In the UK, the biggest six publishers saw ebook sales increase slightly in 2023 (by 0.8 percent), but the performance was the second-lowest total generated by the group in the past dozen years. Hachette has the strongest ebook sales; it sold nearly 4 million more ebooks than Penguin Random House. That’s attributable to more aggressive ebook pricing by Hachette combined with the acquisition and growth of Bookouture, a digital-first imprint that focuses on genre fiction. Learn more.
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.
