Short news items from the world of book publishing:
06/20/2025
U.S. Book Show Programs to Air on C-SPAN
Recordings of Schomburg Center director Joy Bivin’s keynote and a panel with S&S CEO Jonathan Karp and HBG CEO David Shelley at PW’s U.S. Book Show, held on June 3, will air this weekend on C-SPAN.06/20/2025
Distribution Deals for the Week of June 16, 2025
HBG extends its partnership with Nosy Crow, Two Rivers Distribution and Mayo Clinic Press join forces, and more.06/18/2025
Kate Medina to Receive Center for Fiction Medal
Medina, who has served as an editor at Random House for nearly four decades and worked with such authors as John Irving and Yiyun Li, is the recipient of the Center for Fiction’s 2025 Medal for Editorial Excellence.06/17/2025
Daniel Gumnit Appointed Executive Director, CEO of Little Free Library
Gumnit succeeds Greig Metzger, who retired from the St. Paul, Minn.–based nonprofit this month. He previously held executive roles at such local nonprofits as Minnesota Alliance with Youth, People Serving People, and Twin Cities PBS National Productions.06/16/2025
AUPresses Names Dennis Lloyd 75th President
The University of Wisconsin Press director brings more than 30 years of experience spanning six presses to the role, previously held by Liverpool Press’s Anthony Cond.06/16/2025
Sourcebooks Inks Deal with Author L.J. Ross
Anna Michels and Jenna Jankowski at Sourcebooks imprint Poisoned Pen Press acquired North American rights, at auction, to 49 titles by self-published British crime fiction author L.J. Ross. The first title, Impostor, is slated for early 2026.06/12/2025
Powell’s Books Warehouse Sale Returns
The independent bookstore will host its second Warehouse Sale in Portland, Ore., next month and plans to double the size of the event, with more than 70,000 discounted books on offer.06/12/2025
Hachette India Names Riti Jagoorie as Next Managing Director
Riti Jagoorie has been appointed managing director of Hachette India, succeeding founder Thomas Abraham, who is retiring. Jagoorie is the first woman to lead one of India’s multinational publishing houses, and will step into the role in January 2026.06/11/2025
Ignition Press Inks Distribution Deal with PRH
Penguin Random House Publisher Services will distribute titles from the creator-driven comic book and graphic novel publisher, founded last year by a who’s who of industry veterans, starting in September.06/11/2025
ReadingGroupGuides.com’s Book Group Speed Dating Returns
The virtual event, slated for June 13, will feature representatives from eight publishers who will share new and upcoming titles with booksellers, librarians, and book group leaders.06/11/2025
Julia Borcherts Launches Literary PR Firm
After over a decade at Kaye Publicity, Borcherts is launching Julia Publicity, a New York City–based boutique literary PR and marketing agency for authors and publishers.06/10/2025
NAIBA Executive Director Eileen Dengler to Retire
Dengler, who has led the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association for more than 20 years, will retire at the end of 2026.06/10/2025
David Means Wins PEN/Malamud Award
Means, the author of six story collections, is the winner of this year’s PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award, which recognizes writers who have “demonstrated exceptional achievement in the short story form.”06/09/2025
Authors Guild Receives Grant for Archive Preservation Project
The Authors Guild Foundation has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the Leon Levy Foundation to support a comprehensive project to preserve, process, and improve access to its extensive archives, which chronicle more than a century of literary advocacy.06/09/2025
HarperCollins Nordic Names New Managing Director
Rebecka Leffler (r.) will succeed Anette Ekström (l.), who is retiring after nearly 25 years with the company, as managing director of HarperCollins Nordic, effective September 3. The company publishes in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland.06/09/2025
Inklore to Publish Manhua Adaptation of Heaven Official’s Blessing
The Random House Worlds imprint has acquired world English rights to the official manhua adaptation of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s hit web novel series Heaven Official’s Blessing. The first book in the series is slated for this fall.06/06/2025
Books BC and BC Libraries Partner on E-book Initiative
British Columbia publishers, authors, and librarians have collaborated to create a browsable list of e-books originating in and emblematic of the province.06/06/2025
