Instead of a transcript, here are some rough notes. Let us know if you prefer this format or want to switch back to the longer fuller posts.
Welcome to Author Update—your weekly dose of publishing news that actually matters to YOUR career.
This week we talk about how Traditional publishing sales are TANKING and multiple publishers are closing their doors, while others are laying off employees. Is this the beginning of the end for Traditional Publishing? We’ll break it down.
Plus, NaNoWriMo may be DEAD…but “Novel November” has taken its place and it starts tomorrow. We will give you the details.
And in our most shocking story—a new scientific study shows readers actually PREFER AI-written fiction over writing from elite MFA graduates. Yeah, you heard that right. I’ve got the receipts, and we will dive DEEP into what this means, and I’ll tell you it may not be what you think. Don’t despair, humans can still win.
I’m Thomas Umstattd Jr. and my cohost Jonathan Sheurger has the plague. So I will need YOU to play the role of Jonathan today. I will try to pause after each story and check in with the chat.
Our first story is one we failed to get to last week.
Spotify Launches “Audiobook Selects” Audiobook Production for Indie Authors
Spotify just dropped a game-changer that could open new doors for your work. The streaming giant has announced the first slate of independent author releases through its Audiobook Selects program, with the first audiobooks set to hit the platform on November 4.
Audiobook Selects is Spotify’s in-house publishing initiative focused on short-form stories—think novelettes in the 10,000 to 40,000-word range. It’s designed to spotlight emerging voices in genres like romance, mystery/thriller, and sci-fi/fantasy.
How does it work? If you own your audio rights, you can submit your book for publication. Spotify handles selection, production, narration, and distribution to major retailers. Also expect prominent placement in the Spotify app where premium users get 15 free listening hours monthly.
If your book is selected you will get an upfront advance plus royalties. You can learn more at https://authors.spotify.com/
Thomas Take:
- This is direct competition with Audible Studios which is Audible’s production arm.
- “Diverse voices” is a dog whistle for “white straight Christians are not welcome.”
- Spotify is a European woke company.
Th e Rise of Paperback and Hardback Audio
Nathan Hull at the Bookseller wrote an interesting piece about the rise of two tiers of audiobooks. His two tiers are single narrator and multicast full production. We are already seeing this, but currently the books are priced the same. This may change in the future.
Thomas Take:
I think we will actually see three tiers of audiobooks that match to the three kinds of paper books.
- Mass Market Paperback – 11Labs Quality AI Narration
- Paperback – Single Narrator Audiobooks
- Hardback – Full Cast Audio Production with sound effects and music.
A big trend I am seeing is full cast productions of older books. The Dresden Files and Harry Potter are both getting full cast production re-realeases.
This is one of those trends that crept up so slowly we didn’t realize it was already here.
Standard Tickets Sold Out for the 2026 Novel Marketing Conference
Super Tickets Sold Out
Standard Tickets Sold Out
We still have 10 gallery tickets remaining. The tickets sold out from most expensive to least expensive. Authors who know how valuable this conference is, snatched up the most expensive tickets.
If you want to grab one of the remaining tickets go to NovelMarketingConference.com
Also, if someone can’t make it, they can sell their ticket. So if you still want a standard ticket, keep an eye out on AuthorMedia.social.
Sales for Traditionally Published Books Fell Nearly 10% in August
The Association of American Publishers’ (AAP) just released their StatShot Report for August 2025. The headline? Overall publishing revenues slipped 4.4% compared to August 2024, coming in at $1.6 billion. Year-to-date, the industry is down 2.8% at $9.2 billion.
But the real story for authors is in the consumer books category—aka Trade books—where sales fell 9.4%, totaling $791.5 million for the month.
This drop in Trade revenues hits close to home for traditionally published authors. Breaking it down by format:
- Hardbacks were down 9.2% to $277.4 million,
- Paperbacks dropped 11.8% to $280.6 million,
- Mass market paperbacks dropped a staggering 16.6% down to just $6.9 million.
- Traditional eBooks declined 3.4% to $88.7 million,
- Digital audio dipped 2.7% to $87.2 million.
- Religious press revenues were down 7.7%
Now, for indie authors watching this: We often use Kindle Unlimited (KU) payouts as a proxy for overall self-publishing sales, since KU is comprised of mostly indie authors.
The KDP Select Global Fund for August 2025 hit $60.1 million, up from $56.6 million in August 2024—a roughly 6% increase.
Some other takeaways from the report:
- Traditional ebook sales past audiobooks sales this month. Last month, audiobooks outperformed ebooks.
Mango Publishing Closes
Publisher’s Lunch reports that Miami-based Mango Publishing is going out of business.
The company took out high-interest loans during the pandemic and since then have had to “navigate supply chain disruptions, high print price inflation, book market downsizing, losses from uncollectible accounts receivable, and more recently, even tariffs, while servicing the bank and other debts.”
