Traditional Publishing
- Is it acceptable to publish source notes online, not in the book? This may be an outlying case, but Ta-Nehisi Coates’s latest book offers information about sources at his website, not in the book. What happens when inevitable link rot makes that page disappear? Read Derek Krissoff at Book Work.
- The appetite for special editions has grown in part due to book subscription companies. That’s what some editors are saying, plus TikTok has played an influential role as well. Some publishers now discuss special editions when acquiring. Read Drucilla Shultz at Publishers Weekly. The Hot Sheet covered the deluxe edition and sprayed edges phenomenon in July, with an eye on self-published authors.
- Tarot and oracle decks are everywhere. Mind-body-spirit publishers are producing more deck-and-guidebook packages. Read Cathy Lynn Grossman at Publishers Weekly.
- Dissolution proceedings are moving ahead for Small Press Distribution. The shuttered distributor owes more than $316,000 to 163 publishers. Read Jim Milliot at Publishers Weekly.
Culture & Politics
- Learn about the material realities of independent booksellers. Professor Dan Sinykin writes, “To stay in business, it helps to be independently wealthy or a famous author.” Read at The Baffler.
- John Grisham accused of poaching material for his nonfiction book. The New York Times and Pro Publica seek changes to attribution in Grisham’s book Framed, about wrongful convictions. Read Will Sommer at the Washington Post.
- Who gets “shipped” and why? Shipping is the act of creating a romantic pairing between two people or characters who may not already be romantically involved, a prominent theme in fan fiction. As the article notes, “If popular culture is the male gaze, fanfic is the female gaze.” The Pudding looks at a decade of fanfic couples using data from Archive of Our Own. Read Ashley Cai, Florina Sutanto, Jan Diehm, and Caitlyn Ralph.
- A rare books dealer has made a fortune selling writers’ archives. The New Yorker profiles a controversial dealer who has sold the archives of writers such as Vladimir Nabokov and Alice Walker. Read Tad Friend.
- Two high-profile writers join Substack. James Patterson has launched a Substack, Hungry Dogs. He will publish excerpts from his books, interviews with authors, and a column called Stop the Insanity on topics like book banning. Tina Brown has launched a Substack, Fresh Hell, that will be written in a weekly diary format (or: random musings and rants). Either will set you back $50/year.
AI
- Penguin Random House changes copyright page across all books to forbid AI training. The Bookseller reports that the biggest of the Big Five publishers has added language to the copyright pages of new books and reprints that forbids AI training. It is believed to be the first of the Big Five to do so. Read Matilda Battersby.
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.