For the full year, UK’s Nielsen BookScan reports an estimated 5.2 percent increase in print unit sales over 2019—the best sales performance for print in more than a decade. For the 20-week period preceding Jan. 21, 2021, chain retailer WH Smith’s sales on High Street (their non-travel business) held on at 87 percent of 2019’s sales, while travel store sales are at 37 percent of the previous level for the same period.
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.
