About Jane Friedman

Photo by Ross Van Pelt

Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs and received a starred review from Library Journal.

Jane’s impact on publishing education spans multiple formats and audiences.

  • She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, US Book Show, AALA’s People of Publishing Conference, the Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Workshop, the ECPA Leadership Summit, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
  • She has helped shape the next generation of publishing professionals through curriculum development at Southern New Hampshire University’s MFA program and faculty positions at the University of Virginia and University of Cincinnati.
  • She has advised and served multiple organizations, including Writer’s Digest, the Virginia Quarterly Review, The Chicago Manual of Style, The Authors Guild, and the Editorial Freelancers Association. She has served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Whiting Awards, and the Creative Work Fund, bringing her expertise to the development of literary culture and arts funding.
  • She has served on the board of several nonprofit organizations, including WriterHouse, The Facing Project, and Short Reads.

Jane writes and publishes two long-running newsletters. Electric Speed, published since 2009, shares creative tools and resources with more than 30,000 subscribers. The Bottom Line, winner of multiple awards, serves as an industry beacon for more than 8,000 publishing professionals. Since 2009, Jane has also continuously maintained this website, which offers a cornerstone education in writing and publishing and receives more than 100,000 visits per month.

Cover of The Business of Being a Writer 2nd edition by Jane Friedman

What I Care About

I have a special interest in how the digital age is transforming writing careers, publishing, and storytelling. Rather than taking a dark view of how the Internet era has affected writers’ livelihoods, I’m more interested in how revolutionary change can inspire new business models, and how authorship will ultimately evolve. I believe history is on the writers’ side: they’ve been sustaining their careers in ever more innovative ways since the era of Gutenberg. Furthermore, I don’t think that business and art must be at odds—I believe they can inform and push each other to flourish.

I sit at the intersection of several communities, which gives me a 360-degree view of the changes now shaping writing and publishing. People working inside the industry see me as an expert in digital and self-publishing, while independent authors see me as a traditional publishing figure. The university and MFA community see me as very commercially minded, while the business people see me as literary and academic. I would have it no other way; I prefer to serve as a bridge.

How I make my living: an ethics statement

I earn my living as an entrepreneur and freelancer; my goal is to be truly independent of any obligation to an employer, business, or organization. I am not paid by any company or organization to recommend or promote their services, either on this blog, through social media, or any other public forum. Any sponsorships or advertising relationships, when they exist, are stated upfront and transparently. If I write about a company I have consulted for, I disclose that when I write about them. My income is driven largely by my own writing and teaching, and I consider my interests to be aligned with writers’ interests.

VQR Spring 2013
UVA

The Résumé Detail

I began my career at F+W Media in Cincinnati, where I ultimately oversaw the transition of a predominantly print-driven business to one centered on digital media. I was responsible for the business strategy and financial performance of a brand that generated $10 million in revenue each year, overseeing a team of twenty, which covered editorial, advertising, online education, and e-commerce operations. During my tenure, I launched and managed the social media presence of Writer’s Digest; in my role as publisher, I also launched and artistically directed the Writer’s Digest Conference and Writer’s Digest webinar series, which still continue today.

My leadership and business results at F+W ultimately landed me a job as a tenure-track professor of e-media at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, which grants BFA degrees to students seeking full-time careers in the media. While at UC, I was recruited to work at the Virginia Quarterly Review at the University of Virginia, to spearhead and manage digital publishing initiatives. I launched the first digital subscription to the journal (comprising 25% of subscriptions by the time I left), and led a major content migration and strategic relaunch for VQR Online. My audience development for the brand led to a 100% increase in website visits during issue release months.

Since 2001, I’ve spoken at hundreds of events around the world, and have been invited to speak at gatherings such as South by Southwest, BookExpo America, Digital Book World, Frankfurt Book Fair, and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.

My expertise on the publishing industry has been featured by sources such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Today Show, Fox News, USA Today, CNN, The Atlantic, BBC, NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, the National Press Club, The Authors Guild, and UK’s The Bookseller, among many others.

My work has appeared in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Writer’s Digest, AWP Notebook, Virginia Quarterly Review, Publishing Perspectives, IBPA Independent Magazine, The Huffington Post, and many other print and online venues.

My essays have been published in anthologies by the University of Chicago Press, Seal Press, Milkweed Editions, and McPherson & Co.—as well as Writer’s Digest Books, Writer’s Market, Writer’s Market UK, and Australian Writer’s Marketplace.

The More Personal Take

I was born and raised in rural Indiana; I now live in Cincinnati, Ohio. While I grew up feeling embarrassed about the place I am from, I believe it has turned into a superpower. The only reason I do my job half as well as I do is that I am a Midwesterner at heart.

I have been mistaken for the “other” Jane Friedman for more than a decade. In fact, I even receive her dentist’s emails. If you think I look quite young for my age (or if you assume I haven’t updated my headshots in 30 years), then you have me confused with her. I personally benefit from this confusion, so I hope she has as much good humor about it as I do.

While I greatly enjoy my work, I am not precious about writers, writing, books, or publishing. I offer everything at this site and elsewhere with sincerity, but not seriousness. Frankly, writers (and publishing) would do better with far less self-importance.

If you’re looking for a shortcut to understanding how I operate in the world, then just listen to a few Alan Watts lectures.

Recent Media Mentions

Awards

Publishers Weekly columns

Misc Contributions

Some of my favorite older interviews

Shh! Jane’s Embarrassing College Poetry

“This is my living faith, an active faith, a faith of verbs: to question, explore, experiment, experience, walk, run, dance, play, eat, love, learn, dare, taste, touch, smell, listen, argue, speak, write, read, draw, provoke, emote, scream, sin, repent, cry, kneel, pray, bow, rise, stand, look, laugh, cajole, create, confront, confound, walk back, walk forward, circle, hide, and seek. To seek: to embrace the questions, be wary of answers.” —Terry Tempest Williams

My secret newsletter.