Year in Review: 2023

Controversy of the year: artificial intelligence
Even if I hadn’t been personally affected by the stratospheric rise of AI tools and publishing, this would still rank as the top controversy. The copyright issues alone will take years to sort out, and intellectual property laws appear destined to transform in ways that were unimaginable when copyright was first established.

It’s hard to find any business today that isn’t talking about how to use—or not use—AI. Some writers embrace it, others shun it, and many more are anxious about what changes it will bring. It’s easy to assume the worst because how much do we really trust the movers and shakers who are driving AI forward? And of course even the movers and shakers in AI don’t agree on how to move forward. If you want to start a frustrating and circular conversation, bring up AI over the holidays with friends and family. (Catching up on the AI issue? Read this Nov. 8 Hot Sheet article.)

Self-publishing trend of the year: selling direct
As a way to increase profits and avoid dependency on Amazon, professional self-published authors have increasingly started selling books—both print and digital editions—direct to reader using tools like Shopify and Kickstarter. In February, the Authors Guild hosted an in-depth session with indie author Emily Kimelman on how she does it (view the recording on YouTube), and it was a hot topic of conversation at this year’s 20booksto50k conference. If you’d like to learn why Shopify is used for direct sales by many indie authors, see this episode of Joanna Penn’s podcast. But Shopify isn’t the only way to go; Russell Nohelty has discussed at length why other options may suit you better (if you’re willing to pay for access to his article).

Best startup of the year: Ream
Ream officially opened its doors in May 2023, which couldn’t have been better timing for a self-publishing community eager to sell direct. Ream is a subscription platform built for the needs of authors who want to sell serializations direct to reader. So far, Patreon remains awkward for novelists who want to deliver serialized content, and Substack has been a dud for such purposes. Ream is the only alternative to either unless you build your own solution. Bootstrapped by two indie authors, Ream has been actively trying to help authors build their subscription businesses through myriad efforts. They have an active Facebook page, podcast, in-person summit, and awards series. Recently they published a report on the top fiction authors in subscriptions, well worth a look. (It requires joining their Facebook group.)

Publishing trend of the year: TikTok’s influence on romance
Romance was the bestselling category in 2022 (up by more than 50 percent) and it will be the bestselling category again this year. A rep from Nielsen BookScan wrote in October, “Growth in fiction sales seen in six of the countries now monitored by NielsenIQ is primarily driven by romance and sagas titles appearing with BookTok hashtags.” TikTok is driving demand for steamy romance (SpicyTok) as well as fantasy romance (romantasy), leading to the creation of new imprints, like Harlequin’s Afterglow, Tor’s Bramble, and Entangled’s Red Tower. The senior director of marketing for Sarah J. Maas’s brand at Bloomsbury told Publishers Weekly, “Romance and fantasy fans are passionate and have built communities going back years. TikTok has offered them another platform and another space to get that message out in a supercharged way.” Kensington’s publisher said, “Publishers are no longer the tastemakers or driving trends in romance. It’s coming entirely from the consumers.”

The biggest train wreck of the year: Scribe Media
Established in 2014, hybrid publisher Scribe Media abruptly laid off its entire staff in May due to insolvency, leaving many authors in the lurch and out thousands of dollars in publishing fees. When another company, Enduring Ventures, stepped in to buy Scribe’s assets, it concluded that “the situation was a lot worse” than they initially believed. Despite the disastrous situation, Enduring Ventures decided to enter into a consulting agreement with Scribe Media to work on projects. Thus, the company resumed some operations over the summer, even though there is a range of lawsuits against it (and now against Enduring Ventures, too). A statement at the Scribe Media site alerts affected authors, “From what we can tell at this time it’s unlikely you will receive any sort of refund.”

The jury’s still out: Spotify’s effect on the audiobook market
In October, Spotify announced its new audiobook subscription service, granting paying Spotify subscribers access to 15 hours of monthly listening time from a catalog of 200,000 titles. All Big Five publishers are participating, as are many other publishers and authors.

