Publishing Is Booming, So Why Are Writers Struggling?

In this episode, we break down the publishing developments editors and agents are talking about right now and what they mean for working writers.

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Overthinking Couch Topics:

1. Why audiobooks are now a primary format, not a secondary rights stream
2. The continued dominance of celebrity books and what it signals about the market
3. The “hollowing out” of the midlist and what it means for author careers
4. How Substack and newsletters are changing the path to traditional publishing
5. Why publishers are acquiring fewer debut novels
6. The blurred line between self-publishing and traditional publishing
7. The rise of “aesthetic publishing” and visually driven book sales
8. The Shy Girl controversy and what it reveals about AI in publishing
9. A recent plagiarism ruling and what it says about tropes in fiction

• Court Rules Tracy Wolff Did Not Plagiarize Crave Series
• How a brutal BookTube review got Shy Girl removed from shelves
• The Big Five's Midlist Problem: Why 19% of Traditional Publisher Titles Sell 12 Copies or Fewer
• The Big Five's Midlist Problem: Why 19% of Traditional Publisher Titles Sell 12 Copies or Fewer
• 2026 Audie Awards Winners
• The Rise of Aesthetic Book Publishing
• Home : America's Editor - Let's work together.
• More Writing Tips

Music licensed from Storyblocks.