- The New York Times published a piece on the growth in personalized children’s books, which has added one or two percent to children’s publishing revenues. While customized books are more difficult to mass produce and stock in bookstores, Barnes & Noble has been running tests in stores using print-on-demand technology.
- Nell Casey is the newest person to join Catapult as editor at large; she will acquire narrative nonfiction. Catapult is an independent literary publisher that launched in September and is funded by Elizabeth R. Koch, the daughter of billionaire Charles Koch. Catapult has an annual budget in the six figures and plans to publish twelve books a year, in addition to hosting a community site where emerging writers can post their work and receive feedback. Catapult’s publisher is Andy Hunter, co-founder of Electric Literature; Pat Strachan (formerly of Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is editor in chief. Find out more at Poets & Writers.
- The Wall Street Journal apparently just discovered BookBub and the larger trend of email discount deals sweeping the book business. The WSJ does cite one new statistic we hadn’t seen before: nearly 5 percent of traditionally published ebooks purchased in 2015 were discovered through daily deals offerings.
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.