Links of Interest: October 13, 2021

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Traditional Publishing

  • Where have all the midsize publishers gone? Longtime industry journalist Jim Milliot says there is a dearth of publishers that fall between the Big Five and smaller independents. Some of the existing midsize publishers include Andrews McMeel, Chronicle, Kensington, and Norton. Read in Publishers Weekly.
  • An open letter calls for publishers to name translators on the cover. Authors organizations are encouraging members to sign. UK publisher Pan Macmillan has already agreed. Learn more at The Society of Authors.
  • Professional publisher RELX Group (once known as Reed Elsevier) remains the world’s biggest publisher. The world’s largest consumer publisher remains Bertelsmann, parent company of Penguin Random House. Read Jim Milliot in Publishers Weekly.
  • Learn about Abdulrazak Gurnah, this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Kristen Roupenian writes, “Gurnah, like so many other authors who choose to write in English despite its not being their first language, has thought deeply about questions of tradition, influence, and canon.” Read at The New Yorker.

Canada

  • An overview of book publishing in Canada 2021. While independent bookstores in the US account for only a small percentage (around 5 percent) of sales, in Canada they may account for as much as 25 percent of sales for Canadian-produced books. Read Ed Nawotka at Publishers Weekly.
  • The state of independent bookselling in Canada. BookNet Canada gathered data from 55 independent bookstores to learn what’s changed in the market since 2018. Learn more. They also have a report on how COVID has affected book buying during the first half of 2021.

Amazon

  • How has the Amazon algorithm changed fiction? A new book by Mark McGurl argues that Amazon shapes the creation of all published culture and we are living in the Amazon Era of Literature. Read Kyle Chayka at The New Republic.
  • A look at what’s happening with Kindle Vella after several months on the market. While authors say the readership hasn’t met their expectations, Amazon says it is just getting started. Read Todd Bishop at GeekWire.

Scandals

  • Everyone’s talking about “Bad Art Friend.” It includes all the hot-button topics for writing and publishing: questions of artistic license, plagiarism, and copyright; status anxiety in the literary world; gossipy writing groups; social media use; and race. Read Robert Kolker at The New York Times Magazine.
  • Some authors and employees with Blushing Books are not happy. The publisher of spanking erotica is accused of missing and delayed payments and other mismanagement. Read Alexandra Alter in The New York Times.

Trends

  • “I’ve spent my whole adult life chasing the high of a Scholastic book fair.” Now that schools are returning to in-person instruction, the book fair also returns—to great excitement. Read Ann Kjellberg at Book Post.
  • The world’s manga love affair is just beginning. Manga sales in the US grew 44 percent from 2019 to 2020 and are responsible for an 80 percent growth in graphic novel sales this year. Read Eric Margolis at Evergreen.
  • The supply chain mystery: why do shortages continue? The New Yorker looks at why, a year and a half into the pandemic, there are still problems. Read Amy Davidson Sorkin.

Legal

  • #DisneyMustPay update: The company has acquired many publishers over the years but claims it is not obligated to make payments stipulated in those publishers’ contracts. Read Victoria Strauss in Writer Beware.
  • A look at the nightmare foreign rights taxation situation. An agent explains foreign rights in book publishing and the related taxation issues that have become a headache due (in part) to the pandemic. Read Dara Kaye on Twitter.

Tools

  • StoryOrigin now helps with beta reader management. StoryOrigin offers varied tools for managing reviewers, reader magnets, and promotions—and now for managing betas. Learn more about the feature.