- Another bestselling indie author has launched a romance publishing company. Marie Force recently announced the formation of Jack’s House Publishing, saying, “I had all the players already in place after four years of running my Formatting Fairies business, which I founded in 2012 to help other authors publish their books. The publishing arm is a natural outgrowth of that.” Just a couple months ago, author Meredith Wild was profiled in the New York Times for the success of her publishing company.
- Publishers Weekly has compiled a list of the bestselling children’s books of 2015; the list is dominated by popular franchises. Review the full list.
- A&E has partnered with Harlequin to produce movies, web series, books, and digital content. Read the full story at Programming Insider.
- Do you know about Humble Bundle? You might want to learn more about a service that generated $6.1 million in ebook revenue in 2015. Read more at Publishers Weekly.
- The new VIDA count is out—VIDA is the annual study that looks at gender parity across the literary publishing landscape. Review the data.
- Speaking of diversity, there’s a new initiative called the Lulu Fund [discontinued] that seeks to bring attention and support to writers working outside of academia.
- An important fair use case has been settled (again)—and publishers lost. This is an interesting, precedent-setting case that involves non-transformative, educational use. Here’s a plain-English overview of the much-discussed ruling.
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.