ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the international market for crime fiction within the context of the larger international book trade. It aims to survey the success of crime fiction in the largest national markets and considers key drivers of crime fiction sales. Any analysis of the international market for crime fiction requires an understanding of the broader worldwide market for books. A note of caution also needs to be sounded from the outset: Differences in population, urbanisation and literacy rates can dramatically affect national markets. The chapter examines the way that texts move within and across national markets through a case study of Jane Harper’s The Dry–a work that rose to prominence by winning an award for an unpublished manuscript in a secondary English-language market and subsequently became an international bestselling work that is adapted into a major motion picture. Crime fiction is subset of global fiction market, which is itself a subset of the broader global book trade.
