Book subscription services, which mail a curated selection of books every month to readers—often in special, limited editions, with swag—have become increasingly popular in recent years. With significant online followings and meaningful trust and engagement with readers, they’ve become an important way for publishers and authors to gain visibility and sales. In fact, a subscription selection can sometimes vault a book onto a bestseller list.
This week, one of these services, OwlCrate, has launched their own publishing arm, OwlCrate Press. OwlCrate works with Kevin Anderson & Associates as well as other external partners to support the editing and publishing process; a distribution partner has not yet been announced.
For now, the press’s titles consist of anthologies that have open submissions periods, as seen here. They pay contributors 10 cents per word and offer profit sharing to contributors of these anthologies. When I asked Jordan Fleming, OwlCrate’s head of publishing, about the rights situation, they wrote me that authors must grant OwlCrate exclusive rights to their material for a limited time, typically 18 to 24 months. They added, “Our contracts are definitely not-one-size-fits-all, and we consider the author’s previous works,” so there’s contract flexibility for series writers working on IP that might span multiple books or projects.
Today, The Guardian published an article by author Rhys Thomas, musing whether a new chapter in publishing is afoot now that subscription services are launching their own titles. FairyLoot, another successful subscription service, recently announced a collaboration with a division of Penguin Random House. But Thomas thinks that the magic and “purity” of a subscription service could be lost by making such a move.
I see the situation differently. These subscription services have built a meaningful fanbase and may, at this point, understand and serve specific readerships better than some publishers. FairyLoot’s founders, in fact, have consulted on publishing and marketing strategies for various publishing houses. For their part, OwlCrate is emphasizing their desire to “disrupt” the industry and offer author-friendly contracts.
Not every subscription service may turn out to be a good publisher too, but it makes total sense they would expand into publishing, because capturing the audience, then understanding and serving that audience well, is much more than half the battle these days—not the mechanics of publishing. This is why we have publishing startups like Bindery, based on influencers choosing and publishing books for their community, while a team behind the scenes handles the publishing process.
How many big publishers have this kind of focused and engaged audience for their corporate brands? How many people know what their imprints stand for? I’ve worked in publishing all my life, and I can’t tell you the readerships most imprints are serving, because they’re serving anyone and everyone. The same is not true of book subscription services.
Readers respond
In response to this piece, Susan Dennard, a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author, shared in the Discord community, “Illumicrate launched their own publisher back in 2022 (distribution through Titan), and I was their first author [Luminaries series], plus I am still publishing with them. I am also publishing with Owlcrate in one of their upcoming anthologies. The traditional move for Illumicrate has been extremely successful, and I can say from firsthand experience that what has been so refreshing is their intimate knowledge of the reader base instead of the accounts. They know what consumers want, and they know how to reach those readers. This is such a vastly different experience from most publishers, where the concern is pleasing accounts.”
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.
