News
- Learn more about why Disney isn’t paying authors. Book authors tied to big film franchises stopped receiving checks after Disney acquired Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century Fox. The legal issues are murky. Read Andrew Liptak at Polygon.
- As educational publishers pivot to digital models to survive, schools find themselves paying more than ever for books. Instead of buying permanent print copies, some schools sign contracts for digital access that involve continual payments. As an example, The Diary of Anne Frank costs $27 per student for a 12-month subscription. Read Maria Bustillos in The New Republic.
- PublishDrive releases its 2020 year in review. The ebook distributor saw 77 percent of its digital book sales come from international markets; digital libraries and subscription platforms more than doubled. Read Kinga Jentetics.
Amazon
- Amazon’s advertising business is booming during the pandemic. It’s growing faster than its retail, cloud computing, and Prime subscription divisions—and chipping away at Google’s dominant position. Read in Financial Times (subscription required).
- Jeff Bezos is concerned about Shopify. Amazon may launch a direct competitor. Read Eugene Kim at Business Insider (subscription required).
Trends
- TikTok is taking the place of music blogs and journalism. Popular accounts bring attention to new acts and offer news summaries. Read Elias Leight at Rolling Stone.
- 2020 was a breakout year for the creator economy. Substack has more than 250,000 paid subscribers, and its top 10 publishers collectively earn more than $10 million a year. More than 6 million people pay creators through Patreon. OnlyFans will earn $300 million in profit this year. Twitch has doubled the number of streamers on its platform during the pandemic. Read Sara Fischer at Axios.
- How publishers and school librarians are partnering on virtual events. Publishers say this form of marketing is here to stay. Read Marlaina Cockcroft at School Library Journal.
Culture and Politics
- Publishers are still acquiring Trump books. President Trump has been a boon for adult nonfiction book sales since 2016. More than 1,200 books have been released about him since he took office, compared to 500 about Barack Obama during his first term. Big Five publishers still see money to be made once he’s gone. Read Alexandra Alter in The New York Times.
- The history of book covers. Quartz obsesses over the art of book cover design. Read.
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.