Author Events
- Publicists in the UK expect to return to in-person events in September. Most will continue with virtual or hybrid events at the same time. Traditional publishers say these events are critical for author visibility. Read in The Bookseller (subscription required).
- In the US, publishers and authors remain reticent about planning for in-person events. Even though there’s agreement that online events have become “stale,” publishers have avoided any firm timetable for resuming live tours. Read in Publishers Weekly.
- Who’s benefiting from virtual event tours? Foreign authors. Authors and translators can appear at the same event and attract audiences from around the world. Read Ed Nawotka in Publishers Weekly.
Literary Trends
- The convergence of literary novels and crime writing: More crime writers are putting survivors at the center of their novels; more literary writers are learning why plot is helpful when writing about wrenching events. Read Lily Meyer at The Atlantic.
- The long and short of novel lengths. Why did the novella disappear in the US market? How has the length of a novel fluctuated over time? Lincoln Michel takes a look at the history of novel lengths by genre and crunches the numbers. Read at Counter Craft.
- #MeToo memoirs hit the marketplace. The category began with the movement in October 2017, and the marketability of sexual violence memoirs has increased. But making such stories public can be re-traumatizing for the author when criticized. Read Nicole Froio at Harper’s Bazaar.
Business Trends
- UK’s traditional publishing sector did well in 2020. Fiction and audiobooks did particularly well, with sales up 7 percent despite bookshop closures. Print accounted for 53 percent of sales, and digital for 47 percent. Read Alison Flood in The Guardian.
- Bookwire will launch an NFT marketplace for publishing. The German digital book distributor plans to open the platform in the fall for digital originals such as first editions, original manuscripts, and audio recordings. Read Porter Anderson in Publishing Perspectives.
- The Shopify effect. Merchants of all sizes are thriving on Shopify, and the platform represents a growing and important alternative to selling on Amazon. But it benefits a very particular type of merchant, one that creates meaning. Read Alex Danco.
- Related to the above: Amazon is letting some of its sellers contact customers. In a dramatic change, Amazon is offering a program that allows some third-party sellers to communicate with customers who opt to follow them. (Customer data, such as emails, are not released.) Competition from Shopify is sure to be a factor here.
- The Christian nonfiction market is signing more BIPOC authors. Interest has increased over the last year; focus has shifted from authors with huge platforms (e.g., mega-pastors) to a wider spectrum of writers—although a platform is still important for nonfiction. Read Ann Byle in Publishers Weekly.
Audio Trends
- Apple and Spotify now allow podcasters to charge for content. Nicholas Quah has the most in-depth analysis of the programs, both pros and cons. Read at Hot Pod.
- As more YA titles with transgender and nonbinary characters are published, demand is increasing for voice actors who reflect those identities. In 2018, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center counted seven books with trans and nonbinary primary characters. In 2020, that number reached 25. Read Gabrielle Bondi at BuzzFeed.
- The bizarre world of scam audiobooks. At Amazon, there are thousands of books written by bots—and sometimes they end up on Audible. These books are a result of Amazon’s strategy for building Audible’s audience; it offered 200 promotional codes to anyone who completed production on an audiobook, regardless of the content. Audible then paid out a royalty whenever a code was redeemed. Read Francis Blagburn at Vice.
Culture & Politics
- Disabled writers push back against common and harmful tropes. Non-disabled editors and agents may look for stories where disabled persons “overcome” their disability, while a disabled storyteller considers disability part of their essential self. Read Margaret Kingsbury at Book Riot.
- The wide gulf between Rachel Hollis the online persona and Rachel Hollis the boss. The New York Times digs deeper into Hollis’s work and the social media controversy that led to the postponement of her self-improvement conference for women. Read Katherine Rosman at The New York Times.
- Historical romance has typically been all white; some authors defend that as being accurate to the times. But the success of Netflix’s Bridgerton, with many Black characters, is beginning to change opinion about what’s “accurate.” Read Zeahaa Rehman at The Walrus.
Amazon
- Amazon blocks 10 billion listings in counterfeit crackdown. The retailer has been dealing with counterfeit products for years; its latest efforts come as the company has been under greater scrutiny by lawmakers. Read Joseph Pisani at the AP.
- A detailed summary of how Kindle Vella will pay. Since incorrect information has made the rounds regarding Vella’s terms thus far, we’ll reiterate here that authors remain owner of their copyright for work published through Vella (as they do through KDP), and Amazon holds only non-exclusive rights to publish the stories in Vella. Learn about the financials at The Passive Voice.
Marketing and Publicity
- How to make an ebook marketing funnel. If you plan to advertise or make an ebook available for free, it’s necessary to understand the concept of a marketing funnel. Read Clayton Noblit at Written Word Media.
- Avoid the Amazon Super URL. When linking to your book—especially when sharing a link to ask people to review your book—make sure you’re using a “clean” link. Read Miral Sattar.
- What’s in a pen name? Agent Kate McKean explains the ins and outs of using a pen name when you are querying. Read at Agents and Books.
- Google no longer allows advertising for digital books. This affects publishers who use Google ads and shopping services to drive traffic to their websites. Likely factors include low-quality downloads (e.g., scraped or algorithmically generated books) as well as the ease of pirating digital goods and reselling them, which leads to complaints and enforcement headaches. Read Michael Kozlowski at Good e-Reader.
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.