Judge Rules Class Action Suit Against Anthropic Can Proceed
The AI company is believed to have copied up to seven million books from the pirate sites LibGen and PiLiMi. Experts said if the authors win the class action, Anthropic could be facing a billion-dollar settlement. more...McGraw Hill Files for Public Offering
With total revenue topping $2 billion and digital sales accounting for 65% of sales in the fiscal year ended in March, the education company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay a portion of the outstanding borrowings under its term loan. more...
Senate Hearing Debates AI Training on Copyrighted Works
After hearing testimony from five witnesses, including author David Baldacci, Senator Josh Hawley concluded that if the way tech companies collect content to train their AI models isn’t copyright infringement, then “we need to change the law.” more...
HarperCollins Acquires Crunchyroll’s Publishing Operations in France, Germany
HarperCollins Publishers has announced that it will acquire the manga publishing operations of global anime brand Crunchyroll in France and Germany. The purchase marks HarperCollins’s latest expansion in the manga market. more...and more.
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ComicsPanel Mania: ‘Meat Eaters’ by Meredith McClaren
This grisly teen drama about a college town full of horrific shape-shifting monsters hiding in plain sight delivers brisk, comic banter alongside bold, stylized linework.
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Comics
Paging ‘Dr. Werthless’: PW Talks with Harold Schechter and Eric Powell
The duo take on the famed psychiatrist and anti-comics crusader Fredric Wertham in their new graphic novel, which offers a multifaceted portrait of a complex man who claimed that reading comics led to violence.
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Libraries
Library Startup Briet Wants to Revolutionize E-Book Sales, Not Licensing
Briet, a new platform affiliated with the Brick House publishing cooperative, is inviting publishers to sell rather than license their e-books to libraries.
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Financial Reporting
Book Publishing Sales Fell Across the Board in May
Soft print sales led to declines in all major categories in May, with sales in the month falling 7.5% at the publishers that report results to AAP’s StatShot program.
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Publisher News
HarperCollins Sales President Ed Spade to Depart
Spade, who has served as president of sales at HarperCollins Publishers since 2023, will step down on August 15 after four years with the company. During his tenure, Spade oversaw a reorganization of the sales team and a return to profitability in 2024.
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Awards & Prizes
2025 Booker Prize Longlist Announced
This year’s longlist comprises 13 novels by authors representing nine different nationalities. Among the longlisted titles are Susan Choi’s Flashlight and Katie Kitamura’s Audition.
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Bookselling
Bookshop.org Reports 65% Growth, E-books Add $1 Million in Sales
The online bookselling platform reported 65% year-over-year growth for the first six months of 2025. After introducing e-books in January, sales for the category have topped $1 million and now represent 5% of sales, said Bookshop.org CEO Andy Hunter.
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Libraries
Censorship from Both Directions: PW Talks with Ira Wells
The author of On Book Banning, a literary critic and associate professor at the University of Toronto, spoke about censorship battles in North America and book banning efforts from the political right and left.
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Publisher News
Former Unbound Staffers Launch U.K. Publishing Agency
Former Unbound head of rights Ilona Chavasse, publicity director Rina Gill, and marketing manager Divia Kainth have teamed to launch Tiger Team Creative. Unbound, a U.K.-based crowdfunding publisher, filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
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Comics
Hulls, Sacco, Yang Take Home 2025 Eisner Awards
Tessa Hulls’ Feeding Ghosts, Joe Sacco’s The War on Gaza, and Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham’s Lunar New Year Love Story won big at the 37th annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, held July 25 at San Diego Comic-Con.
