Trends
- A bookish gift for the holidays: the subscription box. Earlier this year, we covered the relaunch of Book of the Month club. But they’re not the only game in town. Check out the latest subscription offerings for book lovers.
- Is audio the future of the book? Audiobooks are the fastest growing format in the publishing business. Does that mean they’re the future? Read this serious, in-depth report from JSTOR Daily.
- Entertainment coverage at newspapers is shrinking. It’s not exactly a new development, but due to falling ad revenue, newspapers are slashing their budgets for arts and entertainment reporting—even at major outlets such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Read more in Deadline Hollywood.
- More independent booksellers are becoming publishers. Back in the 19th and 20th centuries, it wasn’t uncommon for publishers to also be booksellers. That line is becoming blurred again; booksellers are launching new publishing efforts. Read about it in Publishers Weekly.
- Book reviewing has become “benign and polite.” Is it a good thing that it’s harder than ever to find hatchet jobs? The New Statesman considers the current state of book reviews.
Self-publishing
- Do you sell your ebooks through Kobo? If so, the retailer now offers authors who work with them directly a new country view that helps them see how their books appear across various territories and currencies. Kobo explains with screenshots.
- There’s a new self-publishing survey, this time from BookBaby. The goal is to uncover the most successful book marketing and promotion strategies for self-published authors. The company has partnered with 15 self-publishing providers to ask indie authors to share their marketplace experiences and opinions. Read the results.
Marketing Toolbox
- Use Facebook groups to build book buzz. If you’re frustrated with the performance of your Facebook business page, some authors are having better engagement by creating and nurturing Facebook groups. BookBub offers tips.
- An excellent beginner’s case study on selling books with Facebook ads: Author David Penny breaks down his approach and offers hard numbers. Read at the Creative Penn.
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.