New Jersey Delivers a Victory for the Freedom to Read—and for Librarians
More than three years after she became a target of abuse from book banners, librarian Martha Hickson found herself standing side by side with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on December 9 as he signed the state’s Freedom to Read Act into law. more...Book Deals: Week of December 16, 2024
Berkley takes Libby Page’s bookish love story, Pam Dorman Books takes a new entry in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, and more. more...
Strike Ends at the Strand as Union, Management Reach Agreement
The Strand Book Store reached a contract agreement with its staff union on December 10, putting an end to a strike that stretched through the better part of three days. The contract, which was ratified on December 12, secures an additional $0.50 an hour above minimum wage for base level pay, among other changes. more...War Leaves Scars on Lebanese Publishing
The brief war of bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah this year destroyed millions of books in Lebanon, disrupting a Lebanese production sector that is critical to the book publishing business in the Middle East. more...and more.
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LibrariesFreedom to Read Advocates Celebrate a Major Legal Victory in Arkansas
After issuing a preliminary injunction in July 2023, a federal judge in Arkansas has now permanently struck down two key provisions of Arkansas’s controversial “harmful to minors” law, known as Act 372, finding the law to be unconstitutional. If the law's aim was to protect minors from inappropriate content it “will only achieve that end at the expense of everyone else’s First Amendment rights,” judge Timothy Brooks concluded in his December 23 summary judgment ruling.
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Financial Reporting
Scholastic Sees Sales, Profits Fall in Second Quarter
Lower sales in the company's trade group, due mainly to the timing of the publication of some of its biggest books, was the major factor in dropping second quarter results. For the full fiscal year, Scholastic still expects revenue to increase between 4% and 6% over fiscal 2024.
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Publisher News
The Top 10 Book Business News Stories of 2024
Major contractions in the independent book distribution space, an explosion of artificial intelligence tools and businesses, and turmoil over freedom of expression in multiple sectors defined the book business landscape throughout the year.
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Publisher News
Four Decades of Book Publishing History...in Poetry
Since 1985, literary agent Richard Curtis has irregularly chronicled the state of trade book publishing in verse in the pages of 'Publishers Weekly.' In honor of his final year-end poem, we've republished them all here.
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Libraries
The Top 10 Library Stories of 2024
PW looks back at some of the library stories that captivated the publishing world this year and what they portend for 2025.
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Libraries
Editor's Note: So Long, Not Goodbye
A sincere thank you from outgoing PW executive editor Andrew Albanese, and best wishes for a happy holiday season.
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Financial Reporting
Book Publishing Sales Increased 8% in October
With four categories posting double-digit gains, October sales at the 1,279 publishers that report data to Association of American Publishers’s StatShot program rose 8.3% over last October.
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Book Deals
Summit Books to Publish Monique El-Faizy’s Account of French Rape Trial
Publisher Judy Clain has acquired North American rights to ‘In This Dark Room: Secrets, Shame, and Reckoning at a French Trial,’ billed as as “a gripping journalistic account of the infamous 2024 rape trial” that has ended with a guilty verdict for Dominique Pelicot.
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Awards & Prizes
The National Book Critics Circle Inaugurates Award Longlists
On a rolling basis this week and for the first time in its 50-year history, the NBCC is announcing longlists for its annual awards. Finalists will be announced on January 23, with winners to follow at a ceremony on March 20 in New York City.
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PW Picks
PW’s 10 Most-Read Book Reviews of 2024
In 2024, as we do each year, we reviewed thousands of new books. Of all the reviews we published this year, these are the 10 you read the most.
