Traditional Publishing
- Random House and Crown imprints combine into one division. The new supergroup (as part of Big Five publisher Penguin Random House) has been formed in response to market changes. CEO Madeline McIntosh says, “Book discovery and buying patterns continue to shift, resulting in growth opportunities in the nonfiction categories in which Crown in particular already has a strong foothold.” Read more in Publishers Weekly by John Maher.
- More Big Five imprint consolidations are happening, and industry vet Mike Shatzkin says it’s because of steeper competition among new titles and the evolution of digital marketing. Read at his blog.
- HarperCollins launches a YA novel on Snapchat. It’s an adaptation of Suzy Cox’s The Dead Girls Detective Agency and has 15 five-minute episodes. Learn more in Publishers Weekly from Emma Kantor.
- Meanwhile, Snapchat is losing users. The declines are expected to continue. Read Sarah Frier in Bloomberg.
Book Club Fever
- BuzzFeed launches Page Turners. Amazon is their launch partner; BuzzFeed is angling for a percentage of book sales via affiliate links. The stated goal of the club, per a brief from Publishers Weekly: “Offer a place and program for our community to experience reading new and interesting books together, to lift up debut authors and also books and authors that may not be necessarily mainstream.” There are already murmurs that a membership fee may be involved later on. Read BuzzFeed’s announcement.
- YA novelist John Green launches Life’s Library. The club, which Green is running in partnership with Rosianna Halse Rojas, is slated to run for one year. The selections will be available every six weeks, with a digital subscription running $10 and a physical subscription $25. (The cost includes a copy of the book plus other perks.) All profits go to charity. Read Shannon Maughan in Publishers Weekly.
New Publishing Efforts
- An editor from Tor has launched a new traditional publishing company. Liz Gorinsky has founded Erewhon Books with plans to release new titles in 2020. Here are the submission guidelines.
- There’s a new hybrid publisher from a Big Five editor. Forefront Books was recently launched by Jonathan Merkh, who has a history at Nelson Books and Simon & Schuster. Authors receive no advance, pay for services, and split the profits with Forefront. Merkh says, “My goal is to work with a small number of high-volume clients.” Learn more from Jim Milliot in Publishers Weekly.
Bookselling
- WHSmith is closing some of its budget-brand stores. However, it is also growing by incorporating post office franchises to encourage regular visits. Read Sarah Butler in The Guardian.
- A new independent bookstore is opening in Paris. At more than 5,300 square feet, it’s the city’s largest. Read Olivia Snaije at Publishing Perspectives.
Self-publishing
- Draft2Digital now distributes to Baker & Taylor. The US-based ebook distributor has strengthened its reach to libraries with the new deal. Learn more in D2D’s announcement.
- How to grow your global sales with Kobo. This ALLi webinar with Kobo’s director, Christine Munroe, offers a foundation for going wide. Watch the video or read the transcript.
- A system for tracking sales of self-published books: Indie author Karen Myers shares her expertise in tracking sales using Excel. Take a look at the ALLi blog.
- The biggest BookBub ad mistakes. Some of the eight mistakes include targeting too broadly, unprofessional ad images, and not bothering to run test campaigns. Learn more from Carlyn Robertson at the BookBub site.
Global
- Four in 10 books in Sweden are sold through subscription services. Total book sales revenue has increased by 6.2 percent. Read Mark Williams at The New Publishing Standard.
- A German bookstore chain has become a stakeholder in a subscription ebook service. Thalia now owns 50 percent of Skoobe. Read Mark Williams at The New Publishing Standard.
Frightfully Fun
- Some book covers are so terrible you won’t believe they’re real. Be warned: they might fuel your next nightmare. Read Madeline Raynor at Electric Literature.
- CrimeReads shares eight great horror podcasts—including scary, mysterious, and paranormal work. Read the list from Emily Stein.
- Serial Box is offering Exquisite Corpse for free. This tag-team writing effort with a seasonal theme is a binge-reading promotion available only in the serial publisher’s app. Read more about it at Publishing Perspectives.
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.