15 Fall Books To Read Before The Year Ends

Plus: Self-publishing tech accelerates PoD and D2C

Author

Avinash Duggempudi
September 24, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Bestseller Brief

Here's what's happening this week in the world of books & media eCommerce: - Tariff volatility forces agile print sourcing and planning. - Tech-enabled self-pub compresses timelines and boosts PoD. - Q4 releases stack up across memoir, fiction and poetry. - Mark Ronson memoir opens music-to-book cross-sell windows. - Sonoma indie chart hints at poetry demand uptick.

⏱️Why Finance and Marketing Measure Growth Differently and How to Bridge the Gap?

At eTail™ Connect West, Fospha’s VP of Growth Jamie Bolton hosted a panel with leading retail brands on the future of measurement. Three themes stood out:

  • No single model is enough: Teams combine MTA, MMM, and incrementality for a fuller picture.

  • Finance vs. marketing tension: Finance demands proof; marketers need daily direction.

  • Speed vs. rigor: Annual MMM updates can’t keep pace with weekly budget shifts.

👉 Fospha closes that gap - the only full-funnel MMM delivering daily, ad-level insights built for teams to grow DTC, Amazon & Beyond.

📌WEEKLY MUST-KNOWS

Alta Journal spotlights a dense Q4 slate across memoir, fiction and poetry, including Susan Orlean’s Joyride and new works by John Freeman, Max Delsohn and others. The clustering elevates competition for shelf space, preorders and media attention. Marketing, merchandising and supply need synchronized plans to capture spikes and avoid stockouts.

Tooling from Google Docs and Scrivener to Vellum and on-demand printers is compressing time-to-market for indie authors, with 1.7 million self-published books hitting Amazon in 2023 and PoD saving an estimated 50 million pounds of paper in 2024. The shift increases D2C competition and operational demand for PoD-ready catalogs. Trade marketers should plan for more fragmented discovery, faster campaign cycles and sustainable print preferences.

Export-focused printers in Hong Kong and China are navigating volatile U.S. tariff policy, with most books exempt under IEEPA but categories like journals, games and card decks still hit. A recent 90-day extension and a U.S.-Vietnam deal prompted clients to front-load orders while transshipment definitions remain a risk. U.S. publishers and retailers face shifting landed costs, lead times and sourcing decisions as China Plus One becomes standard.

📅Smartly Advances NYD: Why AI Means More Creativity, Not Less

At Smartly Advanced NYC, Fospha's CEO Sam Carter and CPO Dom Devlin joined industry leaders to debate the role of AI in growth.

The takeaway? From platforms to creators, the consensus is clear: AI isn’t about replacing jobs. It’s about extending human creativity and unlocking new opportunities for marketers to grow.

⚡QUICK READS

Star Music Producer Mark Ronson Releases New Book About Early Career: Ronson’s memoir promo run creates cross-media moments ripe for music-to-book bundles and playlist-driven acquisition.(More)

Best Selling Books This Week At Sonoma's Local Bookstore, Readers' Books: Poetry by Ada Limón leads a Sonoma indie list, a micro-signal to test verse-forward displays and readings.(More)

Inksight Publishers: Making Book Publishing Easy For Everyone: India-based Inksight scales end-to-end self-pub services, reinforcing offshore production options and global marketplace listings for budget-conscious authors.(More)

ClickZ is a ClickZ Media publication in the DTC eCommerce division