Abstract
Joyce examines the reasons why there has been a boom in post-apocalyptic fiction. First, the chapter looks at how the digital age has revolutionised publishing, which has destabilised the traditional financial structure of the industry. This has led to a decline in author incomes, publisher pursuit of blockbuster hits, the rise of self-published genre fiction, and a growing market for tie-in novels. The chapter then looks at Max Brooks’ World War Z as an example of how convergence culture and transmedia storytelling are affecting the style of contemporary fiction. Finally, it considers literary fiction as a prestige niche within the overall eco-system and looks at Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, and Colson Whitehead’s Zone One as examples of post-apocalyptic literary fiction.
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Joyce, S. (2018). Convergence Publishing and Prestige Niches. In: Transmedia Storytelling and the Apocalypse. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93952-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93952-0_7
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