US market sales up 1.2% in first half of 2023
Wednesday, 23 August 2023
According to the Association of American Publishers’ (AAP) latest StatShot report, the US publishing industry’s revenues were up 1.2% in the first half of 2023, thanks largely to growth in...
Beauman wins 2023 Arthur C Clarke Award for ‘Venomous Lumpsucker’
Tuesday, 22 August 2023
Ned Beauman’s Venomous Lumpsucker (Sceptre) has won the 2023 Arthur C Clarke Award for science fiction, reports the Guardian. Described by the publisher as a ‘zoological thriller for the age...
Inaugural TikTok Book Awards winners
Monday, 21 August 2023
In the UK, Bolu Babalola's Honey & Spice (Headline Review) has won the BookTok Book of the Year prize at the inaugural TikTok Book Awards, reports the Bookseller. Babalola won...
Books most popular product for new German cultural voucher program
Thursday, 17 August 2023
In Germany, the country’s new KulturPass for 18-year-olds has generated €3.2 million (A$5.4m) in revenue for cultural products events and services, with sales of book accounting for most unit sales,...
US bookshop sales up 7% in first half of 2023
Wednesday, 16 August 2023
In the US, bookshop sales grew 7% in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2022, reports Publishers Weekly. According to preliminary estimates from...
Publishers, Internet Archive submit negotiated agreement for judgement
Tuesday, 15 August 2023
In the US, publishers Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and Wiley, and the Internet Archive (IA), have submitted a negotiated agreement for a judgement in the Hachette Book...
HarperCollins sales and profits down in 2023 fiscal year
Monday, 14 August 2023
In the US, HarperCollins’ sales were down 10% in the 12 months to 30 June compared to the same period the previous year, while profits were down 45%. Parent company...
KKR to acquire S&S
Tuesday, 8 August 2023
Paramount Global—the owner of Simon & Schuster (S&S)—and private equity firm KKR have announced an agreement for KKR to acquire S&S for US$1.62 (A$2.47) billion in an all-cash transaction. In...
S&S reportedly closing in on deal
Monday, 7 August 2023
In the US, numerous news outlets are reporting the sale of Simon & Schuster (S&S) will be announced as soon as this week, reports Publishers Weekly. Reuters is reporting the...
US judge finds monopoly suit against Amazon should proceed
Thursday, 3 August 2023
In the US, a magistrate judge has recommended a class action lawsuit accusing the Big Five publishers of colluding with Amazon to fix ebook prices be dismissed, but found the...
Booker Prize 2023 longlist announced
Wednesday, 2 August 2023
The longlist for the 2023 Booker Prize has been announced. The 13 books longlisted for the £50,000 (A$96,700) prize are: A Spell of Good Things (Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Canongate) Old God’s...
Audiobook publisher RBmedia to be sold
Monday, 31 July 2023
In the US, private equity firm KKR is selling the audiobook publisher RBmedia to investment firm H.I.G Capital, reports Publishers Weekly. RBmedia is reportedly being sold for more than US$1...
Lagardère Publishing sales grow 2.5% in first half
Friday, 28 July 2023
Hachette parent company Lagardère Publishing’s sales grew 2.5% in the first six months of 2023, while higher costs pushed profits down, reports Publishers Weekly. Lagardère’s recurring EBIT (earnings before interest...
Kingsolver, Pinkckney win James Tait Back Prizes
Thursday, 27 July 2023
In the UK, Barbara Kingsolver and Darryl Pinckney have been awarded the James Tait Black Prizes for fiction and biography respectively. Kingsolver was awarded the fiction prize for Demon Copperhead...
Scholastic revenue up 4%
Tuesday, 25 July 2023
Scholastic revenue grew 4% in the year ending 31 May, according to its fiscal 2023 report. Scholastic report revenue of US$1.7 billion (A$2.5b), up from US$1.6 billion (A$2.4b) in 2022....
UK six-month book sales sets record on back of price rises
Monday, 24 July 2023
In the UK, book sales in the first six months of 2023 represented the best-ever first half of a year results since accurate records began, reports the Bookseller. According to...
HarperCollins US shuts down YA imprint
Friday, 21 July 2023
HarperCollins US will shut down its YA imprint Inkyard Press, with a number of staff to be laid off on 1 August, reports Publishers Weekly. Inkyard Press, which operated under...
ByteDance’s new publishing arm begins approaching authors
Thursday, 20 July 2023
8th Note Press, the new publishing arm of TikTok parent company ByteDance, has begun approaching authors with publication offers, reports the Bookseller. As previously reported by Books+Publishing, ByteDance filed a...
Layoffs at PRH US
Wednesday, 19 July 2023
In the US, Penguin Random House (PRH) has confirmed in a letter to staff it has made a number of layoffs in addition to its previously announced voluntary redundancy plan,...
Inaugural UK BookTok awards shortlists announced
Tuesday, 18 July 2023
In the UK, the shortlists for the inaugural TikTok Book Awards UK and Ireland have been announced, reports the Bookseller. In contention for BookTok book of the year are Honey...
Waterstones debut fiction prize shortlist announced
Monday, 17 July 2023
In the UK, the shortlist for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, worth £5000 (A$9570), has been announced, reports the Bookseller. The six titles shortlisted for the award are: Wandering Souls...
New report finds mixed trends for international book sales
Friday, 14 July 2023
A new report published by the European and International Booksellers Federation presents a global overview of the bookselling markets in 2022, reports Publishers Weekly. The report is based on reporting...
US publishers lose export sales over Amazon policy change
Thursday, 13 July 2023
In the US, several publishers have told Publishers Weekly (PW) that a change in Amazon’s sourcing policy has raised costs and led to lost sales in European markets. Until recently,...
Harlequin to introduce TikTok-inspired imprint
Wednesday, 12 July 2023
In the US, Harlequin will launch a new imprint, Afterglow Books, reports Publishers Weekly. Harlequin said the imprint will ‘build upon the popularity of TikTok's #spicytok content’, and target contemporary...
US book sales down 2.7% YTD
Tuesday, 11 July 2023
In the US, book sales in the first half of the year were down 2.7% compared to the same period last year according to data from Circana BookScan, reports Publishers...
UK indie publishers make more than half of sales overseas
Monday, 10 July 2023
British independent publishers are generating more than half their revenue from overseas, the Bookseller reports. The 2023 Independent Publishing Report, from industry group the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG), found that...
German book market slightly down in 2022
Thursday, 6 July 2023
Sales of books in Germany fell 1.9% in 2022 compared to the previous year, reports Publishing Perspectives. Germany’s publishers and booksellers association, Börsenverein, reported that turnover for the year totalled...
UK Society of Authors welcomes legal action against OpenAI
Wednesday, 5 July 2023
The UK Society of Authors (SoA) has welcomed the news that authors in the US are suing OpenAI for copyright infringement, reports the Bookseller. The class action lawsuit, brought in...
French book sales drop 5.4%
Tuesday, 4 July 2023
Sales by French book publishers fell 5.4% in 2022, to a total of €2.9 billion (A$4.7b), reports the Bookseller. The number of books sold fell 7.7% to 448.5 million, according...
200,000 attend first in-person Beijing fair since 2019
Monday, 3 July 2023
Around 200,000 visitors attended the 29th Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF), which ran from 15–18 June, reports Publishing Perspectives. This year’s fair was the first in-person event since 2019, when...
