The Two-Year Anniversary of Kindle Unlimited: Where Do Authors Stand?
Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited allows Amazon customers “all-you-can-eat” access to over 1 million ebook titles and thousands of audiobooks.
Premium Content
Barnes & Noble’s New and Puzzling Overture to Self-Published Authors
B&N’s Nook Press now offers a free print-on-demand service that makes print books available for sale at BarnesandNoble.com.
Romancing the Numbers: Nielsen’s Latest Figures on the Romance Market
Romance publishers, authors, and agents are facing some big challenges as they struggle for discovery in a saturated landscape.
Links of Interest: July 13, 2016
Links of interest to publishing industry news stories and Harlequin and Random House announce new imprints.
Profile: Jonny Geller
Once an actor, literary agent Jonny Geller had no trouble navigating the TEDx stage in Oxford for his recent talk, What Makes a Bestseller?
Hot Sheet Index: July 13, 2016
Hot Sheet Index listing book revenue totals for 2014, 2015 for hardcover, paperback books, downloaded audio and ebooks
Audiobooks for Indies: Services and Distributors beyond ACX
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” sometimes feels like an apt description for the experience of indie authors with audiobooks.
An Audiobook Publisher Acquires a Traditional Publisher
Imagine what it would be like if Audible bought HarperCollins. That’s kind of like what just happened in Sweden.
Barnes & Noble Sales Are Down Compared to Last Year
Print has lately been celebrated for its staying power, but few reports consider the performance of Barnes & Noble.
For Once, Keeping Calm May Be Too Much to Ask of Britain
As this edition of The Hot Sheet is written, the full upshot of the UK’s “Brexit” referendum is far from known.
Life in the Time of Amazon Rankings
Dan Koboldt orchestrated “a coordinated buy” of his book to learn how—and how quickly—it affected his Amazon ranking.
On the List: The Nurses
The Nurses enjoyed a spot on the New York Times combined print and ebook bestseller list, as well as its ebook nonfiction bestseller list.
Closing Image: June 29, 2016
The Codex Group recently surveyed about 5,000 book buyers and found that the percentage of adults who read ebooks has flattened.
Are Traditional Publishers Lowering Their Prices? Author Earnings Says Yes
A few months ago, we reported the concern was that publishers weren’t devoting sufficient resources to price experimentation.
Time after Time: A Rare Handle on Publishing’s Fading Memories
In corporate settings, the term institutional memory normally refers to the valuable insights carried by senior members of a company’s team.
Keep Your Eye on This: The UK Weighs Its EU Membership
By the time you receive our next edition, the result of the June 23 referendum on the UK’s membership in the European Union will be known.
Another Reason to Learn to Read Those Royalty Statements
An important issue has come to light via agent Kristin Nelson, who makes a specialty of demystifying royalty income for authors.
What Happens to Authors When Their Hybrid Publisher Goes Bust?
Earlier this year, we reported on the closure of Booktrope, a hybrid publisher that raised millions of dollars but never became profitable.
Profile: Roxana Robinson
The president of the Authors Guild since 2014, Roxana Robinson says the industry must address what commercial realities are doing to author income.
Closing Image: June 15, 2016
Employment in the book publishing industry has dropped 32.5 percent from its peak twenty years ago.
Building the “Self-Sustaining” Reader Community: Hal Elrod’s Facebook Strategy
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing brings together five self-published writers for the company’s first KDP Business Author Roundtable.
On the List: Lab Girl
Lab Girl released earlier this spring and recently appeared on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list.
Self-Publishing: A Significant but “Separate” Book Market
The London-based Enders Analysis media team analyzed the US Amazon’s 100 top-selling ebooks and found that 40 were self-published.
Macmillan Acquires the Self-Publishing Service Pronoun; Paid Features Are on the Way
In October 2015, we reported on the launch of Pronoun, a new self-publishing service for ebooks.
Romancing the Differences: “Multicultural,” “Diverse,” and Nielsen’s New RWA Summit
Questions of diversity in romance came into play last year at RWA’s conference, and the Nielsen program is designed to tackle them.
Closing Image: June 1, 2016
A recent BookExpo America presentation by Nielsen shows that ebook sales (for those with ISBNs) took off dramatically between 2010 and 2012
BEA’s Big Off-Year: When Spaciousness Is Not a Good Thing
Discussion of BEA’s 2016 move from New York City to Chicago.
The Author Factor at BEA: Trade Writers Up, Indies Down
Independent authors struggle for a meaningful presence at the 2016 BEA.
Profile: J.A. Konrath and Scott Turow
At a BEA panel on authorship, Joe Konrath and Scott Turow commented on reaching one’s audience.
On the Eve of BEA: More Author Heat on “an Orgy of Unproductiveness”
Persistent questions are surfacing about how major trade-show events roll on, year after year, with minimal author involvement.
Closing Image: May 4, 2016
Social Media Today reports, “Digital media usage has increased by 35 percent since 2013, driven entirely by mobile growth.”
AAP Stats Show Continuing Ebook Sales Decline for Traditional Publishers
The latest monthly sales report (December 2015) has been released from the Association of American Publishers
Another Significant Merger: Follett Acquires Baker & Taylor
On the heels of the Perseus acquisition by Ingram, yet another merger in US book distribution has been announced.
Not That We’d Ever Say We Told You So: Authors and Trade Shows
In our last issue, we wrote about the rocky relationship between authors and trade shows, major industry events that revolve around rights sales.
Smashing Words, Crunching Numbers: Coker’s 2016 Survey
Like Otis Chandler at Goodreads, Mark Coker at Smashwords enjoys compiling sales data every year and releasing highlights of his findings.
The Latest Celebrity-Driven Imprints (Plus Some Others)
Here are some of the latest new imprints to keep an eye on, including two celebrity-driven imprints.
Trade Shows and Authors: Another Year of Trying to Get Along
We’re again in the awkward season in which the industry tries to accommodate independent authors at events that were simply not created to include them.