Short news items from the world of book publishing:
05/02/2025
PublicAffairs Unveils New Colophon
The nonfiction imprint at Hachette Book Group said the colophon represents a new chapter under editor-in-chief Meagan Levinson, who succeeded longtime publisher Clive Priddle in February.05/02/2025
Schiffer Expands Into Crafting Kits
The publisher’s Better Day Books and Schiffer Craft imprints are releasing new craft kits this year, focusing on “engaging and easy-to-follow activities” such as crocheting, finger knitting, and stencil projects.05/01/2025
PRH Inks License Agreements with Disney
The new agreements extend Disney’s existing relationship with Penguin Random House, and will see the publisher license content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, 20th Century Studios, and National Geographic.05/01/2025
Distribution Deals for the Week of April 28, 2025
Utah-based independent publisher Gibbs Smith has inked a sales and distribution agreement with Simon & Schuster, and Shaherazad Shelves will be distributed to the trade by Independent Publishers Group.04/30/2025
Alyson Sinclair Joins Center for the Art of Translation
Sinclair, who is stepping down as publisher of the Rumpus following its March sale, will join the Bay Area–based nonprofit, which is the publisher of Two Lines Press, as communications director, effective May 5.04/30/2025
Frankfurt Book Fair Launches New Fellowship
The Frankfurt Fellowship Network—which combines two former funding opportunities—aims to offer younger professionals from the international publishing industry “an intensive training and networking program.”04/30/2025
NetGalley and Rakuten Kobo Team Up
Both digital reading services have announced a technology partnership for the collaborative development of an integrated Kobo reading option connected to the NetGalley platform.04/30/2025
Grand Central Picks Up Dick Van Dyke’s ‘100 Rules for Living to 100’
Suzanne O'Neill at Grand Central Publishing acquired world rights to the legendary actor’s autobiographical collection of advice, stories, and reflections. 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life is slated for November 18.04/29/2025
Mellon Foundation Announces Emergency Funding for State Humanities Councils
The Mellon Foundation has committed $15 million of emergency funding to the Federation of State Humanities Councils following recent federal funding cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities.04/29/2025
Anand Giridharadas, Leigh Haber Launch Book Club
Political analyst Giridharadas and Haber, who for 10 years directed Oprah’s Book Club, have teamed to launch the Ink Book Club, which will focus on themes of democracy across fiction and nonfiction.04/29/2025
American Manga Awards Set for August 21
The second annual awards, hosted by Anime NYC and Japan Society, return this summer. Eleven judges across seven categories will pick the nominees, which will be announced—along with the 2025 Manga Publishing Hall of Fame honoree—on June 17.04/29/2025
Kim Lauber Joins Macmillan as SVP of Consumer Insights, Marketing, and Analytics
Lauber comes to Macmillan from Abrams, where she serves as VP of marketing. She will start in her newly created role on May 19.04/28/2025
AALA Launches People of Publishing Conference
The one-day event, slated for September 17 at the New York Academy of Medicine, will bring together literary agents, editors, and other publishing professionals.04/25/2025
Jenna Bush Hager Launches Book Festival
The inaugural Read with Jenna Book Festival will take place in Nashville on May 30-31, and will feature conversations with authors, book club discussions, book signings, and more.04/24/2025
PEN America Report Finds Jailing of Writers Hit New High in 2024
The number of writers jailed reached a six-year global high last year, per the organization’s annual Freedom to Write Index report. China and Iran retained their respective spots as the world’s top two jailers of writers.04/23/2025
Loyalty Bookstores Co-Owner Steps Back
Loyalty Bookstores co-owner Christine Bollow will transition to an advisory role following a move to Arizona.04/23/2025
The ‘Bookseller’ Launches New Adult Book Prize
The new U.K.-based prize, copresented by the Bookseller, recognizes new adult fiction that addresses the “issues and events that arise from the move from adolescence to early adulthood.”04/22/2025
Song Cave’s Annual ‘Photo Fundraiser’ Returns
Sales of photo prints taken by such authors as Ben Lerner, Lucy Ives, and Rachel Kushner will benefit the Brooklyn-based nonprofit press, as well as Doctors Without Borders. The fundraiser runs through May 6.04/22/2025
NYPL’s Schomburg Center Celebrates Centennial
The research library dedicated to research in Black culture will kick off its yearlong 100th anniversary celebration on May 8, with an exhibition, summer festival, book giveaways, and more.04/22/2025
Cynthia Erivo to Narrate New ‘Wicked’ Audiobook
The actor and singer, who portrayed Elphaba in the Academy Award–nominated Wicked film adaptation, will voice a new audiobook edition of Gregory Maguire’s novel, slated for July 1 from Recorded Books.04/21/2025
Charlotte Jones Voiklis Launches Tesser Well Consulting
The boutique consultancy, founded by the granddaughter of A Wrinkle in Time author Madeleine L’Engle, will advise literary estates, authors, and publishing professionals navigating legacy planning, rights, and long-term literary stewardship.04/21/2025
Distribution Deals for the Week of April 21, 2025
Consortium Book Sales & Distribution inks deals with five new publishers, Simon & Schuster signs AMP Comics, and Paradigm will archive 1,600 books for Edinburgh University Press.04/18/2025
BISG to Hold Annual Meeting on April 25
The Book Industry Study Group will hold its 2025 conference, “Move Fast and Fix Things,” on April 25 in New York City, bringing together “industry leaders, fixers, and future-builders to keep up, speak up, and level up.”04/18/2025
ALA Urges Supporters to Contact Congresspeople with a #FundLibraries Message
