Links of Interest: October 18, 2017

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Frankfurt Book Fair

  • Penguin Random House’s Markus Dohle is optimistic about the book publishing industry and print books. Alex Mutter at Shelf Awareness summarizes Dohle’s positive outlook, conveyed at the opening of Frankfurt Book Fair. Read here.
  • The CEO of Simon & Schuster, Carolyn Reidy, answered questions from several industry journalists. She specifically commented on self-publishing, the romance book market, and the political climate. Read more from Alex Mutter at Shelf Awareness.
  • Iconic literary agent Andrew Wylie (“The Jackal”) spoke about diversity in publishing as a response to recent political events and figures. He also addressed globalization. Read more by Roger Tagholm in Publishing Perspectives.
  • In advance of Frankfurt, Publishing Perspectives rounded up executive outlooks from UK publishing firms including Pushkin Press, Saraband, Faber & Faber, and HarperCollins UK. Take a look.
  • For deeper reading on Frankfurt, here are the Show Daily magazines in PDF—published by Frankfurt’s news medium, Publishing Perspectives—for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

News and Trends

  • One of the few black editors in book publishing discusses the industry’s attempts to diversify. Chris Jackson works with writers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates and Edwidge Danticat. Read his essay at LitHub.
  • A bookstore conducted a diversity study on the romance market, and the results are in. In 2016, for every 100 books published by the leading romance publishers, about eight were written by people of color. Find out more and read commentary at Smart Bitches Trashy Books.
  • Digital Book World has been sold. The industry conference that was started in 2010 by F+W Media has been sold to Score Publishing. The 2018 event will be held in Nashville, Tennessee, in early October. Meanwhile, the digitalbookworld.com community and content site is throwing 404s for previously published articles. Learn more at Talking New Media.
  • A new readership for comics and graphic novels is producing retail shifts. Because younger women are entering a market typically dominated by older males, a retail battle has emerged between bookstores (which young women favor) and comics shops (which they don’t). Learn more in Publishers Weekly from Calvin Reid.

Amazon

  • Amazon’s imprint for work in translation, AmazonCrossing, has made its website for book proposal submissions navigable in 14 languages. Originally, the site was only available in English. Note that AmazonCrossing publishes works into English only. Visit the site.
  • Amazon is pushing for more advertising dollars. Google and Facebook dominate the online advertising market, but Amazon is looking to compete, establishing a new office in New York City with 2,000 jobs. Learn more from Shareen Pathak in Digiday.
  • Amazon reviews have become the new battleground of US politics. As people deluge the site with five-star and one-star reviews for books by polarizing figures, Amazon is faced with the challenge of how to deal with them. Rafia Zakaria writes about this phenomenon in the Guardian.
  • Kindle Unlimited per-page payments are up. The August per-page rate was .00419 per page; for September, the rate is .0044253 per page. Roger Packer points out that this follows the trend of higher KU payouts in autumn. Learn more at his site.

Marketing Toolbox

  • ACX University, the marketplace that assists authors with digital audiobook creation and distribution, has wrapped up an online educational series. If you need guidance on how to create and market digital audiobooks, ACX provides recorded sessions for free. Take a look.
  • Established indie author Dean Wesley Smith offers his perspective on book pricing and giveaways. Top-line takeaway: free isn’t the way to go. Learn more at his blog.
  • Get actionable marketing tips from established authors. BookBub has gathered up quotes and advice from a range of mostly indie genre authors. Take a look.

Self-Publishing

  • The Independent Book Publishers Association has released guidelines for dealing with third-party vendors who sell used copies as new on Amazon—and/or who “win” the buy box. We wrote about this controversial issue when it first emerged in May. Read the latest advice from the IBPA.
  • How indie authors can sell foreign or translation rights: Longtime author Kristine Rusch details in plain English what any author can do. Scroll way down to the second half of the post for the steps.
  • The advantages of using Pronoun as an ebook distributor: Indie author Giacomo Giammatteo discusses the bonuses of using Pronoun. (Sarcasm alert: he says in the headline he hates using the service—that’s not the case.) Visit his blog.
  • Indie authors can set up new print titles for distribution via IngramSpark for free during the month of November. Normally the cost is $49 per title. Use the coupon code INDIEFRINGE17 to qualify; the offer ends on Nov. 30. Read more.

New Imprint Alert

  • This month, HarperCollins launches HarperCollins Leadership (HCL). It’s a nonfiction imprint “designed for individuals looking for inspiration, insight, and tools to help activate their inherent leadership potential.” Each book is to be complemented by ancillary content that extends the experience in digital and interactive formats. Their site says, “What makes HarperCollins Leadership different is our holistic approach. We want to give readers content that surrounds them—books, video courses, and business tools that help them learn and apply the principles so they can activate the leadership potential that’s in them.” Learn more at HCL’s reader-focused website.