Links of Interest: November 9, 2022

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Trends

  • An analysis of the last five years of US traditional publishing sales. Publishing Perspectives breaks down five years of book market data collected by the Association of American Publishers. Read Porter Anderson.
  • Bookstores vanish from Japan as population declines. The number of bookstores in Japan has declined by 30 percent since 2012. Read Chika Takada at The Japan Times.
  • Read a summary of the PageBreak conference. An editor who works with self-publishing offers insightful takeaways about publishing tools, technology, and the future. Read Kristen Tate at The Blue Garret.
  • Why musicians and other creatives will soon get their revenge on the old guard. You don’t have to give your work away for free, and alternative economic models have emerged. Read Ted Gioia at The Honest Broker.

Culture & Politics

  • More on the Hobart problem: A poet in the literary publishing community comments on the practices of “rehoming,” “dogpiles,” and online smear campaigns as they pertain to literary journals. Read Johnny Longfellow at Lit Mag News Roundup.
  • PEN America rejects call to cancel Amy Coney Barrett’s book. Their statement says in part, “It is the role of major publishers to make available a wide array of ideas and perspectives. … Editors should play a role in raising tough questions in preparing a book for publication to ensure that work serves the public interest in terms of thoroughness and veracity.” Read at PEN America.
  • A closer look at Moms for Liberty, the right-wing group behind the book-banning movement in schools. The group claims that teachers are indoctrinating students with dangerous ideologies—but are they really concerned about protecting kids? Read Paige Williams at The New Yorker.