In support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and school library funding through the Department of Education, the American Library Association encourages outreach to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.04/17/2025
Kate Zimmerman Joins AMP as Executive Editor
In her position at Andrews McMeel Publishing, Zimmerman will identify new authors, creators, and content that continue the publisher’s mission to “publish remarkable, distinctive, and bestselling works.”04/17/2025
PEN World Voices to Celebrate 20th Anniversary
The PEN World Voices Festival returns later this month, running simultaneously in New York City and Los Angeles, April 30-May 3. More than 80 authors from three dozen countries will take part.04/16/2025
Guggenheim Announces 100th Class of Fellows
Miranda July, Nicole Krauss, Richie Hofmann, and Cynthia Cruz are among the 198 recipients of this year’s Guggenheim Fellowship.04/15/2025
Hurston/Wright Foundation Renames Legacy Awards
The annual awards have been rebranded as the Zora Awards, in honor of author Zora Neale Hurston, and will now offer $20,000 to debut fiction winners thanks to an anonymous donation.04/15/2025
IPC’s Indie Press Month Winner
Page 1 Books in Albuquerque, N.M., has won the second-annual Indie Press Month display contest, presented by the Independent Publishers Caucus.04/15/2025
Amazon Readies Giant Book Sale
Following up on last year’s massive spring six-day book sale, Amazon has announced it will hold a similar event April 23–28, overlapping with this year’s Independent Bookstore Day on April 26.04/15/2025
Bruce J. Miller Memorial Service Set for May 16
Bruce J. Miller, principal of Miller Trade Book Marketing and PW 2013 Rep of the Year, will be remembered on May 16.04/14/2025
McNally Jackson to Launch Book Festival
The New York-based bookstore will host its first literary festival from May 7 into June, with events focusing on archives, historiography, and legacies.04/14/2025
Distribution Deals for the Week of April 14, 2025
Simon & Schuster has struck a deal with C&T Publishing, and Paradigm Publishing Services teams up with Princeton University Press.04/11/2025
Brooklyn Bookstore Crawl to Return April 19–26
Twenty-six independent bookstores in the borough are slated to participate in the 11th annual weeklong event, which will also be part of the first annual Global Bookstore Crawl.04/10/2025
InterVarsity Press Partners with Genesis Marketing on Sales
The marketing group will serve as InterVarsity Press’s new sales representation for Christian independent stores and the gift market, effective May 1.04/10/2025
United for Libraries, PRH Announce Library Grants
The new program, which arrives amid significant turmoil for libraries due to cuts to federal funding by the Trump administration, has awarded cash grants to 51 rural and small libraries across the country.04/09/2025
Random House to Publish Memoir by Patti Smith
Bread of Angels is slated for November 4, 15 years after the publication of Smith’s National Book Award–winning Just Kids.04/09/2025
2025 IBPA Book Award Finalists
The Independent Book Publishers Association has named finalists across 59 categories for this year’s IBPA Book Award, which honors independently published books.04/09/2025
Erin Cox Returns to ‘Publishing Perspectives’
The former business development director at Publishing Perspectives will rejoin the publication as its publisher, succeeding Hannah Johnson, who is leaving the company.04/09/2025
Penguin Press to Publish New Novel by Thomas Pynchon
Shadow Ticket, the publisher said, follows a “one-time strikebreaker turned private eye” as he chases down the heiress of a cheese fortune across 1930s Wisconsin and Hungary. It will be published on October 7.04/09/2025
Abrams ComicArts Celebrates 75 Years of ‘Peanuts’
The imprint will publish The Essential Peanuts, a deluxe 75th anniversary coffee table book celebrating the legacy of comic artist Charles M. Schulz, this October.04/08/2025
St. Martin’s to Publish Memoir by Joe Manchin
Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense, the first memoir by the former senator from West Virginia, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in September.04/08/2025
Eric Smith Launches Neighborhood Literary
The Philadelphia-based agency will focus on actively engaging local authors and writing communities through free workshops, write-ins, and more.04/08/2025
Poetry & the Creative Mind Lineup Announced
This year’s benefit to support the Academy of American Poets, slated for April 24, will feature such authors as Stephen King and Fran Lebowitz and will be hosted by Ada Limón.04/08/2025
NBCC Names Adam Dalva as President
Dalva succeeds Heather Scott Partington, who has served as president of the National Book Critics Circle for the last two years and spearheaded the organization’s 50th anniversary celebrations.04/07/2025
Copyright Office Report Affirms Copyright Applies Only to Human-Made Work
The second part of the U.S. Copyright Office's Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence maintains that copyrightability requires human authorship and that “material generated wholly by AI is not copyrightable.”04/07/2025
Andy Schmidt Joins BOOM! Studios as Editor-in-Chief
Schmidt has previously held editorial roles at Hasbro, Marvel, and IDW Publishing. In an expansion of its editorial team, BOOM! has also tapped Lily Kessinger as editor and Olivia Dontsov as managing editor.04/07/2025
Distribution Deals for the Week of April 7, 2025
IPG adds a number of new publishers to its sales and distribution program.04/07/2025
Garth Greenwell Wins 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award
Greenwell’s novel Little Rain (FSG) is the recipient of the $15,000 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.04/04/2025
ABA Urges DOJ to Block Amazon’s Acquisition of TikTok
The American Booksellers Association complained to the Department of Justice that Amazon will further entrench its dominance in e-commerce if it acquires TikTok.News Brief Archive
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