In its recent quarterly earnings report—which was very positive—Big Five publisher HarperCollins partly attributed its sales increase to “strong market growth for downloadable audiobook sales, as well as the contribution from a new Spotify partnership.” Contribution is a very interesting word choice (not earnings? not sales?). Overall, digital purchases (primarily ebooks and audiobooks) made up 21 percent of all sales; audiobook sales increased 29 percent.
HarperCollins’s parent company, NewsCorp, announced it plans to partner with tech companies on AI model training and that negotiations “are at an advanced stage.” Furthermore, the company expects to be “a core content provider for generative AI companies, who need the highest quality, timely content to ensure the relevance and accuracy of their products.” No specifics on whether that includes HarperCollins books.
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.