The company has “exhausted all cash” and will not be able to pay down any debts or pay royalties to authors. The company’s staff have now been been laid off.
Mango Described itself as:
an independent book publisher on a mission to democratize and modernize the book publishing industry. We are data-driven, reader-led, highly international and very engaged in social justice and environmental causes.
Mango claims the following imprints:
- Books & Books Press
- Conari Press
- Dope
- Dragon Fruit
- FIU Business Press
- FranklinCovey
- National Baseball Hall of Fame
- Reef Smart Guides
- The Tiny Press
- Yellow Pear Press
Thomas Take:
Struggling for a long time.
They sold two imprints to Turner Publishing Company in 2023. Based on the Our Mangod page they likely had too much staff for the revenue.
Mango published about 130 titles a year and they did this with a team of 40 people! And of those 40 people not a single one of them were in advertising.
No brand.
Their books are all over the place Tarot Cards, Wellness, Boundaries. They were so diverse they were like an arrow pointing in all directions.
The one differentiator that they had was that they were…
Woke
Being a progressive publisher would have worked in 2000 or 2010. Back then covering your book covers in rainbows helped boost sales because so few books did that.
But by 2020 most publishers were woke. Including many of the Christian ones!
When all the brands look the same, the differentiator is execution. This is where loan terms start to really matter. Why did Dillards survive the retail apocalypse when so many did not? Dillards had less debt.
Their other differentiator was international authors. But they implemented this poorly. Don’t feature British spelled words on covers intended for an American audience.
“Data Driven” and “Reader Centric”
“Our editorial team works very closely with our authors every step of the way to help develop the very best manuscript possible. Mango has taken the guessing game out of the publishing model by relying on data, social media and market analysis to ensure we give our readers what they want.”
This sounds very good. I wonder if it just meant sentiment analysis. I could find no evidence of:
- A subscription plan targeting readers
- A newsletter for readers
Data driven is at odds with democratization once you understand the pareto distribution. In pareto distribution fields like publishing, the top 5% of authors out earn the bottom 95% combined.
Bottom Line:
I don’t think the issue was one of zeitgeist. Yes the culture stepped right while Mango was stepping left. But I think the reason for the downfall is more prosaic than that. They grew to fast and they failed to keep costs under control. They took on too much debt and it killed them.
Running a publishing company psychologically running a publishing company is a lot like gambling. It takes solid financial discipline to avoid killing the company while chasing the next big score.
Make sure to listen to my episode Is Your Traditional Publisher Going Bankrupt? 8 Warning Signs to Look Out For. Mango had many of those warning signs for years.
Children’s Publisher Knights Of Closing Down
Publisher Knights Of, known for its commitment to inclusive storytelling, is winding down operations. Let’s unpack what we know and what it might mean for writers in the space.
First, the facts: Knights Of ceased trading on October 16, 2025, and is headed for liquidation. No official reason has been shared for the closure
For context, Knights Of launched in 2017 with a mission to amplify underrepresented voices in children’s literature. They specialized in diverse, rainbow fiction for kids aged 5-15.
Thomas Take:
- It looks like they had the business fundamentals down. They kept the team small and lean, They had a strong focused brand, and a clear editorial vision. Knights of published gay and diverse books for children.
- So why did they fail?
- This is a zeitgeist story.
- Most parents don’t want rainbow books for their five year old children. And many of the parents who did want that in 2019 don’t want it anymore.
Margaret’s Take:
“One thought I have about that publishing company, woke messaging aside, is simply that the focus seems to be too narrow. They are all about “representation” but since that is their sole M.O., they are trying to cater to a very specific audience (possibly at the expense of quality). Just doesn’t seem to be very practical long-term”
A good comparison in terms of culture is to compare Knights of with Brave Books.
In many ways these companies are photo negatives of each other. Both focus on middle grade and both have a social mission. The difference is one of mission. Brave Books is conservative and Christian. Knights Of is progressive, antichristian, and strangely sexually charged for a children’s book publisher.
Brave books is doing very well financially while Knights Of is moving into liquidation. There is a lot more I could say on this story, but I found it right before we went live and we have a lot of news to cover.
Layoffs Hit Traditional Publishing in October
We have seen a lot of Traditional Publishing layoffs this month.
Baker & Taylor: Over 520 layoffs announced in October as the distributor ceases operations by end of 2025; includes 318 in Illinois, 67 in New Jersey.
Powell’s Books: 13 layoffs in October across management and business services; part of over two dozen total cuts in 2025 amid post-pandemic cost pressures.
Mango Publishing: Closing down. The final 13 staff positions cut
Dotdash Meredith: 226 roles cut (6% of workforce) in October.
NBC News: ~150 positions eliminated (7% of staff) in October as part of NBCUniversal restructuring.
