Best known for partnering with independent bookstores to sell digital audiobooks, Libro.fm has added more than 130 international stores. Currently, Libro.fm partner bookstores are mostly found in North America, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. CEO and co-founder Mark Pearson said, “As an employee-owned company with just 18 employees in the US and UK, we have experienced firsthand the impact of large corporations on our business, just like many independent bookshops have. But we believe in the irreplaceable value of independent bookshops in local communities and economies. By expanding globally, we hope to provide readers, authors, and publishers with new ways to help their local bookshops thrive via audiobooks, all while making reading more accessible.” 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.
