Amazon opened its first brick-and-mortar bookstore in fall 2015 in Seattle’s University Village; it stocked a modest 5,000 to 6,000 titles. Before long other Amazon stores opened across the country; some focused on books, while others were mall pop-ups. Now The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is planning to open larger department stores of about 30,000 square feet to sell a range of goods and to facilitate exchanges.
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.