Paramount Global: Up to 2,000 cuts initiated company-wide; includes nearly 100 at CBS News, but no reported impact on Simon & Schuster publishing arm.
Novel November Starts Tomorrow
In a shakeup for the writing community, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)—the longstanding nonprofit event challenging authors to draft 50,000 words in November officially shut down after a series of internal controversies. Founded in 1999, NaNoWriMo grew into a massive platform with thousands of participants, but last year’s turmoil, driven by debates over social justice policies, led to a mass exodus of volunteers and the organization’s collapse.
Stepping into the gap, ProWritingAid—a popular writing software and former NaNoWriMo sponsor—has relaunched the concept as “Novel November.” This new iteration aims to preserve the spirit of the challenge while offering tools and resources for writers.
For indie and traditional authors, this signals both a loss and an opportunity: the end of a free, community-driven staple, but potentially a more streamlined event backed by tech support. If you’re gearing up for a draft sprint, check out Novel November to keep the momentum going—though it may shift focus toward paid tools. Stay tuned for how this evolves in the publishing landscape. https://prowritingaid.com/novel-november
Readers Prefer AI Writing to MFA Writing (According to Science)
A research paper published in the SSRN Journal just came out suggesting that readers—both experts and casual folks—actually prefer AI-generated writing over work from MFA-trained pros.
The Study at a Glance
The researchers pitted three top AI models (GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Gemini 1.5 Pro) against MFA graduates from elite programs, tasking both to emulate the styles of 50 acclaimed authors, from Nobel winners like Kazuo Ishiguro to Booker Prize recipients and emerging National Book Award finalists.
When the team fine-tuned ChatGPT on each author’s entire body of work the expert readers favored the AI for stylistic accuracy and even writing quality. Lay readers in the study followed suit.
These fine-tuned AI pieces evaded detection too. Only 3% of the stories were flagged as AI by top detectors. The secret? Fine-tuning scrubbed out those telltale AI clichés and quirks.
The study goes into more detail as to how the researchers prompted the models. But the main point is that this level of quality is possible and was possible with generation old models. GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Gemini 1.5 Pro are so old some are already deprecated.
To get this level of quality requires some sophistication. You can’t just prompt Chat GPT to write you an award winning quality story. But, enterprising authors can use these techniques to write and Amazon bestseller a week
You can find the full research paper at SSRN.com
Thomas’ Take:
- This is more of an indictment of MFA programs. It is an open secret that MFA written books tend to under perform in the market. Most of what you learn in an MFA program is not only unhelpful, it is anti-helpful.
- Better to go through the five year plan. The course costs $200 and many many students have compared it with an MFA program. The difference is that the 5YP prepares authors to write books with commercial appeal. Or, put another way, bestselling books.
Zeitgeist: The End of the Managerial State?
Amazon: Is laying off 14,000 corporate jobs focused mostly on middle management. This follows a trend of management layoffs around the country. Companies often do these layoffs right before earnings calls to boost the stock price.
Wallstreet loves to see middle managers get laid off.
Thomas Take:
- Reminiscent of 1980s Clerical jobs made up about 20% of the U.S. workforce. Most clerical jobs are gone now.
- In the 1980s and 1990s the people with typewriters and filing cabinets were laid off. One person with a personal computer and a laser printer could do the work of an entire secretarial pool.
- The very best secretaries were given computers, the others were let go.
- Older workers (50+) faced the brunt: a “computer knowledge gap” spiked retirement rates by 1-1.4% annually and cut wages by 2.5-7%, hitting office roles like bookkeepers hardest, as firms skipped retraining those nearing retirement.
The Economy is Splitting Between Techno Kings and Techno Peasants
- Prompters vs Door Dashers
- The new aristocracy is still forming.
How do you navigate this changing landscape:
The Hard Way:
- US AI to help you become more productive. If you can do the work of two men, you are safer from layoffs than those who can do the work of one man.
- Use AI to write more and better books.
- Use AI to help you reach more readers.
The Easy Way:
- Use AI as little as possible but secretly more than the people around you.
- Convince the people around you that AI is immoral.
- Go on witch hunts for anyone using AI.
In the short term, the easy way will make you feel virtuous. In the long term, those you persecuted will become your master.
Zeitgeist Angle
- Readers are going through a time of dramatic technical change. Look for other eras where this happened.
- 1880-1920
- 1980-2000
- More money in the economy means fewer jobs. This may break the Fed.
- The conversation about the environment is totally changing. A lot of people used Climate Change as a way to gain power. Those power seekers are turning on environmentalism. Bill Gates recently cooled on global warming, Greta Thunberg has switched from environmentalism to antisemitism as the issue that will get her power.
- AI is eating the middle class. We are heading for a world where people either have AI bosses, or AI employees.
- This is a psychological pain that your readers are feeling, or will feel soon.
