Finally: Amazon has filed suit against 20 individuals who run publishing services that deceive prospective authors into thinking they are endorsed by or affiliated with Amazon. Such companies advertise in Google search results against search terms like “Amazon Kindle Publishing” and make heavy use of Amazon logos to make themselves look legitimate. Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware reported on these scams back in July.
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; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. 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. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
