Links of Interest: November 8, 2023

Traditional Publishing

• PRH’s fiction sales dropped by a quarter from 2010 to 2019. This statistic, revealed during the DOJ-PRH trial, is often missed as evidence that self-publishing authors have stolen market share from traditional publishing. Read SHuSH by Kenneth Whyte.
• The book-to-film market is seeing an uptick in deals. The strike put a damper on deals, but now there’s discussion of adaptations of Britney Spears’ memoir and Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Read Mike Fleming Jr at Deadline.
• The author of Maid discusses her finances with the New York Times. This is the latest installment in the age-old story of just how little authors—even the successful ones—earn from advances and book sales. Read Ron Lieber (gift link).
• A data analysis of 35 years of National Book Award winners. A group of researchers looked at the judges of the NBA and the winners, paying special attention to race. Read Alexander Manshel and Melanie Walsh at Public Books.

Audio

• Storytel turns an operating profit for the first time. For the first time since 2016, Swedish audiobook distributor Storytel announced an operating profit, driven largely by growth in the Nordic streaming business. Read Sovan Mandal at Good E-Reader.

Legal

• An update from the Copyright Claims Board. Now 18 months into its existence, officers at the CCB comment on the types of copyright infringements cases being brought and the common issues they see. TL;DR: the system is working as intended. Read Nora Scheland at the Library of Congress blog.

Culture & Politics

• Book bans can boost library circulation. A new study has found that banning books in one state—particularly those by lesser-known authors—often leads to a bump in those books’ circulation in states that did not ban it. Read Sareen Habeshian at Axios.
• A former Trump chief of staff gets sued by his publisher. Mark Meadows published a memoir in 2021 that claims the 2020 election was stolen. His publisher, All Seasons Press (founded in 2021), says Meadows’ reported testimony now contradicts claims in his book. It seeks the return of his advance ($350,000) and $1 million in damages. Read Hillel Italie at the Associated Press.
• Here’s another riff on Big Fiction. The new book by Dan Sinykin about the effects of conglomerate publishing on literature continues to spark think pieces like this one. Read Kenneth Dillon at Noema.
• Learn about the “It Girls” of literature. “Literary It Girls may have the standard markers of what we think of when we think of an It Girl: They’re beautiful, stylish, and social, with a certain je ne sais quoi. But what really makes them influential is the creative ways they stage and elevate their work—both on the page and in persona.” Read Sophia June at Nylon. (Be sure to pair this with the piece below on “covens.”)

Marketing

• A publicist offers marketing lessons from the “It Girls.” There’s considerable and deserved criticism here of the Nylon article, but also strong, actionable advice. It all boils down to: Start a coven. Read Cassie Mannes Murray at Pine State Publicity.
• How Britney Spears is promoting her memoir: no TV, no podcasts, lots of her own social media. She has not granted a single interview about the book. Publicists say this is completely out of the ordinary. Read Joe Coscarelli and Julia Jacobs at the New York Times (gift link).
• There’s now such a thing as a virtual book tour on Substack. First there were blog tours, then podcast tours and Instagram tours, so perhaps this was inevitable. Read Kathryn Vercillo on (of course) Substack.
• A better book cover design can improve sales. And in some cases, dramatically so. Review case studies at Reedsy.

Libraries

• UK authors face potential Public Lending Right (PLR) reduction.Essentially, the government wants to reduce payments to pre-pandemic rates. Read Heloise Wood at The Bookseller.