From Publishing Perspectives: Overnight (March 18), Kiara Alfonseca has confirmed for ABC News in New York City that the city’s department of education has opened an investigation into reports that hundreds of new books, “many that were about people of color and LGBTQ identities—were thrown into the trash at a Staten Island school after the … Read more
From The Bookseller: Hachette has reported a rise across both its mean and median gender pay gaps for the whole company group between 2022 and 2023, while the bonus pay gap for ethnicity has also deepened, though progress in other areas has been made. The group – which encompasses Hachette UK Ltd (staff in publishing … Read more
From The Bookseller: Vivendi has announced that it will carve up its group into four separate entities which will be listed on the stock market. This follows its recent takeover of Lagardère, owner of Hachette Livre, France’s largest book publisher, and is prompted by the need to “fully unleash the development potential of all its … Read more
From The New Publishing Standard: The HarperCollins fiscal year runs to June 30, and this year fiscal Q4 (2020 Q2) saw a 3% drop in revenue from $419 million to $407 million. But profits were up 9%, to $47 million. As reported by parent company News Corp, for the full fiscal year revenue of $1.67 … Read more
From The Bookseller: Hachette UK’s revenues were down 6.7% in the third quarter of 2018, due to a lighter release schedule and decline in sales in its education segment, its parent company Lagardere has reported. The fall in sales in the UK has been attributed “mainly” to an absence of curriculum reform, which also affected France … Read more
From Scroll.in: With over 17,000 new titles each year and sales of $2,826 million in 2016, the Hachette Livre Group of companies comfortably sits among the Big Five English language publishers, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and MacMillan Publishers. Headquartered in France, its authors include John Grisham, Enid Blyton, James Patterson, Robert … Read more
From LiveMint: In 18 short years, David Shelley has gone from being an editorial assistant and then publishing director at independent publisher Allison and Busby, to becoming chief executive of Hachette UK last month—a career that’s nothing short of phenomenal. Along the way, the Oxford graduate in English literature has also been the CEO of … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: Following a New York Times report exposing decades of sexual assault allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and his subsequent removal by the board of the company he co-founded, Hachette Book Group has addressed the future of writers signed to his book publishing imprint, Weinstein Books. “Hachette Book Group will honor its contracts with writers who have come to … Read more
From The Bookseller: Hachette UK has launched a new diversity initiative, a creative writing hub called The Future Bookshelf, to make publishing more accessible for writers who feel they aren’t well represented by the industry. The initiative aims to “demystify publishing”, by guiding users of the website through the process of writing, editing, submitting and publishing, and will offer monthly tips and shareable infographics from … Read more
From The Bookseller: Hachette UK’s parent company Lagardère has published its annual results, reporting sales in the UK grew by 11% in 2016, helped by Little, Brown titles Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts that helped to offset the full-year impact of a return to the agency agreement for e-books. The annual results provide further detail following Lagardère’s Q4 financial results in February, when … Read more
From The Bookseller: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, both published by Little, Brown, helped Hachette UK to see “strong” 17.5% sales growth in the fourth quarter of 2016. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which in the third quarter drove Hachette UK sales up 30% after its … Read more
From The Bookseller: In his annual newsletter sent out to authors yesterday (29th March), [The Group c.e.o of Hachette UK, Tim] Hely Hutchinson emphasised the importance of the publisher’s role in a time of digital change in the industry, calling the last year a “transformational” one for the company. While “a sea change can be … Read more
From Elysian: In 2022, Penguin Random House wanted to buy Simon & Schuster. The two publishing houses made up 37 percent and 11 percent of the market share, according to the filing, and combined they would have condensed the Big Five publishing houses into the Big Four. But the government intervened and brought an antitrust … Read more
From The Guardian: Staff at technology company Meta discussed buying publishing house Simon & Schuster last year in order to procure books to train the company’s artificial intelligence tools, it has been reported. According to recordings of internal meetings shared with the New York Times, managers, lawyers and engineers at Meta met on a near-daily basis between March … Read more
From Women Writers, Women’s Books: I often get asked why I decided to self-publish my books. It all started in the summer of 2019 when I attended the Winchester Writers’ Festival, submitting the first three chapters and a synopsis of my debut novel Leave Well Alone to four literary agents beforehand. It was a busy … Read more
From Publishing Perspectives: On Friday . . . four major publishers—Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Random House, and Wiley—filed a brief that opposes the Internet Archive‘s appeal of its loss on March 24, 2023, in the copyright case Hachette Book Group, et al, v. Internet Archive. The original lawsuit was filed by the publishers … Read more
From Reuters: A federal judge on Monday heavily trimmed an antitrust lawsuit that accused Amazon.com, opens new tab and others of causing consumers to overpay for eBooks. U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan accepted a recommendation from a U.S. magistrate last year that the case be narrowed to include, for now, only two plaintiffs … Read more
