The CEO of HarperCollins, Brian Murray, recently spoke at an investor conference, where he said the publisher has seen the “book pie grow” by about 15 percent. Therefore, he said, “We’ve been very aggressive over the last six to nine months in trying to sign up the best books that we see in the marketplace” while also increasing title output. He confirmed the usual stats one hears reported from the Big Five: that the print-to-digital sales mix is 75-25 and that 60 percent of their sales come from backlist. Learn more in Publishers Weekly.
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.
