British Academy Book Prize 2024 shortlist announced
Thursday, 12 September 2024
The British Academy has announced the shortlist for the 2024 British Academy Book Prize, worth £25,000 (A$49,156). The shortlisted titles are: Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and...
Audible tests AI voice replica service for narrators
Wednesday, 11 September 2024
In the US, Publishers Weekly (PW) reports that Audible is ‘inviting a small group of narrators to participate in a beta test that will enable them to create and monetise...
Cundill History Prize 2024 shortlist announced
Monday, 9 September 2024
The shortlist for the 2024 Cundill History Prize, which ‘rewards the best history writing in English’, have been announced. The 2024 shortlisted titles are: Judgement at Tokyo: World War II...
Appeals court upholds finding that Internet Archive infringed publisher copyright
Thursday, 5 September 2024
In the US, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously affirmed a March 2023 lower court decision by judge John G Koetl that found the...
Wiley expects to make US$44 million from AI partnership, authors unable to opt out
Wednesday, 4 September 2024
In the US, academic publisher Wiley has revealed it expects to make US$44 million (A$66m) from artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships that allow large language models (LLMs) to be trained on...
Major publishers, authors sue over Florida book ban laws
Tuesday, 3 September 2024
In the US, six major publishers, together with the Authors Guild and several bestselling authors, have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of two provisions of Florida’s recently enacted...
Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize 2024 shortlist announced
Monday, 2 September 2024
In the UK, the shortlist for the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize, which celebrates ‘the best popular science writing from across the globe’, has been announced, reports BookBrunch....
PRH global sales, earnings up in first half of the year
Thursday, 29 August 2024
Penguin Random House (PRH) parent company Bertelsmann reported that the publisher’s sales grew 8.5% in the first half of 2024, while operating EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation)...
SoA demands AI firms seek consent, provide ‘appropriate remuneration’ for use of copyright work
Tuesday, 27 August 2024
In the UK, the Society of Authors (SoA) has written to tech companies, demanding they have the consent of authors before using their work in the development of artificial intelligence...
Croucher wins 2024 YA Book Prize
Monday, 26 August 2024
In the UK, Lex Croucher has won the 2024 YA Book Prize for Gwen & Art Are Not in Love (Bloomsbury YA), reports the Bookseller. Described as a ‘masterclass in teen...
German bookselling chain, trade publication to close
Monday, 19 August 2024
In Germany, Weltbild, once one of the country’s largest bookselling operations, is closing down on 31 August, while the German book trade paper BuchMarkt will close on 31 December after...
Booksellers report dramatic sales drop during Olympic Games
Thursday, 15 August 2024
In Paris, booksellers have reported significant sales drops during the 2024 Olympic Games, reports the Bookseller. English-language Abbey Bookshop in the city’s Latin Quarter reported sales on the Monday before...
Royal Society science book prize 2024 shortlist announced
Wednesday, 14 August 2024
In the UK, the shortlist for the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize has been announced, reports the Bookseller. The six titles shortlisted for the £25,000 (A$48,482) award, selected...
Hugo Awards 2024 winners announced
Tuesday, 13 August 2024
The winners of this year’s Hugo Awards, presented annually by the World Science Fiction Convention, have been announced. Among the winners are: Best novel Some Desperate Glory (Emily Tesh, Orbit)...
HarperCollins audio sales up 18%, overall sales up 6%
Monday, 12 August 2024
HarperCollins parent company News Corp has announced its fourth quarter and annual results. The company reported that its book publishing division saw sales rise 6% for the 2024 fiscal year...
Orbit UK launches horror imprint
Thursday, 8 August 2024
Orbit UK has launched a new horror imprint, Run For It, reports the Bookseller. The imprint is Hachette UK’s first dedicated horror list and shares its name with a new...
‘In Ascension’ wins 2024 Arthur C Clarke Award
Wednesday, 7 August 2024
In the UK, Scottish writer Martin MacInnes has won this year’s Arthur C Clarke award for In Ascension (Atlantic), reports the Guardian. MacInnes’s third novel, In Ascension follows marine biologist...
United Independent Distributors enters administration
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
In the UK, the United Independent Distributors (UID) group, which comprises Marston Book Services, Orca Book Services and Eurospan, and which was acquired by the US-based Independent Publishers Group (IPG)...
Wiley, OUP confirm AI partnerships
Monday, 5 August 2024
In the UK, the Bookseller reports that academic publishers Wiley and Oxford University Press (OUP) have confirmed artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships, following the recent news that Taylor & Francis has...
Middle-grade sales fall 5% in US
Thursday, 1 August 2024
In the US, a new report from Circana BookScan shows print sales of middle-grade books fell 5% in the first half of 2024 from the comparable period in 2023, with...
Taylor wins 2024 Ackerley Prize
Wednesday, 31 July 2024
In the UK, journalist and author Catherine Taylor has won the 2024 TLS Ackerley Prize 2024 for The Stirrings (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), reports the Bookseller. Taylor receives £4000 (A$7852). Also shortlisted for...
Ingram titles added to Spotify
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
In the US, distributor Ingram Content Group has announced a ‘collaboration with streaming giant Spotify to bring audiobooks of independent publishers to the subscribers of Spotify Premium’. The company said...
Lennon wins 2024 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize
Monday, 29 July 2024
In the UK, Ferdia Lennon has won the £5000 (A$9816) Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for Glorious Exploits (Fig Tree), reports the Bookseller. Chosen from a shortlist of six, the winning...
UK report: Half of adults not reading regularly
Thursday, 25 July 2024
In the UK, new research suggests that half of UK adults are not reading regularly and almost a quarter of young people (aged 16 to 24 years) have never been...
Vivendi updates plans to list Hachette on stock market
Wednesday, 24 July 2024
In France, Hachette Livre parent company Vivendi has updated its plans to list parts of its business on the stock market, reports the Bookseller. Vivendi said it would create three...
Academic authors ‘shocked’ at Microsoft AI agreement
Tuesday, 23 July 2024
In the UK, the Bookseller reports that academic publisher Taylor & Francis has sold access to its authors’ research as part of an artificial intelligence (AI) partnership with Microsoft worth...
Scholastic reports 7% drop in revenue
Monday, 22 July 2024
Scholastic has reported a 7% decrease in revenue for the year ending 31 May 2024, reports Publishers Weekly. For the full year, revenue dropped to US$1.6 billion (A$2.4b), from $US...
Independent Alliance records best-ever first half
Tuesday, 16 July 2024
In the UK, the Independent Alliance (IA) sales collective has, for the first time, placed above one of the ‘big four’ publishers for sales for the year to date, reports...
UK market down in 2024 without ‘Spare’
Monday, 15 July 2024
In the UK, book sales are down 1% on the first half of 2023, according to Nielsen BookScan Total Consumer Market data, a drop that can be attributed to the...
RBmedia to acquire Dreamscape Media
Thursday, 11 July 2024
In the US, audiobook publisher RBmedia has agreed to acquire independent audiobook publisher Dreamscape Media, reports Publishers Weekly (PW). In a statement, RBmedia CEO Michael Paull said Dreamscape would become...
