Traditional Publishing
- University presses keep literature alive. An op-ed in the New York Times argues that university presses are vital because they are willing to take on books that have small, general readerships, including literary and regional works. Read Margaret Renkl.
- Academic publishing has a death instinct. Here’s a look at the other side of the coin: Prolific book author Ted Gioia sees serious problems in academic publishers’ design, marketing, and promotion efforts—and pricing. Read at The Honest Broker.
- Indie bookstores adopt new strategies for growth. Some do an active mail-order business and host virtual events in addition to serving their communities. Read Judith Rosen in Publishers Weekly.
Social Media
- You can finally schedule Instagram posts in the app. You’ll need to have a professional account, however. Read Matt G. Southern at Search Engine Journal.
- YouTube introduces a live Q&A feature. This makes it easier for creators to interact with viewers during livestreams. Read Aisha Malik at TechCrunch.
- Twitter will shut down Revue. Utterly unsurprising; Facebook already announced it is shutting down its newsletter platform as well. Read Kristina God at Better Marketing.
- Patreon launches a native video player. YouTubers make up a substantial portion of its creator base. Read Mia Sato at the Verge.
Amazon
- Everything on Amazon is an ad. Amazon advertising generates more revenue than Amazon Prime, Prime Video, and its audio and ebook subscription services combined. The growth of the Amazon ad business has caused some internal tensions at the company. Read Jason Del Rey at Vox.
- Amazon removes “leech publisher” listings. Such books get labeled and marketed as workbooks or guides to other works but are ultimately low-quality rip-offs of popular titles. Read Lauren Brown at the Bookseller (subscription required).
Culture & Politics
- Don Quixote tells us how Star Wars ends. Ted Gioia believes we can predict what will happen to the Disney franchise by studying how past pop culture narratives collapsed. Read The Honest Broker.
- Turns out that listicles may be an ancient form of narrative. Listicles encouraged early societies to develop new modes of thought and think analytically about the world. Perhaps there is an ancient cat listicle just waiting to be discovered? Read James Vincent at Lit Hub.
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.