From CNBC: Facebook did not read the terms and services of the app that improperly shared user data with Cambridge Analytica, the company’s chief technology officer said Thursday. “We require that people have a terms and conditions and we have an automated check there at the time — this was in 2014, maybe earlier,” Mike … Read more
From Electric Lit: When I was growing up, my mother’s worrying was a bit of a shared joke between the rest of the family. If, in the car on the way to the store, my mother turned and asked my father if he had turned the stove off, he would sigh and say, “Of course, … Read more
From Wired: In 2007, A small team of Amazon employees had been working for a few years on a new ebook reader project they’d eventually call the Kindle. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was eager to finish and sell the thing; he was certain Apple or Google was working on something similar, and didn’t want them to beat … Read more
From TeleRead: Authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are running into a little static when trying to publish some of their short stories via Amazon—thanks at least in part to the automation by which Amazon has to run its self-publishing operation. Lee and Miller have been self-publishing some of their short stories in chapbook form … Read more
From The Paris Review: I recall, though my recollection may be faulty, a magnificent article by Giorgio Manganelli explaining how a sophisticated reader can know whether a book is worth reading even before he opens it. He wasn’t referring to the capacity often required of a professional reader, or a keen and discerning reader, to … Read more
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch: I’m conducting too many negotiations right now. I discuss them as if they’re easy. They’re not. They’re stressful and take time. But I always learn something. And yesterday, I gained a brand new perspective. I wrote the following sentence to someone who wanted to take my entire IP in a series … Read more
From The Digital Reader: I have been writing about industry trends in bits and pieces in each news story, but it has been a long while since I last pulled everything together, took a step back, and told you what I see. I can sum it up in a single sentence: The major publishers are dead … Read more
From HuffPost: Signing a contract with even a brand-name traditional book publisher initially feels like a ticket to Nirvana. You may expect, for example, your new publisher to set you up with a big fat advance, a multi-city promotional tour, your very own personal PR rep and multiple copies of your book on every bookshelf … Read more
From veteran publishing consultant, Mike Shatzkin: An inexorable reality of today’s commercial book publishing world is that it is shrinking.Although there have been no obvious signs yet that actual long-form book reading itself has declined (even though that would seem a likely consequence over time of the changed ways we get our reading inputs), the self-publishing … Read more
From Nick Kokonas: One of the most opaque industries around is publishing, not here online, but good old-fashioned print-books and their digital and audio spin-offs. Poke around and try to find some hard sales numbers and you’ll quickly find that it’s near impossible to do so. You can find bestseller lists from reputable sources like … Read more
From the Observer: I wrote a book! A real book! A book that adults read and decided to print on actual paper and put between a real-life cover and put in honest-to-goodness bookstores. And it comes out tomorrow! . . . . Here’s everything I learned along the way. . . . . 1. It … Read more
From ABC News 11: Daryll Packer has been waiting patiently for his vision of a children’s book series to become a reality. He wrote the books several years ago while he was in Afghanistan working. “We named it Logical Lamar,” he said. “It’s about a little second-grade kid who asks a lot of questions. He … Read more
From The Digital Reader: Cory Doctorow just announced his support for an ebookstore platform that has me scratching my head. . . . . It’s not just that he has apparently abandoned his support for free Creative Commons-licensed ebooks in favor of selling ebooks (welcomes to 2007, Cory!) but also that he believes that authors should be sales … Read more
From Digital Book World: You’ve probably heard of indie publishers, but have you heard of micro-publishers? Author Shirin Bridges, owner of Goosebottom Books, calls her company a micro-publisher: a professional publishing organization that brings together a flexible workforce to produce a small number of highly targeted books. Because of the nature of micro-publishers as small, … Read more
We’re getting pretty close to the end of posts about the antitrust suit against the Price-Fix Six until something else happens. Here are diverging views on the merits of the suit from two law school professors. First, Professor Daniel Crane: The book publishers felt that Amazon was devaluing the e-book market in order to promote … Read more
From Wired magazine: Apple and five of the “Big Six” trade publishers are reportedly under investigation by the Department of Justice for antitrust violations. The point of concern is the five publishers’ staggered but identical move to an agency rather than a wholesale pricing model, not just for Apple, but for all e-book retailers — a … Read more
From Digital Book World: The Educational Development Corp., which announced today that it is pulling all of its titles from Amazon, plans to increase its sales by abandoning the major online retailer, according to the company’s CEO. Amazon accounted for about 13% of EDC’s sales in 2011, estimated Randall White, CEO of the publicly traded Tulsa, … Read more
