News Archives

News Summary: Booktrovert Launches, New Poetry Prize Announced, and Marginalia Returns via TikTok

A suitable Saturday round-up brings us new opportunities and the oldest of literary trends. First up, news of a new platform that seeks to offer something distinctive in what I’d call the “curated discovery” space. It feels like a crowded space already, but in practical terms it is dominated by BookBub. Its name is Booktrovert, and it is brought to the world by the NetGalley team.

TikTok’s 8th Note Press Faces Shutdown Amid Author Complaints: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

My previous story reported on the opening of a new romance-only bookstore (one hopes the wedding venue license will be coming soon for literary lovers’ very own HEA!). Needless to say, the owner of the store in question cited TikTok as one of the driving factors in the decision to open the store. This is a theme. The resurgence of bookstores and the influence of BookTok go hand in hand.

Romance Drives Fiction Boom and Audiobooks Surge: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

'Tis the season to celebrate audiobook growth, it seems. So what better way to mark the solstice—when the city is full of folk dancers and the countryside is full of all manner of people doing all manner of things to mark the longest (or shortest, depending upon your hemisphere) day—than to report on yet another set of industry figures that points to the health of the audio market?

TikTok Ban Deadline Extended Again; UK Conference Tackles AI and Piracy: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

I had approached filing the end-of-week news with the kind of trepidation that seems to come around on a regular cycle—a cycle that lasts as long as the latest TikTok ban deadline. But sure enough, as I sat down to write, the news came through that will be music to my editor’s ears. No last-minute rush (on this, at least). Sure enough, the deadline for the sale of TikTok’s operations in the United States has been extended by another ninety days and will not come into force this week. The third such extension this year, apparently, this time it really will lead to the closing of a deal to see TikTok in the U.S. into new, non-Chinese ownership. I fully anticipate reporting the same come September.

Spotify Reports Audiobook Growth; AI Search Summaries Cut Publisher Traffic: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Spotify is doing well and helping publishers in the process—or so says the latest release from, er, Spotify. Despite the obvious possible messiah complex going on, there are some really interesting and encouraging figures in the report. The catalog of English-language audiobooks now exceeds 400,000, which shows the scale of the operation.

New UK-Based Speakies Awards Offer Audiobook Alternative to the Audies: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

As we celebrate the return of double-digit growth to audiobooks, it might seem strange that there is still really only one big audiobook award. The Audies, run by the Audio Publishers Association, is a huge affair with nearly thirty categories. And of course, it’s open to indie authors. Well, now there’s another contender: the Speakies (surely to become known as the Speakeasies—and if there’s not a Bugsy Malone feel to the first staging, I will be hugely disappointed).

Unbound Struggles Continue, UK Rejects AI Transparency, and PWC Tracks Job Shifts: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

The ongoing Unbound struggles continue to unfold as more troubling news emerges about the transition from Unbound to Boundless Books. Having made it AI-free through the first half of the week, we end with a round-up of a few stories from the area. First (with a tangential AI link I hadn’t previously spotted), and with thanks to all-round legend Sam Missingham for this highly thoughtful thread on Bluesky, is the latest development in the Unbound/Boundless saga.

US Book Show Highlights Big Books, AI, and the Value of Direct Sales: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Last week saw the US Book Show, a single-day but large event that comes far enough after other major gatherings—like the London Book Fair—to feel as though a world of water has passed under the bridge since then.

Dark Romance Leads Book Sales; Scientists Develop Tool to Detect Poisoned Covers: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

I love following reading habits. They’re sociologically interesting and offer valuable insight for writers. The latest Circana BookScan report, which tracks what’s been selling in the United States, shows that dark romance continues to dominate reader interest in the first half of 2025.

Audiobook Sales Climb Back to Double-Digit Growth, Topping $2.22 Billion: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Remember those heady days when I reported on double-digit audiobook sales growth for a decade straight? Well, it seems that we have, however temporarily, returned to that time. The Audio Publishers Association has just launched its annual Sales Survey (by Toluna) and Consumer Survey (by Edison), and the results suggest that the audiobook industry is, at least on the surface, in a healthy state.

AI Acts as Librarian, Revives Agatha Christie, and Outsmarts Humans on Reddit: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

This week’s AI news all falls firmly into the “what’s it done now?” category I mentioned last week.

Comics Plus and Penguin Random House Clash Over E-Book Lending Models: Self-Publishing News with Dan Holloway

Remember back to the innocent days just before COVID turned the world on its head and we were blissfully unaware of NFTs and generative AI? As 2019 closed and 2020 dawned, one of the things keeping people in the book world up at night was the raging battle between libraries and publishers over e-book lending.