Distribution Deals for the Week of June 2, 2025
Simon & Schuster has inked a distribution deal with White Star, Baker & Taylor will represent the sales and distribution for three new publishers, and more.06/05/2025
Philomena Polefrone Wins Harvard’s Carr-Ryan Fellowship
The associate director of the ABA’s American Booksellers for Free Expression initiative has received a fellowship to research “the role of independent bookstores as the vanguard and final line of defense for the right to read in the United States.”06/05/2025
Amazon Editors Name Best Books of 2025 So Far
Charlotte McConaghy’s thriller Wild Dark Shore tops the list of Amazon Books’ best books of the first half of the year.06/04/2025
Pinkberry, Emily Henry Team on Fro-Yo Flavor, Sweepstakes
The frozen yogurt chain has partnered with the bestselling author on a new flavor, as well as a sweepstakes to win autographed copies of Great Big Beautiful Life, a collection of Henry’s novels and branded merch, and a $50 Pinkberry gift card.06/04/2025
Rachel Hecht, Ellie VandenBerg Launch Kin & Co. Literary Scouting
The full-service scouting agency combines the rosters of Rachel Hecht Children’s Scouting’s and Baker Literary Scouting, covering international publishing, film, and TV clients across the adult fiction, nonfiction, children’s, and YA genres.06/04/2025
Florida Is Writing the Book Banning Playbook, Report Finds
“The Blueprint State: Lessons from Parents Left Behind by ‘Parental Rights’ Policies in Florida,” cowritten by PEN America and the Florida Freedom to Read Project, argues that the state is a testing ground for federal policies censoring books and speech.06/02/2025
Judy Blume Receives 2025 WNBA Award
The Women’s National Book Association has presented Blume with this year’s WNBA Award, which is given every other year to a “living American woman who has done meritorious work in the world of books.”05/30/2025
BMI Conference Coming to NYC
Book Manufacturing Mastered 2025, hosted annually by the Book Manufacturers’ Institute, will be held in New York City on September 16. The conference aims to “foster collaboration and learning in the changing book industry.”05/30/2025
Grammarly Announces $1 Billion Growth in Financing
The AI assistant for communication and productivity has closed a billion-dollar financing deal with investment firm General Catalyst. The move follows Grammarly’s acquisition of Coda in January, which put them in competition with Microsoft and Google.05/30/2025
Distribution Deals for the Week of May 26, 2025
The Big Ten Academic Alliance has inked a deal with Springer Nature, Paradigm Publishing Services and Yale University Press have joined forces to digitize out-of-print titles, and more.05/29/2025
Pizza Hut Revives Summer Reading Program
The pizza chain’s new Book It! app is designed to help parents engage their children in summer reading, and will offer free personal pan pizzas to young readers who meet their parent-set reading goals. The Book It! program was first launched in 1984.05/28/2025
Trade War Shuts Down Lost River Press
The press, helmed by former Paris Review editor Nicole Rudick, will be closing its doors after ongoing trade disputes prevented a key Chinese investor from “fulfilling its commitments” to Lost River.05/28/2025
St. Martin’s Picks Up Cory Booker’s Stand
Tim Bartlett at St. Martin’s Press acquired world rights to a new book from the New Jersey senator inspired by his record-breaking speech on the Senate floor earlier this year.05/28/2025
Julie Christopher to Lead Brand Strategy at Abrams
Abrams has appointed Christopher to a newly created position focused on “developing strategic brand marketing initiatives” for authors and franchises, per the publisher. She joins from the Lumistella Company, where she was SVP of global marketing.05/23/2025
Lincoln Center Poetry Festival Returns
The second iteration of the two-day festival, which kicks off tonight, will feature such poets as Major Jackson, Sarah Kay, and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, as well as local booksellers.05/23/2025
Distribution Deals for the Week of May 19, 2025
PRH will end its partnership with Diamond Comic Distributors, and SPCK has inked a deal with New Growth Press.05/22/2025
Sun-Times, Inquirer Manage Fallout from AI-Generated Article
The Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Inquirer have apologized and condemned the use of AI in journalism, after both outlets published an AI-generated reading list featuring nonexistent books.05/22/2025
Liz Wetzel Launches Eponymous PR Firm
