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The New Yorker
Books
November 1, 2021 Issue

Is Amazon Changing the Novel?

In the new literary landscape, readers are customers, writers are
service providers, and books are expected to offer instant
gratification.

By Parul Sehgal

October 25, 2021

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books in wave of water
The company's algorithms identify genres for consumers and audiences
for authors.Illustration by Timo Lenzen

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Content

It is the hour for despair. The writer sits, crumpled and waiting.
The sun sets. He lays his head upon his desk. A plot--he must have a
plot. The public, ravenous for story, has no use for his fine
observations and his subtle characterizations. A plot: his publishers
require it, his wife demands it--there is a child now. Slowly,
miserably, he gouges the words out of himself.

George Gissing's 1891 novel, "New Grub Street," is one of the most
pitiless portraits of the writing life in any age. Set among London's
hacks, grinds, and literary "women of the inkiest description," the
story follows Edwin Reardon's nervous and financial collapse as he
struggles to complete a book that might sell. His friend, the sleek
and cynical Jasper Milvain, regards his efforts as so much
unnecessary fuss. "Literature nowadays is a trade," Milvain
maintains, a matter of deft pandering. Find out what the reader wants
and supply it, for God's sake, with style and efficiency.

Published in the print edition of the November 1, 2021, issue, with
the headline "All You Can Read."
[parul-avat]
Parul Sehgal is a staff writer at The New Yorker.
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