From Digital Book World: Sales are flat and margins are up at major U.S. book publishers, but how long can it last? In the past two weeks, both Penguin and Simon & Schuster have reported their 2011 results with nearly no change in overall revenue. At the same time, profits are up at both companies. There are many things … Read more
Another valuable essay from Kris Rusch: While the royalty rates and escalators got handled by the accounting department and would happen once the book went on sale, the marketing plan, the vision, and actual support of the book itself often got tossed out the window if the editorial team that bought the book left the … Read more
Almost one month ago, Passive Guy announced he would be writing a book that analyzed Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing contract. It’s still happening. He also announced this book would be available on November 1. That would be tomorrow. It won’t happen then. The reasons are two-fold: 1. PG has been very busy working for his … Read more
Passive Guy was heads-down on a client project this morning and didn’t follow the release live. From the Amazon press release: New latest generation Kindle – world’s bestselling e-reader now lighter, faster, and more affordable than ever – only $79 New “Kindle Touch” with easy-to-use touch screen – only $99 New “Kindle Touch 3G” with … Read more
After some thought and research, Passive Guy has decided he will write a book about how not to get screwed in a book contract. The book will also discuss how to get unscrewed if you are already a screwee. He’s looked at several books in this category and found some good information, but PG thinks … Read more
Based on current hard copy/ebook sales percentages (80%/20%), you probably do better with a traditional publisher if you sell a lot of hard copies. However, if the ebook percentage of sales increases between now and when your traditionally-published book comes out (18-24 months from signing a publishing contract), the numbers could turn out much differently. … Read more
Alexander Greenwood writes a wonderful essay about his grandfather, an author of Westerns, and his own journey through the publishing world. Excerpts: I learned from [my grandfather] things you can learn from any true professional writer: read a lot, write every day, edit, edit, edit and most importantly: don’t quit. As a child I was … Read more
From Commonweal: About ten years ago, Sarah Ogilvie, a former editor at the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), had some time on her hands. She was awaiting a visa that would bring her to the United States for a new job. With little else to do, she visited her favorite hangouts in the town of Oxford, soaking up … Read more
From The Authors Guild: On April 19, the Authors Guild submitted comments in support of a new rule proposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that would make non-compete clauses illegal. Our comments discussed how non-competes are used in writing agreements and underscored the negative impact they have not only on author incomes but also on the … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: Small Press Distribution, one of the last remaining independent book distributors in the United States, has closed. In an announcement made March 28, SPD executive director Kent Watson said that the closure is effective immediately, and that the staff is in the process of winding down the business. Watson cited a decline … Read more
From The Harvard Business Review: Summary. Negotiations can be fraught with emotion, but it’s only recently that researchers have examined how particular feelings influence what happens during deal making. Here the author shares some key findings and advice. Anxiety leads to poor outcomes. You will be less nervous about negotiating, however, if you repeatedly practice … Read more
Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris: THE OFFER I’m writing this guest post from behind two boxes of books just delivered from the publisher. When I pried one open, the cover of the novel I’ve labored over for so long was revealed, and I laughed out loud, like a schoolgirl. I couldn’t stop. The … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: Many years ago, during a reporting trip to Copenhagen, I met an economist for the Danish labor federation. I had just visited a company that was transferring production of hearing aids abroad, and I asked him about this move. To my surprise, the economist was entirely in favor. “We want … Read more
From Jane Friedman: Securing the services of a literary agent has long been the gold standard for authors pursuing a long and successful career in publishing. It’s easy to understand why. At the turn of the twentieth century, the so-called “author’s representative” emerged as the figure who would help authors cut a better deal with … Read more
From Dean Wesley Smith: A few weeks or so back, Kris did a post on her patreon page about what happened with Findaway and writers. I linked to it, but now she gave me permission to put it here to help writers understand another level of business. The Fallacy of the Findaway “Victory” Kristine Kathryn … Read more
From Nathan Bransford: Some pretty significant news arrived this week as some of the smartest and most experienced people in publishing are joining forces on a new imprint called Author Equity. Its business model says a lot about where we’re headed as an industry. Essentially, Author Equity pledges to put authors first, and they won’t … Read more
From Persuasion: Larry Summers is an economist, the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School, and a member of the board of directors of OpenAI. Summers is the former President of Harvard University, the former Secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton, and … Read more
