Traditional Publishing
- The ongoing conglomeration of publishing will not lead to the destruction of literature. So argues a professor of English who studies the history of conglomeration in publishing. He says, “A lot of interesting things are generated in resistance to conglomeration. The nonprofit presses exist as a direct result of it. There’s a dialectical relationship to what kind of literature is made possible because of conglomeration; it’s not simply a one-sided foreclosing of the possibilities for literature. And even within the conglomerates, authors always bring creativity to structural limits.” Read Nathan Goldman in Jewish Currents.
- There’s a generational divide in the debate over how badly traditional publishing is broken. Publishers Weekly speaks with a range of publishing employees—mostly anonymously—about current work conditions, with younger workers saying it’s never been this bad. Read Rachel Deahl.
- UK bookseller WHSmith offers promotional placement for pay. Such practices are not uncommon, but WHSmith allows publishers to pay to get on the shop’s bestseller shelves. (Waterstones and Barnes & Noble stopped paid placement entirely when James Daunt took over.) Read Carolyn Atkinson at BBC.
- Could the Internet Archive go out like Napster? Learn about the issue of controlled digital lending (CDL) and how a decision in a landmark US copyright lawsuit, brought by big publishers, could significantly change its operations. Read Nitish Pahwa and Emma Wallenbrock at Slate.
Amazon
- Amazon’s problem with counterfeit editions and piracy continues. Traditionally published author Scott Hershovitz details a nightmarish scenario in which Amazon customers were misled into buying a counterfeit ebook right off his book’s legitimate product page at Amazon. Read the Twitter thread.
Audio
- Audiobooks coming soon to Spotify. The CFO says that users can expect an enhanced and improved experience for listening to audiobooks compared to competing services. Last year, Spotify acquired Findaway, a major audiobook distributor. Read Aisha Malik at TechCrunch.
Webtoon
- Concerns about Webtoon have surfaced on Twitter. A writer has posted an open letter that raises concerns about how the company fails to report on performance, which affects payment. Read the thread.
- Webtoon is working on a new app for serializing backlist. The app will be separate from both Webtoon and Wattpad and aimed at a wider and older demographic. Read Porter Anderson at Publishing Perspectives.
Culture & Politics
- Why was Dinesh D’Souza’s book, 2,000 Mules, recalled by the publisher? NPR gets a copy of the book that was pulled from shelves due to a significant error. But the publisher did not disclose what that error was, only that the release date would be pushed back to October. Read Tom Dreisbach.
- Conservative Facebook groups are changing what children read in school. Parents are reviewing books and lobbying schools to ban them, often on the basis of sexual content. Read Tanya Basu at MIT Technology Review.
- An insidious effect of continued book challenges: Librarians proactively remove books or don’t purchase books that might cause trouble. Read Kara Yorio at School Library Journal.
Self-publishing
- How to sell books direct to consumer with Shopify. Joanna Penn explains how and why to sell both digital and print books direct using a Shopify-powered webstore. Learn more at The Creative Penn.
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.