Expect to see agents, publishers, and others discussing what’s buzzing at the fair. Literary scouts recently told The Bookseller that romantasy is still being actively acquired while broadening in scope (e.g., including horror elements), and there’s an increase in speculative fiction. In nonfiction, popular science, particularly neuroscience, is prevalent. One scout said, “We are inundated with rom-coms and romances. Many are contemporary and commercial for the younger reader, but a lot are coming with a big dollop of ’90s nostalgia for the Millennial reader. We’re happy to see more women’s fiction targeted at the older female reader, who has been slightly underserved in recent years.” Learn more. If you hit a paywall, Publishers Weekly also reports on pre-bookfair buzz.
Elsewhere, as part of a recap of Pan Macmillan CEO Joanna Prior’s keynote, Publishers Marketplace offers this nugget (sub required): “AI is no longer a future technology. It is permeating every digital touch point we own. Yet as an industry, we often seem stuck in a loop, fretting over whether a machine might one day write a Booker Prize Winner. … IP [intellectual property] won’t matter if we lose the readers. … We must stop obsessing over the machine and start mastering it to serve the reader.”
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.
