- Amazon recently launched Storywriter [since discontinued], a free, cloud-based screenwriting software meant to compete against more expensive options, such as Final Draft. The move further underlines Amazon’s commitment to producing original TV and movie programming under Amazon Studios; in an effort to encourage submissions from all writers (including WGA members), Amazon said it would no longer claim an automatic 45-day unpaid option on scripts submitted directly to them. TechCrunch reports on the fine print and larger strategy at Amazon.
- According to the Wall Street Journal, “Literary fiction … is generating bigger and bigger bets by publishers.” The article cites runaway hits such as The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr as contributing to publishers’ enthusiasm, as well as social media creating a “culture in which everyone reads”—but reads the same handful of books. So far, four literary debut novels are planned for 2016 that earned advances of at least $1 million or more. Such an advance requires a book to sell about 200,000 copies in North America to break even.
- If you’d like to study up on the models used by libraries for ebook licensing, there’s a new, free report—a collaboration between Publishing Perspectives, Bookwire, and Dosdoce—that outlines the key aspects of digital licensing. It’s not exactly pleasure reading, but useful if you’re at all involved in the library market.
- “Publishing, the time has come to embrace tagging. It will set us free.” A persuasive argument for how to improve the discoverability of books and move beyond the limitations of the BISAC code (publishing’s current subject/genre classification system).
- BookBub offers a few basic but good ideas for increasing international book sales, with useful links and resources.
- You’ve probably seen widespread sharing and discussion of Claire Vaye Watkins’s “On Pandering” at the Tin House website. Don’t miss Man Booker winner Marlon James’s response.
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.