Saturday 11 July 2009

Inside Publishing

There are several websites and blogs out there which provide concise, verified, useful information about the publishing business, and several more which send daily or weekly emails to their subscribers which are packed full of news about the publishing business. They're invaluable for writers, even those who aren't overly interested in the mechanics of publishing or in insider gossip.

I recognise that this is not an extensive list and it's very biased towards the UK, too: so I'd be very grateful if you could add recommendations of your own in the comments, complete with links and descriptions if possible so that I can edit them in here and build a really useful list. Thank you!


The fabulous AuthorScoop publishes a few posts each day, most of which are lists of links to publishing news and writing views. It's wonderful stuff and I'm very fond of it: if I'm not particularly disciplined AuthorScoop eats up whole days of my life.

BookBrunch sends out a good email roundup of publishing news and views daily, which is free: but if you want to read the full versions of each story on the BookBrunch website, you have to pay subscription fees.

Book2Book (also known as Booktrade Info) also rounds up publishing news stories and provides an email news service which anyone can subscribe to free of charge: unlike BookBrunch, however, Book2Book doesn't charge subscription fees to those who want to read the fuller story. Book2Book often links to publishing blogs: I've made their lists a few times now, and each time have enjoyed a very healthy boost to my viewing statistics as a result.

The Bookseller's website has a news section, a blog (which I've contributed to), job ads, rights sales, everything. It's sometimes criticised for being a little too staid but I don't think that's fair: it's thorough, demands meticulous, verifiable research from its contributors, and covers a lot of publishing ground. There is apparently an email update, which I have subscribed to but have never received. I don't think the problem lies with my spam-filter, but might well be wrong.

5th Estate is a blog written by editors, publishers and writers and is published by Press Books (a division of HarperCollins). It features book previews, opinion pieces and industry news, and, unlike some publishers' blogs, isn't wholly promotional.


Thanks to Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware! for providing me with the following links and information, which is mostly oriented toward the US market:

Publishers Lunch: For the "deluxe" version of this newsletter, you have to be a member of Publishers Marketplace, but the free version provides plenty of news and links.

Shelf Awareness is a free email newsletter for booksellers. It's bookstore-focused, but there are often fascinating tidbits of news here that you don't see elsewhere.

Publishers Weekly offers a number of free newsletters about the industry. I think you may need to be a PW subscriber to access these, though.

GalleyCat is a great resource for publishing news. You can also sign up for MediaBistro's Daily Media Newsfeed, which covers the media in general (not just publishing).

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should be able to get email updates from the Bookseller without subscribing - I get daily news bulletins, news flashes if something big happens (like all the stuff happening at Penguin this week) and - which is optional - weekly job vacancy emails. It's perhaps more useful for wannabe publishers rather than authors, but very good for keeping your finger on the pulse. I also subscribe to their news page, their opinion pieces page and their jobs page by RSS. Don't know why the emails wouldn't work for you, Jane, but I definitely recommend them!

Ella

Greg Wilson said...

Hi Jane--Not trying to hijack the thread, but since you mentioned your spam filter I thought I'd ask if my E-mail message to you might have gotten lost in the ether. Feel free, though, to tell me to stop plaguing you and jump in a lake if you have gotten it and have been too swamped to respond... :)

Derek said...

Don't forget PW and Galleycat.

* said...

Informative post, thanks!

Dorset Girl said...

Thanks, these are really great links. Hope your projects are all going well.
x

Anonymous said...

I've just had an email from the Society of Authors, saying that members can subscribe to BookBrunch at a 15% discount. Every little helps. Phone or email the Society, and they'll give you a discount code to use.

I have to say, though, that I recently gave up my online Bookseller subscription, on the basis that it's almost never helpful to your writing know what's going on in the trade for reasons which I went on about here:
http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2007/09/the-market-for-.html
so I won't in your airspace, Jane...

Anonymous said...

A collection of useful links for writers, now there's a really good idea. Actually I've kind of started one, with the help of my friend Calistro. It can be found on the Novel Racers blog (see the "Writing Resource Links" gadget on the left hand side).

I'm sure she won't mind, and I certainly don't, if you help yourself to some of these links. The descriptions are a bit terse, I'm afraid. With your permission, I could steal some back from this post to add to our own collection.

Victoria Strauss said...

Thanks for the AuthorScoop link--I'm adding it to my list. I already subscribe to Book2Book--it's a great resource.

Some more publishing info sites, mostly oriented toward the US market:

Publishers Lunch: For the "deluxe" version of this newsletter, you have to be a member of Publishers Marketplace, but the free version provides plenty of news and links.

Shelf Awareness is a free email newsletter for booksellers. It's bookstore-focused, but there are often fascinating tidbits of news here that you don't see elsewhere.

Publishers Weekly offers a number of free newsletters about the industry. I think you may need to be a PW subscriber to access these, though.

GalleyCat is a great resource for publishing news. You can also sign up for MediaBistro's Daily Media Newsfeed, which covers the media in general (not just publishing).

Jane Smith said...

Thank you all for those extra links, especially Victoria Strauss who has, as usual, gone above and beyond what is reasonable and done far more than she needed to. I'll edit them into my original piece and take all the credit, as usual!

Jane Smith said...

Emma, as ever you're right on target with your article. A lovely piece (and I now can't stop myself calling it The Ropeseller!). But I still like to spy on the book trade.

Captain Black, steal away--I don't own these links and if they're useful to you, you're welcome to them.

Mick Rooney said...

Jane,

Have added you to my links as well.

Mick.