Traditional Publishing
- Publishers may see sales declines due to budget cuts to libraries. Federal cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services have caused some public libraries to scale back their book buying, which in turn affects publishers. Small, independent publishers are particularly vulnerable because libraries can represent a bigger proportion of their overall sales. Read Karen Fischer at Publishers Weekly.
- How Kensington has successfully moved away from the mass-market paperback. Even though the mass-market business is disappearing, Kensington has been successfully navigating market changes since its founding 50 years ago. As of 2015, mass-market paperbacks made up 66 percent of its list; now the format represents 8 percent of its list. Kensington is one of those rare publishers that is not only independent but also family owned. Read Jim Milliot at Publishers Weekly.
- The Associated Press ends book reviews. The decision was attributed to lack of reader interest. Read the letter sent to reviewers.
Substack
- A marketer offers a cynical but plausible take on Substack’s future. It could be sold to a billionaire or big corporation: “Billionaires like Elon Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion, and Axel Springer, who bought Politico for over $1 billion, have shown us that revenue and buyout number are not 1:1, and if there is political control to be had, there’s a sale to be made. I could even imagine Zuckerberg wanting Substack in his portfolio as Meta’s empire loses relevance.” Read Lex Roman at Journalists Pay Themselves.
- Meanwhile, Substack may be dampening discoverability. S Peter Davis writes, “It seems Substack recently admitted in an email to writing coach Sarah Fay that, yes, they have made changes in the back end to drastically reduce the number of [free] subscribers that writers get.” Read at Substack (of course).
AI
- What is a clanker? What are AI vegans? New technology brings new expressions. Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl) will help you keep up. Read her AI Sidequest newsletter and scroll toward the end for the definitions.
Culture & Politics
- When Dungeons & Dragons intersects with romantasy: LitRPG is already a well-established subgenre (learn more), and the popularity of D&D is now moving into romance. Read MJ Franklin at the New York Times (gift link).
- Anthropomorphized animals in children’s literature can mask industry problems. A professor uses data to analyze children’s book characters and finds a subtle gender imbalance at play in picture books featuring animal characters. Read Melanie Walsh at 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.