Traditional Publishing
- A $50,000 award for mid-career fiction writers: The SFC Literary Prize, first awarded in 2009, is given every two years to an author who has recently published her third to fifth work of fiction. All authors are eligible, but the winners are distinctly literary. Find out more.
- Publishers Weekly looks at 2016 traditional print book sales by category. Adult coloring books remain a standout category; there were also double-digit gains in self-help and religion. Underperforming categories: art/architecture and computers. See the full list.
- Firebrand has acquired ebook distributor Enthrill. Firebrand is a publishing services company that primarily serves traditional publishers. Find out more at Publishing Perspectives.
- There’s now a Professional Association of Canadian Literary Agents (PACLA),and it has about 35 members so far. Learn more at Publishers Lunch.
Indie Authors
- The indie gold rush is long over. Author Kristine Rusch offers a cogent analysis of where we’ve been and where we’re going. Read at her blog.
- A lawsuit has been filed against All Romance eBooks that seeks class-action status. Author Brenda Cothern filed the suit on Jan. 12; find out more at Writer Beware (scroll to the bottom for updates). Here’s a link to the filing.
- 10 rights hacks: Increase your ability to sell rights with these insights from two experts in the business. Read more at Publishing Perspectives.
- IBPA’s Publishing University has posted its full schedule. Full disclosure: Jane Friedman is the keynote. Find out more. [Editor’s note: The content at this link is updated annually and does not reflect the 2017 IBPA Publishing University schedule.]
Amazon
- Amazon launches a £20,000 self-publishing prize in the UK. Any author publishing an English-language novel exclusively via Amazon KDP (on Amazon’s UK site) between Feb. 20 and May 19 of this year is automatically entered. Find out more.
- There have been distressing incidents of Amazon pulling indie authors’ works from sale, presumably based on the belief that the authors are scammers. Learn more (and see the comment thread) at the Passive Voice.
Audiobook Trends
- The first blockbuster audiobook? Superstar literary writer George Saunders will release his first novel in February, and anticipation is already building for the star-studded audiobook version. Read more at Lit Hub.
- Are print book reviews giving way to the podcast in the literary community? For literary authors, book discussion is gaining more traction in social media and multimedia channels. Of course, the rest of the book-reading world reached this point some time ago. Read more at the Millions.
- Audiobooks.com will now be available through Sonos. Sonos is a popular home sound system. [Editor’s note: The content originally linked here is no longer available.]
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.