Rather than answer a specific question this month, I thought I’d relay the invaluable discussions that took place at Sidmouth Literary Festival, partly organised by Jane Corry, author of many Sunday Times bestsellers, including her latest psychological thriller, I Looked Away (Penguin).
I was on a panel of experts: Katy Loftus, editorial director of Penguin’s Viking imprint; Martha Ashby, editorial director for HarperCollins; Jennifer Kerslake, editor at Weidenfeld & Nicholson at Orion; Sunday Times bestseller Ruth Ware; agent Kate Hordern; and journalist Maria McCarthy, to name but a few. We had a long discussion about what genres are taking off at the moment, with interesting findings as follows: