Traditional Publishing
- Indigo’s new CEO steps down. Things are not going well at Canada’s bookstore chain. Read Ed Nawotka at Publishers Weekly (subscription required).
- Can Simon & Schuster stay afloat and pay its $1 billion debt? There will be a lot of interest to pay on that debt. Writers at The Atlantic think that private equity ownership is bad news for the publisher. Read Carter Dougherty and Andrew Park.
- Two new publishing memoirs are coming this fall. One is by John Sargent, former CEO of Macmillan. The other is by Charles Scribner III. Read Jim Milliot in Publishers Weekly.
AI
- YouTube launches Music AI Incubator. YouTube is moving forward with AI and music generation, including a partnership with Universal Music Group. “The incubator will help inform YouTube’s approach as we work with some of music’s most innovative artists, songwriters, and producers across the industry, across a diverse range of culture, genres, and experience.” Learn more.
- A new tool called Glaze may prevent AI models from ingesting artwork. The tool has been developed by computer scientists at the University of Chicago. Read Catherine Thorbecke at CNN.
- Former PRH exec discusses how AI will affect publishers. She thinks it will help ease workloads and fight piracy, among other positive effects. Because AI writing is the very definition of “mediocrity,” she believes novelists have little to fear. Also, she adds: “The reason that there is this kind of fear is because we see so much noise going on any time any development or opinion is surfaced; you immediately have the accusations.” She says “extreme position-taking” is counterproductive. Read Melina Spanoudi in The Bookseller.
Trends
- Social media is dead. The key message here is that more people are posting to private and closed groups. Some believe the old ways of posting are forever gone. Read Sydney Bradley and Amanda Perelli at Business Insider(subscription may be required).
- It’s becoming more common for popular fan-fiction authors to move into the mainstream. Top publishers are more open than ever to picking up writers who have cut their teeth writing for sites like Archive of Our Own—and agents are now scouting such authors. Partly that’s because fan-fic authors know how to build an audience and write and market a story that sells. Read Elizabeth Held at Vulture.
- K-lytics has an analysis of Amazon category changes. Alex Newton at K-lytics has an hour-long video on changes to Amazon’s categories, which will be of interest to self-publishing novelists. A few high-level takeaways: Romance-Inspirational was dropped entirely as a category, Romance in Uniform is a new subcategory, Historical Romance has three new sub-categories (20th Century, Gilded Age, Viking), and GameLit & LitRPG now has a dedicated subcategory. You can watch the K-lytics analysis for free; no signup is required.
- Utah is a hotbed of YA authors. Latter-day Saints are some of the most enthusiastic readers of YA and genre fiction. Read Abby Aguirre in the New York Times (gift link).
- For some reason, everyone’s talking about book blurbs again. After resisting the inclusion of three articles on blurbs in last issue’s Links of Interest section, I’m making one concession—because it’s well reported and says some informative things. Read Sophie Vershbow at Esquire.
Amazon
- Amazon’s Kindle periodical program has ended. The effects are being felt by short story publications like Fantasy Magazine. Read Barbara Krasnoff at Verge.
- Shopify now offers integration with Amazon Prime. Shopify merchants can now offer Amazon Prime members benefits like fast and free delivery outside of Amazon. Read Granth Vanaik at Reuters.
- Amazon Ads may soon headline Amazon’s earning reports. Ads now constitute more than 10 percent of Amazon’s net sales. Ad revenue has grown by 22 percent year on year. Read Alexandra Garfinkle at Yahoo.
Libraries
- The New York Public Library wants to help digitize backlist books for which the rights status remains murky. Notably, the library wants to do this in partnership with authors and publishers for their economic benefit and for library patrons’ benefit. Initially, the library offered to help authors sell their ebooks online but learned authors were unsure whether they held the copyright and therefore not comfortable warranting they were the copyright holder. And the publishers weren’t all that interested in searching their old contracts to offer an answer. Learn more.
- How to tell the Internet Archive to remove your books from its Open Library: As a result of the recent ruling against the Internet Archive (read earlier coverage), the Authors Guild has posted instructions on how to issue a takedown notice against them, if needed. Take a look.
Culture & Politics
- Why are Biden books tanking? In part, the administration runs a “tight ship” (not a lot of juicy gossip), plus it’s a no-drama atmosphere. Read Catherine Kim at Politico.
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.