Links of Interest: March 20, 2019

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Trends

  • Spanish-language audiobooks surge. New research from Spanish and Latin American publishers anticipates 250 percent growth in 2019, with subscription platforms as the leading model for sales. Read in Publishing Perspectives.
  • Reddit is testing out tipping. So far, it’s just for one user, but it points to a continued interest in patron support in online communities. Read James Loke Hale in Tubefilter.
  • Is Instagram poetry legitimate poetry? The rise of the Instapoets has led to debate and division in the writing and publishing community. Read Anna Leszkiewicz in The New Statesman.
     
  • The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon sells books. Authors see big boosts in their Amazon rankings after an appearance with Fallon. Read more at Publishing Perspectives.

Copyright Issues

  • You must have a registered copyright (not just a submitted copyright application) to sue. This isn’t really a change in the law—merely a clarification by the Supreme Court. The Authors Guild isn’t happy about the decision, although arguably the number of individual authors with the financial means to go to federal court over copyright infringement is pretty small. Read at the Authors Guild site.
  • ReDigi looks to the Supreme Court. The company that attempted to facilitate resale of ebook files—which is so far considered infringement—still seeks a decision in its favor. Read Andrew Albanese in Publishers Weekly.
  • The current state of digital book theft. The Guardian looks at a problem that is most reliable in unifying authors in their scorn: book piracy. Read Katy Guest.
  • Several music services are trying to avoid increased royalty payments to songwriters. The US Copyright Royalty Board recently approved an increase to streaming royalties for songwriters and music publishers, but companies like Spotify are appealing the decision. Read Marc Hogan at Pitchfork.

Amazon

  • Tim Carmody does a deep dive on Amazon as a marketplace and as a monopoly. He touches on the greater scrutiny now falling on Amazon (and all big tech companies). Read at Amazon Chronicles.
  • Children’s book bundles come to Alexa. Children’s publisher Capstone has added 50 You Choose books to the voice-activated assistant—all previously published in print. To access the content, parents must pay to subscribe to Amazon’s FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa. According to Amazon, FreeTime for Alexa grants access to 1,000 Audible titles and 200 short stories in the Amazon Storytime skill. Read Jason Boog in Publishers Weekly.
  • Amazon no longer requires that merchants sell on Amazon at the lowest price anywhere. That means authors no longer have to worry that Amazon will automatically price-match their books if they’re sold elsewhere for a lower price. Read David McCabe in Axios.

Translations

  • Production fell on US translations in 2018. Despite awards and public attention, the total number of new translations published in the US declined; translation’s peak in the US, title-wise, was in 2016. Read Chad Post in Publishers Weekly.
  • But there’s a translation sales boom in the UK. According to recent figures, sales of translated fiction in the UK are up 5.5 percent. French literature accounted for 17 percent of the sales, and is the language that UK books are most commonly translated from. Read Alison Flood in The Guardian.

New Imprint Alerts

  • Chronicle Books has a new nonfiction imprint, Chronicle Prism. It will publish narrative, inspirational, and prescriptive nonfiction books. Learn more in Shelf Awareness.
  • Arthur A. Levine is leaving Scholastic to found a new publishing company. He plans to focus on diverse authors. Learn more from Emma Kantor in Publishers Weekly.
  • A new children’s imprint focuses on books with the potential to translate internationally as well as into various platforms. Pixel+Ink launches as part of Trustbridge Global Media. Learn more from Emma Kantor in Publishers Weekly.
  • Zondervan is launching two new imprints. Zondervan Reflective will focus on leadership, the intersection of faith and culture, and growing and exploring a reader’s ministry. Zondervan Academic will publish on “Christianity in its broadly evangelical expression,” according to its executive editor. Read the press release.
  • HarperCollins has launched HarperVia. The imprint will acquire mostly fiction in translation and plans to release 24 titles per year. Read the press release.