From Unherd: In every culture, in every era, you will find the archetype of the cantankerous old man. He’s ubiquitous in cinema — the aged, scowling hero of Gran Torino; the feuding codgers of Grumpy Old Men; the dementia-stricken patriarch of The Father — but no less so in real life, where you can find … Read more
From Jane Friedman: The following are some of the so-called rules of writing fiction that I take a special delight in breaking. Creative writing is about possibilities, not about restrictions and limitations. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down.In 1962, in a letter to a young writer, John Steinbeck added six tips … Read more
From The Bookseller: When I worked at a library as a teenager, one of my duties was to unbox and process newly released novels, and I noticed something that has stuck with me.There were some authors who had a book out every couple of months. When I skimmed them, they were well-written, with tight plots … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: In 2016 Scholastic canceled the children’s book “A Birthday Cake for George Washington” two weeks after publishing it. The book’s images of smiling enslaved people set off a social-media tsunami and a petition demanding cancellation. It didn’t matter that the illustrator was black, or that the editor, Andrea Pinkney, was … Read more
From The Economist: Imagine living in a rundown apartment building on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. When covid-19 hits in 2020, you do not have the money to escape to a second home in the Hamptons or the Hudson Valley. Instead, in the evening you make your way up to the rooftop of your … Read more
From Business Law Today: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is disrupting almost every industry and profession, some faster and more profoundly than others. Unlike the industrial revolution that automated physical labor and replaced muscles with hydraulic pistons and diesel engines, the AI-powered revolution is automating mental tasks. While it may be merely optimizing some blue-collar jobs, AI … Read more
Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris: Talk about self-publishing has diminished in the last few years. Most of the “Kindle Millionaires” that surged onto the scene a decade or so ago have evaporated from indie writing communities. Some of them are, of course, busy writing their next bestseller. But a lot either got traditional … Read more
From Writers in the Storm: I’m going to take a break from technical advice about structure or the gaming world and how the Boss Fight relates to fiction, and talk about meeting other writers and what you can get out of that. I’ll throw in some Rules of Encounter and Warnings, Scary Moments, and maybe … Read more
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch: I should have seen it coming when I couldn’t figure out how to write the year-end blogs. I found a dozen topics that fit, but none really interested me. They’re all important from different perspectives. The perspectives are so different from each other that they no longer feel like part of … Read more
From The Authors Guild: The Authors Guild is pleased to announce the results of its Survey of Literary Translators’ Working Conditions in 2022. According to Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, the survey was conducted to shed light on the labor conditions of those who work in one of our most cherished and undervalued art … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: Love is in the air for publishers. As I write, five of the top 10 New York Times fiction bestsellers are romance. In the first half of 2023, print unit sales of romance titles soared 34.6% over the same period last year, while in 2022, romance unit sales grew 52.4% over the previous year, … Read more
From The New Publishing Standard: The “38 roles” being eliminated at PRH UK is not huge in the layoff scheme of things, rather just one more tranche of redundancies across the US and UK publishing industry that momentarily gains a headline, and is then forgotten. Jobs? Hey, this is business. No-one said you had a … Read more
From Mondaq: As we previously blogged, multiple generative AI platforms are facing lawsuits alleging that the unauthorized use of copyright-protected material to train artificial intelligence constitutes copyright infringement. A key defense in those cases is fair use. Specifically, AI platforms contend that they don’t need a license to use copyright-protected content—whether scraped from the Internet or … Read more
From Writer Unboxed: Today’s post was inspired by a novelist friend of mine who has been having a hard time of it lately, and in their struggle to regain footing in the fiction market, suggested that I address the question of how to keep the faith in today’s challenging publishing environment. What follows are my … Read more
From The Literary Hub: One summer morning in 1883, Alexander John Ellis sat at his desk in front of three large bay windows, opened wide to catch any breeze that London’s Kensington had to give. From his chair, he could hear the birds in the plane trees and see right down Argyll Road, its five-story … Read more
From Writer Unboxed: The current self-publishing industry has its roots in the mid-1990s, when three startups–Xlibris, Trafford, and AuthorHouse–began selling digital publishing services to individual authors. (Bear with me: I’m getting to the subject of this post!) Along with similar provider iUniverse, these companies later incorporated under the umbrella of Author Solutions, Inc. (AS). A … Read more