Bookselling
- Some Kindle readers are fed up with SEO-optimized book titles. Authors and publishers alike will stuff book subtitles with keywords to improve discovery on Amazon, e.g., “A Dark Addictive Thriller for Fans of X & Y (A Totally Gripping Novel Book 1).” Recently on Reddit, readers commiserated about this trend they hate, but I can guarantee it will continue as long as it works. Read Kaitlyn Cimino at Android Authority.
- Always check your book’s product page and metadata at major retailers. Children’s author Darcy Pattison shares her experience of discovering that BarnesandNoble.com wasn’t carrying all of her titles, and even for the ones they did carry, there were sometimes problems on the product page. Read Indie Kids Books.
AI
- Bloomsbury now uses Google’s AI services. The press release from the UK publisher says, “With an advanced AI infrastructure, Bloomsbury will benefit from data-driven and semantic search insights to improve trend analysis and drive book sales across Bloomsbury’s entire catalogue, while custom print prediction models can improve inventory management.” Read.
- Is it harder for talent to get discovered today? And will AI make it more difficult? I don’t think so, and neither does this analyst: “The odds of a one-in-a-million talent getting discovered are a lot higher if they can be discovered directly by fans, rather than by an agent, a studio executive, or an editor. Generative AI has a surprisingly small impact on this; the more creators go direct, the more they’re getting paid for the parasocial relationship rather than the content itself.” So, a good news / bad news situation, unless you enjoy that parasocial dynamic. Read Byrne Hobart at The Diff.
- Will AI-written books destroy publishing? Like publisher Anne Trubek, I don’t think so. Read at Notes from a Small Press.
Children’s
- The latest trends in children’s publishing. Members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators discussed how to revamp familiar tropes, among other topics. Read Nathalie op de Beeck 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.