Audiobook subscription service Storytel has seen its subscriber base grow 34 percent in the most recent quarter, now up to 1.36 million paying subscribers, exceeding its earlier forecast. It also happened to pull down a profit in the third quarter, although this was due to an accounting change and isn’t expected to happen again in the near term, given the company’s focus on expansion, not profit. In Storytel’s report, CEO Jonas Tellander says that audiobook streaming services have now surpassed physical bookstore sales in Sweden.
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.
