Two weeks ago, I covered the creator economy. We will likely see commentary and profiles on this for years to come. Here’s the latest to catch my eye.
- Here’s someone who sees the positive side of the creator economy for writers. Mark Stenberg says, “The rise of the creator economy has proven quite convincingly that there is an enormous, lucrative hunger for quality writing.” Read Medialyte.
- Yet another chart trying to map the creator economy. This one has 220+ platforms, in case you need ideas. Guess how quickly these infographics will go out of date? Read at Antler.
More business trends
- A somewhat positive spin on NFTs for book publishing. For the record, I do not think NFTs will be the predominant method for authors to sell their work in the future. It’s already possible to sell premium goods (first and special editions, limited editions, signed copies, etc.) without NFTs. Consider the who in this equation. Is your readership excited about NFTs? Are you? Most people don’t even understand the concept even after it’s explained to them. Read Emily Wenstrom at Book Riot.
- The hardcover problem of big publishing. Ann Kjellberg explains how hardcover sales make a book profitable for publishers in the near term. But this results in a very narrow promotion target: Americans willing to spend $30 or more on a book. Kjellberg asks a question that I haven’t heard big publishers meaningfully address: What if books were published more inexpensively? Read Book Post.
Literary trends
- How women conquered the world of fiction. This Guardian piece is a well-reported look at how women dominate literary fiction in the US and UK and represented 75 percent of the bestsellers in 2020. Karolina Sutton, a Curtis Brown UK literary agent, is quoted, saying, “For a young man to get a quarter of a million pound advance, the bar is really high. They have to deliver something really spectacular. It’s easier for women to get higher advances.” It wasn’t that long ago (early 2010s) that women were discussing how to query to disguise their gender and questioning whether they were landing the same number of deals as men or the same advances. (I actually dug into this at the time and found that, at least according to deal reports in Publishers Marketplace, women appeared to be doing just fine on the whole. Read here.) While the Guardian article was avidly shared on social media, it was mainly referenced with derisive pity. No one’s shedding any tears—at least in public—for lack of men in publishing. Read Johanna Thomas-Corr.
- Speaking of successful women literary authors, here’s the story of Deesha Philyaw’s The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. While racism may have played a role in the rejections that Philyaw received (she is Black), a major issue never gets raised in this piece: conventional wisdom in traditional publishing is that short story collections from debut authors do not sell. In fact, it’s an old cliché that if you pitch an agent with your short story collection, they will ask, “Where is your novel?” Most writers find a home for their short story collections at independent, literary publishers or at university presses, which is what happened here. Read Nadia Owusu at Slate.
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.