Barnes & Noble newsstand director: print magazines are a luxury item
Samir Husni, better known as Mr. Magazine, interviews Krifka Steffey, who is director of newsstand merchandising at Barnes & Noble.
Premium Content
Harlequin starts an LGBTQ romance imprint
Carina Press, Harlequin’s digital-first romance imprint, plans to launch Carina Adores, a line of contemporary and classic queer tales.
HarperCollins launches Quill Tree, an imprint for young readers
Quill Tree will focus on publishing authors with a strong point of view, as well as those who are often underrepresented.
2020 Prediction Roundup
Forecasts range from fair (continuing upward trends for audiobooks) to stormy (the emergence of a challenger to Amazon’s dominance)
Audio Outlook: Where Do Opportunity and Growth Lie for Authors?
Audible is the recognized leader in digital audio sales in US market, but it’s not the only player, especially in international markets.
Hot Sheet Index: January 8, 2020
The Hot Sheet Index looked at the top-selling fiction titles for 2019. Three titles sold more than a million copies.
Closing Image: January 8, 2020
Based on sales reported through NPD BookScan, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was the bestseller of the year.
The state of genre fiction magazines
Author Jason Sanford has interviewed editors, publishers, and staff of nine genre fiction magazines and compiled a free report.
Dreamspinner Press is undergoing a “financial restructuring”
In fall 2019 authors began requesting reversion of rights, and agents were no longer doing business with the publisher.
Raven Quill: a new literary agency for children’s and YA authors
Jacqui Lipton has founded Raven Quill Literary Agency and will open later this year to submissions via QueryManager.
Your next insightful long read on Amazon
Benedict Evans, known for his commentary on the media and tech industry, has written a long piece discussing Amazon’s market share.
Accord Literary: a new literary agency for African authors
The agency has an open submission call to writers from across the African continent.
The Authors Guild offers an updated statement on California’s AB5
Specifically, the guild analyzes whether the new law could create problems for book authors and book publishing contracts.
Megan Manzano joins D4EO Literary
Manzano seeks middle grade and YA stories but doesn’t want nonfiction, historical fiction, graphic novels, chapter books, or picture books.
Two recent scam alerts from Writer Beware
If you entered a writing contest hosted by Pressfuls, contact them to avoid having your story published or turned into an audio version.
Mango Publishing Acquires Yellow Pear Press
Mango, a Miami-based independent publisher, was named one of Publishers Weekly’s fastest-growing companies of 2019.
A new set of works has entered the public domain
As of Jan. 1, 2020, anyone without permission or licensing can publish, repurpose, or create derivative works from numerous classic books.
Equity firm buys OverDrive; surprise announcement made on Christmas Eve
The largest library distributor of ebooks and digital audio in the US and Canada has just changed hands.
Sonny Mehta, the head of Knopf, died on December 30
It is hard to overstate the influence of Mehta, whose name has become nearly inseparable from the prestigious reputation of Knopf.
NPD Books finally has a Twitter account and occasionally shares stats
We say finally because other companies reporting on book sales, such as BookNet Canada, actively write about trends and share stats.
A Look Back at 2019: The Most Notable Stories We Covered
One key theme: long-brewing polarization between major publishing-industry players is approaching critical mass.
CCPA: The Next Privacy Law Hurdle
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) goes into effect at the first of the year and is meant to protect California residents.
Hot Sheet Index: December 25, 2019
The Hot Sheet Index reviewed the statistics for social media platforms. TikTok has seen over 1.5 billion downloads.
Closing Image: December 25, 2019
While Facebook is ahead of most platforms in terms of time spent per user, its usage peaked in 2017 at 14 hours per month on average.
2019 Retrospectives from across the Publishing Industry
Here’s a selection of what others are saying—and not just about this year, but about the last decade in publishing.
Upcoming changes at Barnes & Noble leave agents and publishers a bit anxious
Bottom line: authors and agents must reset their expectations for any new spring titles.
Shipping delays frustrate independent booksellers, with holiday sales sluggish
Booksellers blame the lack of a blockbuster title (such as last year’s hit, Becoming by Michelle Obama) to drive store traffic.
RWA ethics and diversity controversy erupts on Christmas Eve
This story continues to unfold via social media and other back channels.
James Patterson decides Barnes & Noble booksellers need a “bonus”
Bestselling novelist James Patterson is already well known for paying bonuses to independent booksellers across the US (since 2015).
Penguin Random House, the biggest trade publisher in the world, is now wholly owned by Bertelsmann
UK-based Pearson is selling off its remaining stake in the company.
Amazon Advertising now available in France, Italy, and Spain
Authors with translations or a known and sizable audience of English readers in Europe may appreciate the opportunity to run targeted ads.
Independent writers sue California over AB5
The American Society of Journalists and Authors filed suit in federal court last week.
PublishDrive has expanded its distribution network
PublishDrive has added Dreame and Hoopla to its list of sales channels.
Small UK publishers consider what a no-deal Brexit will mean for them
Smaller, independent publishers that already operate on a shoestring worry they won’t be able to manage the increased bureaucracy.
Findaway Voices now reaches Anyplay and Papaya FM
If you’re already distributing with Findaway, there’s nothing you need to do; your work will automatically be distributed to the new outlets.
The pace expected of romance authors is brutal
Bree Bridges, the co-author of a romance series, took to Twitter to remark upon the common phenomenon.
Blue Box Press to publish full-length romances
The spinoff of Evil Eye Concepts, which publishes the 1001 Dark Nights romance series, will debut its first titles in 2020.
Boring but important: EU rules ebooks cannot be resold
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that the sale of secondhand ebooks infringes copyright.
Get your short story published on a beer label
The venture by a Canadian brewery celebrates the 40th anniversary of a local independent bookstore.
Experts agree on a definition of predatory publishing
While their definition is meant for the academic audience, it can be readily applied to all categories of traditional publishing.
Literary kerfuffle of the week
An author on a major prize committee tweeted that books she would’ve expected to see nominated are nowhere to be seen.
Hot Sheet Index: December 11, 2019
The Hot Sheet Index found-via Reuters-the growth of news podcasts is up 32 percent for the time period in 2019 of January through October.
Closing Image: December 11, 2019
Some of the most popular news podcasts are attracting audiences of millions, but others struggle in an increasingly competitive market.
Coverage opportunity for nonfiction authors at Medium
While traditional book-review coverage has been dwindling for years, Medium is expanding their nonfiction books coverage.
New literary agency: Neon Literary
Anna Sproul-Latimer and Kent Wolf have joined to launch Neon Literary.
New podcast: Storybound
Lit Hub, the premiere literary publishing website and blog, has partnered with The Podglomerate on Storybound, a radio theater program.