News
- Amazon is cutting orders to book publishers as the holiday season gets underway. Apparently, it’s to help Amazon deal with congestion issues at its warehouses. The issue isn’t a new one. Read Jim Milliot in Publishers Weekly.
- Harry Potter publisher hit by China tariffs. Because Harry Potter is printed in China, those books became 15 percent more expensive to produce—practically overnight—due to US tariffs. Read Nigel Newton at the BBC.
- Macmillan CEO continues to defend the embargo to libraries. He believes delaying access to new-release ebooks in libraries will boost the publisher’s revenues, even though more and more libraries are pledging to spend their money elsewhere. Read Andrew Albanese in Publishers Weekly.
- Amazon is accused of forcing up prices in antitrust complaint. In a letter to Congress, a merchant argues that the company is hurting consumers by forcing him and other sellers to use the company’s expensive logistics services, thus leading to higher prices. Read Spencer Soper in Bloomberg.
- Bustle’s staffers have been laid off, including its books editor. It’s a blow for traditional publishers, who count on Bustle for coverage of literary fiction, nonfiction, YA and romance. Bustle promises to relaunch and hire anew. Read Todd Spangler at Variety.
Canada
- Instapoets represent 70 percent of all poetry books sold in Canada. While it’s an impressive figure, the Instapoets’ domination may have peaked in 2017. Read Monique Mongeon at BookNet Canada.
- Indigo’s sales slide. The Canadian chain bookstore cites strong competition and a reduction in promotional campaigns for the decline. Read Ed Nawotka in Publishers Weekly.
- Why aren’t Canadians reading Canadian books? In short: corporate domination. Read Susan Swan at Now Toronto.
Trends
- The head of HarperCollins Christian Publishing thinks hybrid publishing is the future. He says it will become a “primary adaptation” that publishers will make in the next five years. Read Emma Wenner in Publishers Weekly.
- What do changes at Harlequin mean for romance? Author Jeffe Kennedy discusses the latest reorganization and how self-publishing is changing the market. Read at Jason Sanford’s Patreon page.
- As ever, traditional publishers are focused on their biggest titles. As the midlist continues to shrink and publishers devote more time and energy to the bestsellers, breaking out new authors has become a challenge. Read Rachel Deahl in Publishers Weekly.
- Crime fiction today is more inclusive of women. In this roundtable discussion, crime authors comment on trends—including diversity—and what inspires them. Read at CrimeReads.
Culture and Politics
- Who gave you the right to tell that story? Ten authors address today’s most divisive question in fiction and the times they wrote outside their own identities. Read Lila Shapiro in Vulture.
- Why Oprah’s book club holds lasting importance. The club created a new world for readers by elevating black writers who make race the center of their work. Read Jamilah King at Mother Jones.
- Editor Peter Osnos shares his experience of managing publication of Donald Trump’s first two books. Random House published The Art of the Deal when Osnos had been at the company for little more than a year. Read Osnos in the New Yorker.
- Star Trek tie-in novels have a gender problem. Women wrote 60 percent of Trek tie-in novels in the 1980s, but today, that percentage is 12 percent. Read Liz Barr at Squiddishly Dot Net.
- There’s a resurgence of feminist bookstores in the South. The stores act as community hubs for political education and organizing. Read Meagan at Autostraddle.
Marketing Toolbox
- Here’s another call for Goodreads to improve and update its user experience. The site hasn’t changed much in look and feel since its launch in 2006. Read Steph Coelho at Book Riot.
- If you’re looking to hire a publicist: Here’s an updated cheat sheet, compiled by the experts at Publishing Trends, of industry publicists. Download at their site.
- How to connect diverse books with diverse audiences: Marketers in traditional publishing discuss how they build multicultural campaigns. Read Sarah Yung at Publishers Weekly.
- Influencer marketing deals shift toward performance. Rather than being overly focused on follow counts, advertisers are taking a more nuanced approach. Read Kristina Monllos at Digiday.
Self-publishing
- An established YA author experiments with self-publishing. Melissa Marr has published with HarperCollins and Little, Brown, but has gone indie to try something new and avoid being pigeonholed. Read Matia Madrona Query at BookLife.
- How to publish blank books for a profit. A group of self-publishing authors have learned how to successfully sell planners, sketchbooks, and journals through Amazon. Read Julia Glum at Money.
- Two new opportunities for print-on-demand distribution: Kobo has partnered with Fnac to sell and distribute POD books in France; authors must be enrolled in Kobo Writing Life to participate. And Amazon has launched its KDP service for print titles in Canada. (For US authors, that means you can now establish your pricing in Canadian dollars.) Read the press release on KDP in Canada.
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.