Last month, we highlighted the growing number of book bans in the US and a Virginia political candidate’s suit against a Barnes & Noble in Virginia Beach for carrying two “obscene” books, A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas and Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.
Barnes & Noble, Sarah J. Maas, Maia Kobabe, and the authors’ publishers have filed motions to dismiss the case. Their main argument: The books as a whole are not obscene and have been available for years now. Learn more.
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.
