Marketing Toolbox
- The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) recently offered a full day of free virtual workshops, many marketing and business focused, all available online. Review the program here.
- Best practices for selling more books on Amazon: Established authors will be aware of the strategies and tactics in this article, but it doesn’t hurt to review what works. Review five sales methods explained by Written Word Media.
- Now that the New York Times has eliminated ebook bestseller lists—making it harder for self-published authors to becomes a NYT bestseller—indie author Marie Force has decided to stop chasing any bestseller list as a goal. Read at her blog.
Amazon
- Amazon has launched Amazon Author Insights: a collection of tips and advice from the self-publishing community on writing, publishing, and marketing. It’s still in beta and thin on content, but take a look.
- An interview with the UK manager of Amazon KDP: Darren Hardy discusses the KDP paperback program, errors to avoid in self-publishing, and how authors can get Amazon’s attention. Both audio and transcript are available at Self-Publishing Formula.
- Amazon.com will soon be bilingual. Visitors will be able to toggle between English and Spanish. Learn more at CNET.
Innovations
- Independent booksellers are succeeding with monthly subscription services, especially for kids’ books. Learn more in Publishers Weekly.
- Why did e-readers succeed as a disruptive innovation in the US but not Japan? The London School of Economics reviews the organizational, environmental, and technological factors. Read the brief overview.
- A data scientist has analyzed word usage across classics and contemporary bestsellers. Hemingway ranked very low on his use of –ly words. Take a look.
News
- Libro.fm just announced an audiobook subscription service. It costs $15 for one audiobook per month and currently offers a catalog of about 70,000 titles. Learn more at Libro.fm’s site.
- App developer Rovio has launched Kaiken Publishing, a book publishing spin-off of Angry Birds. It concentrates on children’s and teen content as well as comics for all ages. Learn more at Rovio’s site.
- Black novelists are using YA novels as a form of activism. A feature in the New York Times looks at a variety of recent releases, including The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Read.
- Swedish ebook and audiobook subscription service Storytel expands. They’ve made a new acquisition, this time Denmark’s influential People’s Press. Learn more at Publishing Perspectives.
Poetry
- Poetry sales jumped by 79 percent in Canada last year. The success is driven largely by one book, Milk and Honey, which was first self-published, then picked up by Andrews McMeel. Learn more in Shelf Awareness.
- Ingram has launched a poetry-focused email newsletter. The editor is writer and bookseller Stephen Sparks. Read more in Shelf Awareness.
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.