and retailers are complaining that sales for new fiction are soft, that orders for reprints and back-listed books are down, and that publishing houses from Berlin to Boston are becoming choosier about what novels they buy, when they are willing to buy them, and what they are willing to pay.”

One of those agents is Denise Bukowski, whose guest opinion piece in the most recent Q&Q discusses the tribulations of the international fiction market. She and several other agents and publishers offer Posner various theories on the situation, ranging from a greater readerly concern with world affairs after 9/11 to inflated hardcover prices to falling editorial standards to a glut of books on the market.

Related links:
Click here for Michael Posner’s Globe and Mail article