Wetzel, who most recently served as executive director of publicity at Basic Books, has launched her own boutique publicity firm focusing on nonfiction authors.05/21/2025
Authors Guild Delivers Petition Against Perlmutter Dismissal to Congress
A petition objecting to the firing of register of copyrights Shira Perlmutter was delivered to 12 Congressional leaders last weekend. Among its 7,000 signatories are the National Book Foundation and Independent Book Publishers Association.05/19/2025
Binc Doubles Down in Support of Booksellers, Comics Retailers
The Book Industry Charitable Foundation has launched the Now More Than Ever, I Stand with Bookstores campaign, aiming to engage book and comic lovers to support their local stores. A coalition of authors will match the first $50,000 in donations.05/19/2025
Diamond Staff Laid Off in Post-Acquisition Restructuring
With its acquisition by Ad Populum and Universal Distribution officially inked earlier this month, restructuring has begun at Diamond Comic Distributors, resulting in a number of high-level layoffs across the company’s comics and graphic novel divisions.05/19/2025
RBmedia to Release ACOTAR Anniversary Audiobooks
The audio recordings, which feature new narration, will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Sarah J. Maas’s bestselling romantasy series A Court of Thorns and Roses. All five audiobooks in the series will publish on May 30.05/19/2025
PEN/Faulkner Foundation to Take Over PEN/Hemingway Award
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation has assumed the responsibility for administering the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel from PEN America. The prize was founded by Mary Hemingway, a member of PEN, in 1976.05/19/2025
‘New York Journal of Books’ Shutters
The New York Journal of Books, an online book review outlet launched in 2010, has ceased operations. Founder Ted Sturtz cited recent tariffs, which affected the site’s Amazon commission revenue, as the cause.05/19/2025
Atria Picks Up Paula McClain’s Next Novel, ‘Skylark’
The novel, per the publisher, follows “a young woman seeking artistic freedom in 17th-century Paris and a medical student living in WWII Paris during the Nazi occupation.” Publication is set for April 2026.05/16/2025
2025 Eisner Award Nominees Announced
Leela Corman, Emil Ferris, Tessa Hulls, and Manu Larcenet are among the nominees for this year’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Fantagraphics received the most nominations across the awards’ 32 categories.05/16/2025
Authors Guild Launches Petition to Reinstate Shira Perlmutter
The petition urges Congress to reinstate Perlmutter as register of copyrights following her abrupt firing by the White House last weekend, characterized by the Authors Guild as an “unlawful power grab.”05/16/2025
NCTE, PRH Announce Anne Frank Award for Teaching Memoir
The new program from the National Council of Teachers of English, Penguin Random House, and the Anne Frank Fonds will award $1,000 grants to 10 educators to teach memoir in the classroom, with a particular focus on children’s wartime experiences.05/16/2025
Distribution Deals for the Week of May 12, 2025
Independent Publishers Group has inked a new agreement with Kodama Tales, Two Rivers Distribution will partner with Storm Publishing, and Rockpool Publishing has teamed up with Andrews McMeel Publishing.05/15/2025
Libro.fm Launches In-App Direct Purchase, Member Signup
Following the recent Epic Games v. Apple ruling, the Libro.fm app can now prompt customers to explore membership options and buy audiobook credits on their website, supporting indie bookstores with no commission going to Apple.05/15/2025
Furthermore Resumes Publishing Grants
Furthermore is resuming its publishing grantmaking this year, aided by the Hawthornden Foundation, to support the publication of nonfiction books. Since 1995, Furthermore has supported nearly 1,500 nonfiction works with more than $8 million in grants.05/14/2025
PRH and DC Join Forces For ‘All-Star Superman’ Audiobook
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Eisner Award–winning graphic novel will be adapted as an audiobook this summer, featuring cover art by Quitely, a full cast of 25 voices, an original music score, and sound effects.05/14/2025
Carla Bruce Joins Lavender Public Relations
The former One World publicity director has joined the boutique literary publicity firm, which focuses on queer and feminist authors. Lavender was launched last year by veteran book publicists Brittani Hilles and Amelia Possanza.News Brief Archive
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