Despite her apology for calling the police on looters, agent Dawn Frederick, the founder of St. Paul–based Red Sofa Literary, has issued a cease-and-desist letter to those who posted about her actions and described them as racist. She’s demanding they delete their posts and publish retractions stating that she did not make any racist or improper statements. In response, those who received the cease-and-desist have published an open letter refusing to take down their posts and launched a legal fund to help with their defense.
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.
