Amazon's latest figures are astounding and cement its dominance of the book business, particularly self-publishing, as well as the huge inroads it is making in many other areas. Read more
Coming from the tech arena is a fairly hostile view of traditional publishing, which assumes that it is dead and will shortly be totally replaced by indie publishing. But is this really what is happening at present? It doesn't seem so clear-cut. Read more
Amongst the predictions springing up as we move into the new year, a hard figure is the most astonishing. The slowing-down of ebook sales is well-documented but it is quite startling that the first figure of 2017 is that the UK print market sold 195 million books in 2016, an increase of almost 7% on 2015, and volume increased by 4.5%. Read more
The question of how to price ebooks is still of great concern to indie authors and to publishers alike, and recent research from Good e-Reader reveals that readers are prepared to pay disappointingly little. Over the last two months they asked 553 Americans how much they were prepared to pay for a new e-book and the results are sobering. Read more
So what can we say that's positive about the big changes in the situation for authors over the last few years? It's really a matter of the way writers now have the opportunity to get out there and shape their own destiny. Read more
There's been a lot of discussion recently about how things have changed for writers over the last few years. In some ways it's a radically different picture, in others not so much so. Read more
The growth in self-published books reported last week comes from Amazon, whose DIY print business CreateSpace has become far and away the biggest self-publishing platform in the United States. In a week when the Association of American PublishersThe national trade association of the American book publishing industry; AAP has more than 300 members, including most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies reported major declines in sales of trade books, there's also been talk about whether depressed digital sales are hurting Amazon. Read more
Bowker has published a huge report on self-publishing in the US and, although the detailed figures are rather dry, some of the conclusions are quite explosive in their picture of a rapidly growing self-publishing scene. And where America goes, other countries tend to follow, although not at a uniform speed. Read more
There was a time when the main concern of writers coming to the site was how to find a publisher. That's when series such as Inside Publishing were created in order to answer the demand for information about publishing, so that writers could find out about what actually went on behind the scenes. Read more
The battle rages on about whether self-publishing or traditional publishing is best from the author's point of view and it all seems to come down to your own experience. If you're happily settled with a publisher and content with what they're doing for you, then of course you'll advocate that. Read more
The man in the video says there's a simple reason why I'm not rich. "Most people have a scarcity mindset," he explains through a thick Australian accent, addressing the camera like a wise mentor lecturing a student. "Top-tier people-actual movers and shakers that are doing things-have an abundance mindset." Behind him, an ancient sword hangs on the wall. For some reason, he's in a bathrobe.
Unlike English native-speakers, I didn't really encounter gothic novels in the first twenty-or-so years of my life. I grew up in the French-speaking part Switzerland, and my modern and medieval literature studies focused on French authors and their preoccupations. Therefore hearing the concept of ‘gothic' as a formative genre for the English psyche didn't really mean much to me... Read more
'As someone who's on their sixth novel and has had their ups and downs, I'm aware of how privileged and lucky I have been, and what a shock it can be for debut writers - all the reality of that world, and that new voice and when the book doesn't quite take off, it's a shock.
Publisher Spines will charge authors between $1,200 and $5,000 to have their books proofread, designed and distributed with the help of artificial intelligence
The 11th edition of the China Shanghai International Children's Book Fair ended its three-day run on November 17. Post-event statistics from co-organizer BolognaFiere showed that 41,262 attended the fair, including 17,081 professional visitors. A total of 353 professional events, book launches, and reading promotion activities were held. Read more
In These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means (Viking, Mar.), neuroscientist Christopher Summerfield explores how large language models work.
The poet Ted Kooser turned 85 this year, and the Pulitzer Prize winner and former poet laureate of the United States is as productive as ever, with Copper Canyon Press putting out his latest volume, Raft, earlier this fall.
‘My advice to writers, whether they are inspired or repelled by my work, is to read and reread, write and rewrite, keep to the grindstone, do not be swayed by fame or adulation, the work is the absolute prize.'