Social Media
- TikTok Shop is now the size of eBay. TikTok doesn’t disclose sales figures, but Wired reads the tea leaves to conclude that TikTok Shop is selling the same volume of products as eBay after only two years in business. However, livestreaming ecommerce is a big part of what makes TikTok Shop even more successful in China, which so far is not as popular in the US. Read Zeyi Yang at Wired.
Traditional Publishing
- Do TV and film adaptations sell more books? Well, yes, but typically those books are already selling incredibly well. As with everything, there are outliers. Read Sean Delone at Dear Head of Mine.
- A foreign rights agent reports on fiction trends at Frankfurt. Lots of detail here about dark romance and fantasy, genre mashups, romantasy, and glimmers of hope in the children’s market. Read at Reddit’s PubTips board.
Culture & Politics
- A federal court rules that IMLS can’t be shut down. The IMLS funds libraries and museums across the country; it was one of the first federal agencies the Trump administration attempted to dismantle. Congress is now debating whether to keep the IMLS funded next year and how much it will receive. Read Andrew Richard Albanese at Words and Money.
AI
- Quote of the week about AI: “The overarching rule is simple: Your close collaborator should never be surprised that you used AI. If you’ll forgive a crude metaphor, you wouldn’t bring a sex toy into the bedroom unless you and your partner had discussed it ahead of time.” All is forgiven, and I hope people make use of the checklist and process outlined. Read Josh Bernoff.
- White House prepares an executive order to block state AI laws. The AI industry and its Republican supporters argue that allowing states to regulate AI will slow innovation. Read Brendan Bordelon and Christine Mui at Politico.
- OverDrive sues OpenAI over Sora trademark. OverDrive, the leading distributor of digital materials to libraries, has long operated an app called Sora for students. Last week, they filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for using the name Sora for its own app for AI-generated videos. “There exists a certain, grave risk of reputational harm to OverDrive if the public perceives an association between OverDrive and OpenAI,” said OverDrive lawyers. Read Andrew Richard Albanese at Words & Money.
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.