News
- The ReDigi copyright case is decided (again). You can be forgiven for thinking this case actually wrapped up ages ago. A US appeals court has backed an earlier district court ruling that ReDigi resales of ebooks are copyright infringement. (The company is already out of business.) Read at Publishing Perspectives.
- A literary agent loses her lawsuit against a bestselling author. Based in Australia, agent Selwa Anthony sued her client, Kate Morton, claiming she was entitled to her 15 percent commission after the professional relationship ended. The court thought otherwise and even ordered Anthony to pay Morton more than a half million dollars. Read in The Guardian.
- Medium is interested in buying New York magazine. The move reflects the site’s very serious goal of improving its content after switching to a subscription model. Read at Bloomberg.
- Sales of books by Canadian authors are falling in Canada. A new study recommends ways the industry can refocus readers’ attention. More from Ed Nawotka in Publishers Weekly.
- Tin House is closing while they’re still ahead. The literary journal will stop publishing with its 20th anniversary issue next summer. Learn more from April Baer at OPB.
- California writers may be losing out on jobs. The Authors Guild considers legislation (which we covered back in September) that affects freelancers in the state. Read.
Trends
- The definitions of YA vs middle grade are blurring because so many adults are reading YA. Read Stacy Whitman in Publishers Weekly.
- The teen rom-com has been reborn. So says Buzzfeed, based on a variety of breakout teen movies such as To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Read Pier Dominguez.
- Times are tough for textbook authors. Leading academic publishers are contracting fewer titles and focusing more on digital courseware. Read Lindsay McKenzie in Inside Higher Ed.
- What can book publishers learn from the music industry? Bill Rosenblatt argues that publishers should pay more attention to streaming and subscription services. Read in Publishers Weekly.
Politics and Culture
- Political poetry is hot again. The current poet laureate, Tracy K. Smith, explains why and how. Read at The New York Times.
- Late-night TV hosts give novelists some attention. But the spotlight doesn’t necessarily lead to book sales. Read Alexandra Alter and John Koblin in The New York Times.
- Literary hoaxes and the ethics of authorship: what happens when we find out writers aren’t who they said they are. Read Louis Menand in The New Yorker.
Amazon
- Amazon is cracking down on counterfeit textbooks. Unsurprisingly, some small sellers say they’ve been unfairly targeted and are not at fault, yet have little or no recourse. Read Ari Levy at CNBC.
Marketing Toolbox
- How to still get organic reach on social media. Your average Facebook post only reaches about 5 percent of its fans. So now what? Alfred Lua at Buffer has some suggestions.
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.