Traditional Publishing
- Macmillan is closing its romance community site, Heroes and Heartbreakers. It was launched six years ago as a publisher-agnostic site, with reviews, coverage, and discussion of romance-related books, movies, and TV shows. Macmillan’s announcement indicates the company will focus on growing its email newsletter and social media instead. Learn more at Dear Author.
- The Midwestern bookstore chain Book World is going out of business after 40 years. The company has 20 stores in Wisconsin and 45 stores total across seven states. Book World said of the closing, “The national shift in the retail marketplace towards e-commerce has triggered the loss of vital mall anchor stores and a downward spiral in customer counts at Book World stores, reducing sales to a level that will no longer sustain business operations.” Learn more in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune report by Caitlin Shuda, Nate Beck, and Phillip Bock.
- Major female trade authors are victims of an alleged fake ebook scam perpetrated on Amazon in the UK. Authors Miranda Dickinson and Melissa Hill allege that the intent of the fraudulent books is to generate per-page-read payments to fake accounts on Kindle Unlimited. Read more by Heloise Wood at the Bookseller (paywall).
Trends
- How book publishing is reshaping comics: While there’s continuing interest in the potential of serialization and serial reading in digital publishing circles, the comics industry sees its future in book formats. Learn more at KUOW.
- Books work better than films as trilogies. A statistician has determined that, while movie reviews decline as a series continues, book reviews get better. Read more from Kaylin Walker.
- Where is the horror novel headed? Stephen King still casts a long shadow, but what’s trending now? Dawn Ius discusses at the Big Thrill.
Audio
- Audible has launched a romance audiobook subscription service. Audible Romance offers unlimited access to 10,000 titles either as a $6.95/month add-on to existing Audible and Kindle Unlimited memberships or as a $14.95/month standalone service. Don’t miss the “Take Me to the Good Part” feature that “uses data science and machine learning to allow listeners to go straight to the most sought out and memorable sections of a romance audiobook.” Book Riot offers a summary of other key features.
- Audible launches in Chinese. The site offers about 300 Chinese audiobooks so far. Learn more in VentureBeat from Paul Sawers.
- Google Play may begin selling audiobooks. It’s not official, but a new version of the Play Store indicates audiobooks may be offered soon from Google. Learn more from Cody Toombs at Android Police.
- Big Five publishers are pursuing more audio-only projects. They’re looking at unpublished content from authors that might help expand their offerings as well as straight-to-audio projects that are shorter than traditional audiobooks. Find out more from Jenni Laidman in the Chicago Tribune.
- The BBC partnered with Amazon Alexa to launch the first interactive audio story. Listeners can use their voice to play one of the characters and influence the plot. Learn more from Katherine Cowdrey in the Bookseller (paywall).
Marketing Toolbox
- Exercise caution before using the newsletter swap service Bookclicker. A conversation about the company and its practices can be found on Kboards. Learn more.
- How to get more international exposure for your books: The BookBub blog offers seven specific steps you can take to increase your books’ visibility across the globe.Learn more.
International
- Tolino has launched an ebook subscription service—Tolino Select. But it’s not like Kindle Unlimited. Rather, readers pay €10/month to choose four titles from a curated selection of about 40 titles. The selection changes each month. Right now, the selection is limited to fiction titles. Indie authors may submit their ebooks for consideration, but payment is minimal and only given to newer titles. Learn more at Indies Go German.
- Oolipo expected to close. German publisher Bastei Lübbe announced that their mobile storytelling platform, Oolipo, in development since 2015, did not meet performance expectations and no new investors could be found. Here’s the press release.
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.