Tip sheets are one of the publishing industry’s most powerful behind-the-scenes tools, shaping what books make it onto shelves and into readers’ hands. From metadata to design, every element works together to sell a story before it’s even opened. Here’s how to create one that actually gets noticed.
While Iceland Noir began as a celebration of crime fiction, it has grown exponentially over the years. If you were to attend the festival this year, you would have the opportunity to explore a broader range of genres and media, including film, and gain insight into a small country’s rise in the literary scene.
On June 28, 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) took effect, requiring all new ebooks sold in the EU to be fully accessible. There was a second requirement that all ebooks published before this date be made accessible by June 28, 2030.
Using The Secret History as a guide, dark academia can be considered to have the following main factors: academic aesthetics, dark or gothic themes, and critique of academia—though the actual overarching or main genre can vary. Popular dark academia works range from literary and contemporary fiction to thriller, horror, and even fantasy.
Where once dark, brooding covers hinted at danger and mystery, today’s paranormal romance embraces pastel hues and tender supernatural love. These paranormal romance worlds have evolved into places where the supernatural and natural coexist.
I’ve always been fascinated by the work manga artists achieve in a week alone. Imaging having to create a whole new story every seven days?
In sci-fi, it can be easy to get caught up in the new jargon or futuristic technology without noticing the fact that a character, who previously had an important role in a scene, has seemingly disappeared out of nowhere while the action continued without them. It is important to be mindful of every element within an active scene and how it connects to everything else. Where did that character go?
While the increase in print book sales is encouraging, it doesn’t necessarily correlate to less time spent on our phones. However, I’m encouraged by the fact that online platforms, while still inescapable, are being used less as a complete replacement for analog media and human connection and more as a way to discover new stories and build real-life communities around those stories.
On the marketing and publicity side, book subscriptions can increase book sales as well as visibility. Readers get to discover books and genres they normally wouldn’t pick up at the bookstore. In return, authors, especially new and up-and-coming authors, are able to get their books into the hands of their target audience.
A lot of kids love comics, even the ones who don’t think of themselves as readers. I’ve seen students absolutely inhale beat-up library copies of Bone, Smile, or Dragonball Z in their free time while they simultaneously struggled to even comprehend the texts I assigned in class, let alone be interested in or enjoy them. Stories told in visuals, with minimal written language, pull in readers who otherwise have a hard time reading.