Top 100 Authors of the Decade

[Tony Summerfield]

In yesterday's Daily Telegraph there was a list of the top selling authors of the last decade. The 'volumes sold' figures seemed a bit precise to me, but not suprisingly J K Rowling came in at No. 1 with sales of 29,084,999 books at a value of £225.9m. What was more of a surprise to me was that Enid came in at No. 10 with sales of 7,910,758 books at a value of £31.2m! Chorion did okay for themselves as Roger Hargreaves came in at No. 2 with his Mister Men books. There were quite a few children's authors in the top 100, but the only other one to beat Enid was Jacqueline Wilson.

[Ming]

That's great news indeed - just goes to show Enid's continuing, worldwide appeal decades after her death. Three cheers.

[Aurélien]

Way I see it, Tony, while some undeserving books can (temporarily) be all the rage, and some good books may sink without a trace, a children's writer with Enid Blyton's staying power has to have an awful lot going for her books.

So much *hah* for those self-appointed guardians of so-called 'quality' children's literature who have decried EB as an inferior and mediocre writer for children.

Old Aurélien smiles quietly to himself.

[Lucky Star]

Excellent. It does indeed go to show that Blyton's work has truly timeless appeal. Here's to the next decade of successful sales.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

But when is a Blyton book not a Blyton book?

My guess is that all these stats are now useless when publishers and Chorion all regard continuation books as canon.

Viv

[Anita Bensoussane]

But when is a Blyton book not a Blyton book?

I was thinking about that the other day and got to wondering whether or not it would actually be illegal to make original-text Blyton books available online. After all, if the books currently being sold in the shops have been modified, that means that the original books are no longer available. I used to think that the purpose of copyright was to protect the words an author had written. Now I see that it simply protects the interests of the copyright holders, who themselves are (it seems) allowed to make or authorise whatever changes they like to the text, yet still legally (it seems) put the name of the original author on the cover.

Anita

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

[ Now I see that it simply protects the interests of the copyright holders, who themselves are (it seems) allowed to make or authorise whatever changes they like to the text, yet still legally (it seems) put the name of the original author on the cover.

Anita

The main thing I liked about the Enid film was that it showed how important it was to Enid that the books with her name on the covers had actually been written by her.



Viv

[Aurélien]

Alas, Anita, as you very well know, the fact that copies of the original texts of Blyton (or other) books are no longer available (in-print or cheaply second-hand) does not give we avid readers a legally acceptable excuse for publishing them on-line sans authorization. For all the frustration that out-of-print but still copyright-protected books cause us readers, one can't blame publishers for only ever re-issuing books when they see a profit in so doing.

I believe that the 'Books on Demand' system was meant to significantly redress this problem - at a price - but (from my limited experience) it seems to be mainly academic and significant historico-literary texts which get this treatment.

Just lately I've come across two book series where the writers (Elrod & Duane) have been forced to go the way of on-line sales/publication 'cos their books were not selling in the huge volume that seems to be necessary today for publishers to even break-even.

Would like to read your comments on this post, Tony, if only to put me right on one or two points.

Day-dreaming of publishing a number of otherwise unavailable texts on-line - and actually getting away with it - old Aurélien signs out.

[Wolfgang]

I was thinking about that the other day and got to wondering whether or not it would actually be illegal to make original-text Blyton books available online. After all, if the books currently being sold in the shops have been modified, that means that the original books are no longer available. I used to think that the purpose of copyright was to protect the words an author had written. Now I see that it simply protects the interests of the copyright holders, who themselves are (it seems) allowed to make or authorise whatever changes they like to the text, yet still legally (it seems) put the name of the original author on the cover.

Anita

Quite an interesting question - two major series (adventure and mystery) are available with new translations in German, are the former ones freeware now? Also interesting is the fact that the mystery series stayed more or less the same over the years while the adventure series was modified, pc-corrected, during the years.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Also interesting is the fact that the mystery series stayed more or less the same over the years while the adventure series was modified, pc-corrected, during the years.

That's interesting. I suppose it would be easier to update the stories in the Adventure series as they're not so strongly rooted in time, place and social class as the Find-Outers books are. Except for a few details (like protecting Austrian treasures hidden during the Second World War from the Nazis ), most of the Adventure stories could have taken place at almost any time after about the 1930s. Updating the Find-Outers books would be more problematic (though some British editors have had a go, chipping away at small details here and there). Bringing the stories into the present - in Britain, at least - would involve removing errand boys and bobbies on bicycles for a start, and replacing cooks and maids with people like au pairs and cleaners. Vocabulary and idioms would have to be modernised too. Even those few changes would have a knock-on effect on the plots and characters.

Anita

[pbsausie]

I'd like to see the original texts online - its unlikely we'll see them in print again and it would be sad to see them lost