2025 Plot Twists in Publishing (That Everyone Saw Coming)

In this episode, Matt & Lauren look back on this year in publishing. We review some of our predictions from 2024 and how those trends impacted the industry in 2025, including:

• How AI continued to dominate the conversation
• Why more and more authors and publishers are exploring direct sales
• How traditional publishers are adopting print-on-demand solutions
• Why building community is more important than ever

Listen now, or watch the full episode on YouTube!

Dive Deeper

💡 Explore These Resources

• Lulu | 2025 Books & Business Insights Report
• Kajabi | State of Creator Commerce Report 2025
• Jane Friedman | The Key Book Publishing Paths: 2025–2026

💡 Listen to These Episodes

• Ep #52 | Did Indie Authors Publish and Prosper in 2024?
• Ep #56 | The Indie Author's Guide to Going Wide With Your Book Distribution
• Ep #68 | Maximizing Your Chances of Discoverability in Generative AI Search
• Ep #96 | Building a Landing Page for Your Book

💡 Read These Blog Posts

• Author Research: What the Top 5% of Creators Do Differently
• Digital Printing for Traditional Publishers
  
  

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [18:20] “[Selling direct] has become so common and so easy that I think that not only will it continue, but I think you're really gonna start seeing a lot of major players adopting it now going into 2026.”

🎙️ [27:15] “I don't think we're gonna be living in a world much longer where it's an us versus them mentality, indie publishing versus traditional publishing.”

🎙️ [40:25] “I think that this year people really kind of had the reality check of, oh shit, we can't do it this way. I cannot put all of my eggs in this basket if I'm not the one holding the basket.”

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