Traditional Publishing
- Edelweiss has dramatically increased prices. Edelweiss is considered a must-have software service for publishers, as it’s how they distribute catalogs and help support bookstore sales. Edelweiss is also heavily used by reviewers and others in the industry who need to identify upcoming titles. But after being sold to a private equity firm by its founders, Edelweiss has tripled pricing for some of its clients, making small presses especially rethink whether it’s really a must-have. After reading this Publishers Weekly article about the situation, I see a tremendous market opportunity for a resource-rich competitor to enter the market. Read Claire Kirch with Jim Milliot and Nathalie op de Beeck.
- Publishers Weekly has released its annual salary and jobs report. There is more diversity, and median pay has increased. About two-thirds of respondents said their companies use AI. Take a look.
- Participate in another industry survey. Veteran publicist Paul Bogaards has written about the PW results and created a survey of his own for those working inside publishing. Visit Kill Your Darlings.
Self-Publishing
- The Indie Author Project winner has been announced. The library-driven award honors exceptional self-published authors. This year the winner is novelist Cynthia Swanson, who won for her third novel. Her first two novels were traditionally published and she wrote recently about being abandoned by both of her Big Five publishers at my site. Learn about the award.
- Blurb versus Bookvault for POD. A person in the literary press community offers a point-by-point comparison of print-on-demand services Blurb and Bookvault. Read Vevna Forrow at the Lit Mag Lab.
Bookselling
- If customers want AI-generated books, James Daunt says they will sell them. It’s a clickbait headline for something the Waterstones and Barnes & Noble CEO doesn’t even think will happen in the first place. Read Felicity Hannah and Michael Sheils McNamee at the BBC.
- A roundtable chat with three independent booksellers. Literary agent Alia Hanna Habib talks with bookstores about how they stock their stores and how they decide what events to host. (Bookstores often lose money on events.) Read at Delivery & Acceptance.
- Learn more about the role of indie booksellers. Publicist Jeffrey Yamaguchi offers resources for better understanding the bookstore market, including links to bookseller newsletters. Read at Book Publishing Brick by Brick.
Culture & Politics
- Reese Witherspoon’s company has launched a book club, Sunnie Reads, for Gen Z. The women-focused media and lifestyle company has teamed up with luxury fashion brand Coach to launch Sunnie Reads. According to the company’s own research, reading is one of the top five leisure activities among Gen Z. The first club selection will be in January. Read Sam Spratford at Publishers Weekly.
- All about the “cozy lit” phenomenon. Cats, tea, books, rain. More cats. It’s all about the vibes or “the literary equivalent of watching someone slice butter on TikTok.” Read Greta Rainbow at The Walrus.
AI
- The distinctive writing style of AI chatbots. This is me, entirely: “When you spend enough time around AI-generated text, you start to develop a novel form of paranoia. At this point, I have a pretty advanced case. Every clunky metaphor sets me off; every waffling blog post has the dead cadence of the machine.” I’ve subscribed to more than a few newsletters lately that I was initially excited about until I realized they were written primarily by AI. Read Sam Kriss at New York Times Magazine (gift link).
- India proposes national mandatory licensing for AI training on copyrighted materials. The government would give AI companies like Google and OpenAI access to all copyrighted works in exchange for paying royalties to a collective licensing agency. Tech companies aren’t enthusiastic because they argue training should not typically require licensing. Read Jagmeet Singh at TechCrunch.
- Publishers are using AI more than they let on. That’s an assertion—which I entirely agree with—made by Rachel Noorda, a researcher and professor at Portland State University. Read Sam Spratford at Publishers Weekly.
Libraries
- IMLS will reinstate all canceled grants. After a federal judge permanently blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the organization said it will restore all federal grants. Read Andrew Richard Albanese at Words & Money.
- What authors need to know about the Baker & Taylor closure. The Authors Guild has an explainer on how library access to books might change now that that libraries and small presses have to find new suppliers and distributors. Read at the Authors Guild website.
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.