From Nathan Bransford: Some pretty significant news arrived this week as some of the smartest and most experienced people in publishing are joining forces on a new imprint called Author Equity. Its business model says a lot about where we’re headed as an industry. Essentially, Author Equity pledges to put authors first, and they won’t … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: The Big Five’s grip on the hardcover bestseller lists continued in 2023, as 84.8% of the 2,080 positions on PW’s weekly hardcover lists were occupied by titles published by major houses. But for the second year in a row, the Big Five’s hold on the lists loosened a bit, dropping roughly three percentage … Read more
From The Nation: It’s a common trope in movies: A mob enforcer walks into a shop, looks around, and then says to the owner, “Nice place you got here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.” Every viewer understands that a shakedown is in the works. The shop owner can either pay up … Read more
PG Note: Sales and revenue statistics in commercial publishing are not the easiest to pin down nor are they the most reliable. Part of the difficulty is related to the fact that none of the major U.S. trade publishers are independent/standalone companies. The five largest publishers in the United States are Penguin Random House (owned … Read more
From Esquire: Anyone who’s worked for a major book publisher in recent memory knows the energy that crackles through the office at 4:59 P.M. on Wednesday afternoons, right before the preview of next week’s best seller list arrives from The New York Times. After months of pitching reviews, planning marketing campaigns, doing bookseller outreach, and begging for budget, … Read more
From Vulture: Ali Hazelwood, a New York Times best-selling author of the romance novels The Love Hypothesis, Love on the Brain, and Love, Theoretically, found her literary agent in January 2020 in an unusual way. Instead of the long process most authors undertake that involves sending out countless letters seeking representation, it was an agent who reached out after reading … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: In their recently filed lawsuit to block HB 900, the controversial new Texas law that will require vendors to rate books sold to schools for sexual content, a coalition of booksellers and publishing industry associations insist that the law is both unconstitutional and impractical. “Booksellers do not see a clear path forward … Read more
From The Los Angeles Times: It seemed to many in book publishing like good news last October when the Department of Justice successfully sued to block Penguin Random House (PRH) from acquiring Simon & Schuster. PRH is the largest publisher in the United States and S & S is third. Together they might have controlled … Read more
From Jane Friedman: This summer, Wattpad is running their 14th annual Watty Awards, the company’s annual global writing competition. It’s open to writers in nine languages across 11 genres. In addition to cash prizes, one winner will receive a book deal from the Wattpad WEBTOON Book Group, and nine winners will receive adaptation opportunities with Wattpad … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: For a second time in two years, a magistrate judge in New York has recommended that a consumer class action lawsuit accusing the Big Five publishers of colluding with Amazon to fix e-book prices should be dismissed. But while the judge recommended tossing the case against the publishers, the court found that … Read more
From Publisher’s Weekly: It’s deja vu all over again: in a brief order this week, Magistrate judge Valerie Figueredo has set oral arguments for June 22 to hear motions from Amazon and the Big Five publishers to dismiss an amended civil lawsuit accusing them of an illegal conspiracy to fix e-book prices. The hearing comes … Read more
From The Bookseller: New research by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) claims authors who self-publish currently earn more than traditionally published authors. ALLi circulated the survey to its members and subscribers, as well as “through other key self-publishing and author organisations” in February 2023. It was answered by more than 2,000 respondents – 60% … Read more
From Publisher’s Weekly: After nearly three years of legal wrangling, a federal judge today will hear cross motions for summary judgment in a closely watched lawsuit challenging the legality of the Internet Archive’s program to scan and lend print library books. First filed in New York on June 1, 2020, by four major publishers (Hachette, … Read more
From Kindlepreneur: Here are the 4 steps to take to get a traditional book deal: Let me be clear: Traditional book deals are a thing of the past. If you do not actively reach 25,000+ people regularly before a deal, no reputable publishing company or literary agent will take a risk on your book. In 2022, don’t bother trying … Read more
From Mike Shatzkin: The idea that general trade publishing and general trade publishing houses were going to have to change or die was first floated here in a post in 2007 and then expanded upon in a post called “The End of the General Trade Publishing Concept” in 2019. The announcement this week that Madeline … Read more
From Publisher’s Weekly: Macmillan Publishers will increase its entry-level base salary to $47,500, effective April 1. Additional adjustments will be made to current salary bands to reflect this change. The previous starting salary was $42,000. The change comes on the heels of Hachette Book Group’s announcement last week that it will increase its entry-level starting salary in New … Read more
