The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to study if teenage fiction, published in Swedish during the course of one year, matches what boys in eight grade claim they want to read about. The background for our work is a survey initiated by Lärarnas Riksförbund, Läsa för att lära, in 2005. The conclusion drawn in Läsa för att lära is that many children, especially boys, lose their interest in reading when they become teenagers. Information on fictional books for teenagers has been collected from Bibliotekstjänst. To establish what boys want to read about we have handed out questionnaires to 62 students in grade eight. In order to gain understanding on teenage reading we have studied the theories of Joseph A. Appleyard, presented in his book Becoming a reader. His research shows that identification and realism are two important factors for teenage readers as well as finding a book that will “make them think”. Our results show that fictional books published in the genres ”everyday-life” and ”misery lit” are most common, followed closely by “fantasy”. The first two categories were of little interest to our students. “Fantasy”, however, was a genre they liked. The results also show that humoristic books were most popular, followed by books on “war” and “sports”. Our conclusion is that the supply from BTJ in 2007 of fictional books (for teenagers), does not really match what the boys in our study claim they want to read about, with the exception of “fantasy”.

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2007.

<p>During the 17th century the production and distribution of printed works increased in Stockholm and Uppsala. However, all works that the publisher wanted to print, did not reach the reader. This thesis aimed to show when, where and how printed books and dissertations did not reach the reader. To achieve this aim, aspects of several well known models showing systems of book production and distribution were combined and adapted to suit Swedish conditions in the 17th century. This combined model focused on processes of selection and was presented and used as a theoretical approach. Processes of selection in this paper are processes in which often a conscious choice was made of which books people produced and distributed. By using literature that had already been written about the chosen subject the paper examines what this material tells us about processes of selection during the selected period. Six processes of selection have been identified and discussed, three belonging to the production of works and three belonging to the distribution of works. During the production publishers’ motives and conditions for publishing and how this affected what they chose and did not choose to publish were discussed. Publishers with economical motives might publish fewer books which contained new ideas as reprinting popular books probably resulted in a higher profit. If a publisher wanted to use the publishing of a book as a way to further his career that probably could lead to fewer books containing offensive material being published. The state of the printing material and the economy of the printer and publisher were things that could affect which books that were printed. Books that came to Stockholm and Uppsala from other countries could be lost while being transported. The increase and decrease of the book collection at the university library in Uppsala affected the reader’s range of books to choose from. This is a two years master’s thesis in library and information science.</p>

During the 17th century the production and distribution of printed works increased in Stockholm and Uppsala. However, all works that the publisher wanted to print, did not reach the reader. This thesis aimed to show when, where and how printed books and dissertations did not reach the reader. To achieve this aim, aspects of several well known models showing systems of book production and distribution were combined and adapted to suit Swedish conditions in the 17th century. This combined model focused on processes of selection and was presented and used as a theoretical approach. Processes of selection in this paper are processes in which often a conscious choice was made of which books people produced and distributed. By using literature that had already been written about the chosen subject the paper examines what this material tells us about processes of selection during the selected period. Six processes of selection have been identified and discussed, three belonging to the production of works and three belonging to the distribution of works. During the production publishers’ motives and conditions for publishing and how this affected what they chose and did not choose to publish were discussed. Publishers with economical motives might publish fewer books which contained new ideas as reprinting popular books probably resulted in a higher profit. If a publisher wanted to use the publishing of a book as a way to further his career that probably could lead to fewer books containing offensive material being published. The state of the printing material and the economy of the printer and publisher were things that could affect which books that were printed. Books that came to Stockholm and Uppsala from other countries could be lost while being transported. The increase and decrease of the book collection at the university library in Uppsala affected the reader’s range of books to choose from. This is a two years master’s thesis in library and information science.

The subject of this dissertation is the publishing of poetry in Sweden 1976–1995. The purpose is to examine the position of poetry in the Swedish book market and in the literary process. It is an empirical and statistical study based primarily on an inventory of the published works. The study shows that the publication of Swedish poetry collections in 1976–1995 consisted of 3 848 titles (new works only), which was more than ever before. Publication was consistent over the period, partly due to the allocation of the literature grant introduced by the Swedish government in 1975, but also to the technical development which made it possible for small and private publishers to release collections of poetry at a lower cost. The main publishers were the general publishing houses of Bonniers, Norstedts and Wahlström &amp; Widstrand, but more than a third of the collections were published by vanity press and self publishers. Publication was strongly concentrated to the capital area. Regardless of the size of the publisher, poetry collections were printed in small numbers and generally sold poorly. Along with the technical development offset-printed books replaced duplicated publications, and more books were hardbound. The publishing houses made bigger efforts than ever before to publish female poets. The number increased over the period, but the men were still in a clear majority by 1995. The women were also largely responsible for rejuvenating the body of authors. The number of debutants was relatively constant during the period. The results in this dissertation indicate a hierarchic order among the publishing houses that determine the conditions for the authors and their works. This is verified through analyses of coverage in the national and regional daily papers, as well as three analyses of the authorships of Yngve Aldhagen, Else-Britt Kjellqvist and Bruno K. Öijer. The dissertation concludes that poetry exists on the publishing lists mainly for symbolical reasons; to publish poetry gives cultural capital to the publishers.

Syftet med detta arbete har varit att undersöka tre av Sveriges största bokförlag och hur deras utgivning har sett ut när det kommer till mångfald av hudfärg, sexualitet och olika typer av sjukdomar inom ungdomslitteraturen. Till syftet fanns det två frågor som skulle besvaras: Hur har utgivningen av ungdomsböcker (12 år och uppåt) hos tre stora bokförlag sett ut under 2015 när det kommer till mångfald? Hur ser mångfalden ut hos huvudkaraktärerna ut i de utgivna böckerna? För att nå syftet med arbetet användes både kvalitativ och kvantitativ undersökning, vilket medförde att det blev två typer av undersöningar, dels en undersökning kring mångfalden hos huvudkaraktärerna, men även en statistisk undersökning där resultatet visade att mångfalden inte var så stor bland huvudkaraktärerna som man kanske skulle vilja att den var. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att det finns en bit kvar innan mångfald är något normalt, men det är en liten bit på väg. / The purpose of this paper has been to look at the publishing done at three of Swedens biggest publishing houses, and how this publishing has looked in terms of adversity, such as skin color, sexuality and different types of illnesses and disabilities in youth literature. There where two questions that needed to be answered and they where: How has the publishing of youth books (age 12 and up) been during 2015 with these three big publishing houses, when it comes to adversity? How has adversity been portrayed in the main characters of the published books? To reach the purpose of this paper it was important to use both qualitative and quantitative research, which lead to it being two different types of research, one which looked at the adversity with the main characters, and one which became a statistical one that showed the lack of adversity amongst the main characters. The results of the research showed that there is still quite a way to go before youth literature has the kind of adversity that todays society needs.