So how do authors get paid? According to an Authors Guild statement: “Spotify is generally paying publishers on a per-book basis as though it were a sale. … The author receives the licensing share set under their publishing contract for audiobook sales (typically 25 percent of the publisher’s net receipts). The payment is triggered when a user listens to about 10–20 percent of the book, though some publishers have negotiated different percentage levels as well as different purchase prices.” That said, there are industry reports that some smaller publishers are participating in the pooled income model, in which they receive a share of Spotify’s total revenue based on consumption, which is unlikely equivalent to a sale.

A recent New York Times op-ed, which inaccurately described how authors get paid through Spotify, has brought back old concerns. But it’s worth a reminder that Spotify is not the only audiobook subscription service. Storytel, Scribd, and even Audible have subscription-based programs outside of the US that aren’t credit based. In Scandinavian countries, authors often see their overall income increase when their backlist is made available through audiobook subscription services like Storytel. (Audiobooks are a more dominant format in that part of the world.) There are many possible outcomes to Spotify’s entry into the market, and it’s too soon to say what will happen.

For more background on audiobook subscription services, read our July 2021 item that discusses the believers versus skeptics on this model. TL;DR: it’s a complex and multi-faceted issue that extends far beyond Spotify.

Unfortunate loss of the year: bestseller lists
The Wall Street Journal is no longer publishing its weekly bestseller lists based on Circana BookScan data, and the USA Today bestseller list has disappointed fans in its new era of automation. Filling in the gaps for now: Bookstat, an industry data service that tracks online book sales. It has launched its own monthly bestseller lists, available via LinkedIn. There are two top-20 lists per month, one for ebooks and one for digital audio. And of course Hot Sheet has partnered with Bookstat for self-publishing bestseller lists as well as the Hidden Gems list. (Browse here.)

Related: Germany’s Buchreport is up for sale; its equivalent would be Publishers Weekly in the US. Some worry that Germany’s Spiegel bestseller lists, compiled by Buchreport, may disappear as a result.

News that inspired the most punditry: KKR’s purchase of Simon & Schuster
Everyone inside and outside of publishing seemingly has an opinion on S&S’s new private equity owner, KKR. (Here’s our summary from August.) Is private equity ownership going to be an albatross of debt or a better vehicle to innovate and outperform other Big Five publishers? A new S&S board, announced this month, has inspired a fresh round of commentary that slants positive. That’s because the board includes the most recent CEO of Penguin Random House (zzzzzing!), a former TikTok executive, and a head honcho from Disney, among others. Publishing industry vet Kathleen Schmidt has the most detailed take on the board.

My biggest and most personal farewell: Twitter/X
In November 2022, I wrote in this newsletter that I would be staying on Twitter/X for the foreseeable future. One development I did not foresee, naively: the disabling of Tweetdeck for everyone but paid subscribers (I refuse to pay). When you share links these days on Twitter/X, the headline is stripped out in favor of the image alone, which makes information-sharing distinctly less informational. All of these changes have made the platform challenging to use for my primary purpose: reporting for Hot Sheet. And I haven’t even mentioned the many other things I could mention about the dramatic decline in user experience. For now, my Twitter-like activity has moved to Threads. Here is an excellent post-mortem on “the year Twitter died.”

New publishers, imprints, and agents announced in 2023
The following is a comparison of new publishers and agents announced in 2023 versus 2022. Each was mentioned in an issue of The Hot Sheet at the time of the announcement. View the 2023 list; view the 2022 list.

One thing that stands out: there were far more announcements of new agents than new publishing imprints. At least 17 of the 27 new agents announced in 2023 previously worked as an editor at a traditional publisher.

	2022	2023
New imprints at Big Five publishers	17	12
New imprints elsewhere	28	20
New publishing companies	7	9
New literary agencies	6	4
New agents	12	27