From Publisher’s Weekly: Digital Book World, a conference focusing on publishing innovation, offered insight into how technologists, and some publishers, are planning to implement AI into their workflow. Asked about AI and the use of ChatGPT, which automates writing, Mary McAveeney, CEO of Abrams, was skeptical of its ability to write books. She conceded, “It … Read more
From Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris: Well, to say a lot happened in publishing last year is a severe understatement. Simon and Schuster Merger that Wasn’t Among the legal news, the biggest merger in publishing history — Penguin Random House’s proposed acquisition of Simon and Schuster, aka the antitrust trial — got nixed … Read more
From New York Magazine: he National Book Awards are the Oscars of the publishing industry, although nobody who attended the ceremony on November 16 at Cipriani Wall Street would likely confuse the two. Still, it wasn’t without its glamour and drama. That night, Padma Lakshmi, best-selling author and former wife of Salman Rushdie — who … Read more
From Hugh Stephens Blog: In my year end blog post looking back at significant developments for copyright and creators in 2022 and looking forward to topics that will be at the top of the agenda in 2023, I identified questions over the legality of a contrived and unproven concept, so-called “Controlled Digital Lending” (CDL), as one of … Read more
From Fast Company: With the air getting colder and the holidays approaching, it feels like a perfect time to curl up with a good book. But instead of cozying up for a well-deserved break, hundreds of publishing workers in New York City have been braving the cold and walking the picket line. The HarperCollins Union, … Read more
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch: In my Pocket Reader app, I stored a September article from BBC News as much for the article’s title as its content. That title? “When Is A Bestseller Not Necessarily A Bestseller?” I think that’s been the burning question in publishing for the past ten years. Bestsellers haven’t entirely lost their meaning, but … Read more
From The Literary Hub: Well, Simon & Schuster is not going to be sold, for now. A federal judge ruled in October that Penguin Random House couldn’t buy the publisher, and since then, Simon & Schuster’s parent company has decided against mounting an appeal. That said, the future of America’s third-largest publisher still remains uncertain. … Read more
From Mike Shatzkin: Judge Florence Y. Pan ruled . . . that the acquisition of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House could not go forward. The ruling was explicitly to protect the “competition” for the “anticipated top-selling books”. In other words, the big books by big authors for which only the Big Five can … Read more
From The Wall Street Journal: Book-publishing giant Penguin Random House wants to appeal a federal judge’s decision blocking its acquisition of Simon & Schuster, but the first step is to ensure its would-be deal partner stays in the legal fight. Penguin parent Bertelsmann SE has had talks with Simon & Schuster owner Paramount Global about … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: The Hachette v. Internet Archive case has been in the press lately following the parties’ filing of summary judgment motions. But the case is not about the end of copyright as we know it, as Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid implied in his July 18 PW Soapbox, “Standing Up for Copyright.” Nor … Read more
From The Literary Hub: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos came up with the slogan “Get Big Fast” because he knew size was crucial to exacting ever lower prices from suppliers. Publishers have tried to respond to Amazon’s power by doing the exact same thing, accelerating their decades-long campaign of mergers and acquisitions to consolidate into an … Read more
From Public Books: Culture industries increasingly use our data to sell us their products. It’s time to use their data to study them. To that end, we created the Post45 Data Collective, an open access site that peer reviews and publishes literary and cultural data. This a partnership between the Data Collective and Public Books, a series … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: The Hachette v. Internet Archive case has been in the press lately following the parties’ filing of summary judgment motions. But the case is not about the end of copyright as we know it, as Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid implied in his July 18 PW Soapbox, “Standing Up for Copyright.” Nor … Read more
From Wired: EBOOKS HAVE NOT swept away traditional tomes the way streaming services for music, movies, and TV shows have slashed sales of discs. Physical book sales are booming, but ebooks and audiobooks have a dedicated, appreciative audience. If you love to read, an ebook subscription service is a great way to discover new titles, … Read more
From The New Yorker: On the afternoon of August 10th, in the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse, the Department of Justice trial to block Penguin Random House from acquiring Simon & Schuster had hit a midweek lull. The courtroom itself—as well as the overflow room, where journalists were permitted Internet access—was a few booksellers shy … Read more
From Publishers Weekly: After months of anticipation, the government’s bid to block Penguin Random House’s acquisition of rival Big Five publisher Simon & Schuster got underway in Washington, D.C., on August 1. It wasn’t exactly an electrifying start. In opening arguments, there were no surprises. The parties largely stuck to their pre-trial briefs, with the … Read more
From The Nation: In a remarkable brief filed on July 7 in their ongoing lawsuit, four titans of corporate publishing (Hachette, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Wiley) accused the Internet Archive of stealing, “mass-scale copyright infringement,” and “[distributing] full-text digital bootlegs for free.” Those are pretty wild allegations—especially considering that the Internet Archive’s Open Library … Read more