Short news items from the world of book publishing:
05/10/2024
Orbit Orders 100,000-copy Reprint of 2022 Romantasy 'One Dark Window'
Thanks to surging interest on BookTok, Orbit Books will print 100,000 additional copies of Rachel Gillig's debut romantasy novel 'One Dark Window'—the biggest reprint for a single title in the publisher's history.05/09/2024
Blackstone to Publish Memoir by Kenny G
The Grammy Award–winning musician's 'Life in the Key of G,' written with Philip Lerman, will be released by Blackstone Publishing on September 24.05/08/2024
The 'Comics Journal' Names Its Next Editors
Joe McCulloch and Tucker Stone have wrapped up their tenure as editors of the iconic comics publication, and have been succeeded by Sally Madden and Chris Mautner.05/08/2024
Michael Korda, HarperCollins Honored by Literacy Partners
The former Simon & Schuster editor-in-chief will receive a lifetime achievement award at Literacy Partners' Evening of Readings and Gala Dinner on June 10. HarperCollins Publishers, Julia Alvarez, Viola Davis, and Ethan Hawke are also among the honorees.05/08/2024
Histria Books Acquires Top of the World Publishing
The acquisition includes Top of the World's imprints Untreed Reads, eLectio Publishing, Uncial Press, Cupid’s Quill, and Novus Mundi. Founder Bryan Farney will also join the Histria board of directors.05/08/2024
Ben Fountain Wins 2024 Joyce Carol Oates Prize
The 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' author is the winner of this year's $50,000 award for mid-career authors of fiction presented by the New Literary Project.05/08/2024
U.K. Indie Publisher Canongate Granted B Corp Certification
Canongate is the first U.K.–based trade publisher to receive B Corp Certification, which designates "that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency."05/07/2024
W. Ralph Eubanks Named Interim Authors Guild President
Eubanks's appointment follows the resignation of president Maya Shanbhag Lang, who stepped down on May 3 after just over a year in office.05/06/2024
Orange Inc. Plans to Use AI to Translate Manga Faster
The developer of an AI tool specializing in manga translation believes it can translate manga into English "five times faster and 90% cheaper" than at present. It has secured ¥2.92 billion (approximately $19.4 million) in pre–Series A funding.05/06/2024
Deborah Ghim to Join Ecco as Senior Editor
Ghim, who was most recently senior editor at Astra House, will acquire literary fiction and nonfiction at Ecco starting May 20.05/06/2024
PRH Children's Sales Head Amanda Close to Step Down in June
A search for a successor to Close, who succeeded Felicia Frazier in 2022, as senior v-p of children’s sales and strategic market development at Penguin Random House, will begin immediately.05/03/2024
Summit Books' Inaugural List Grows
The revived imprint has so far acquired 10 titles slated for 2025, including a new book by 'Room' author Emma Donoghue, a memoir from 'McSweeney's' publisher Amanda Uhle, and the debut novel by Katie Yee.05/02/2024
Designer Chip Kidd Promoted to V-p and Art Director at Knopf
Since joining Knopf in 1986, Kidd has become one of today's leading book designers, crafting covers for such authors as Bret Easton Ellis, Kazuo Ishiguro, Gabriel García Márquez, Cormac McCarthy, and Donna Tartt.05/02/2024
Booksweet Is on the Market
Booksweet, which includes a bookstore in Ann Arbor, Mich., as well as an e-commerce platform and inventory management system, is on the market.05/02/2024
Emily Cunningham to Join Knopf as Executive Editor
Cunningham is a senior editor at Penguin Press, where she has worked since 2015, and previously held roles at Grove Atlantic and Harper. She will edit nonfiction at Knopf, effective June 3.05/02/2024
PEN America Report Finds Jailing of Writers Surged in 2023
The number of writers jailed reached a five-year high last year, per the organization's 'Freedom to Write Index,' fueled partly by crackdowns in the Middle East and Russia. China retains its spot as the world's top jailer of writers.05/02/2024
Edgar Rice Burroughs Exhibit Comes to Society of Illustrators
"The Art and Story of Edgar Rice Burroughs," an exhibition celebrating the literary contributions of Edgar Rice Burroughs and their lasting impact on popular culture, will be held at the Society of Illustrators May 15–July 27.05/02/2024
Italian Printer GV Expands in North America
GV Group, one of Italy’s largest book printers, has reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in P.A. Hutchison, the 113 year-old textbook and educational material printer based in Mayfield, Pa.05/02/2024
PW Is Changing Its Paywall
Beginning May 7, PW subscribers and site license customers will have unlimited access to content on publishersweekly.com. E-newsletter subscribers will have some access, and users who don't subscribe in any way to PW will have limited access.05/01/2024
Audible to Recommend Audiobooks Based on Prime Video Activity
Audible will begin testing a new feature that recommends audiobook titles based on users' Prime Video viewing activity. The platform has reported seeing audiobook listenership spike following the release of film and TV adaptations.05/01/2024
Shelley Husband, Lui Simpson Promoted at AAP
The Association of American Publishers has announced the promotions of Husband and Simpson to executive v-p of government affairs and executive v-p of global policy, respectively.05/01/2024
Binc Opens Apps for Macmillan Professional Development Scholarship
The Book Industry Charitable Foundation and Macmillan Publishers are continuing their collaboration on a $500 scholarship for underrepresented booksellers to attend their regional fall trade show. Applications are open through May 20.04/30/2024
Liese Mayer to Join Little, Brown as Executive Editor
Mayer was most recently editorial director of fiction at Bloomsbury US. She will join Little, Brown on May 6, reporting to president and publisher Sally Kim.04/29/2024
Europa to Publish Arabic Fiction Prize Winner
Europa Editions will publish the winner of the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, 'A Mask the Color of the Sky' by Palestinian writer Basim Khandaqji.04/29/2024
T.J. Newman Signs Two-Book Deal with Little, Brown
The first of the two new novels by Newman, the author of the bestselling airliner thrillers 'Falling' and 'Drowning,' published by Avid Reader Press, is slated for August 13.04/29/2024
OR Books to Publish Posthumous Book by Refaat Alrareer
The late Palestinian writer's poem 'If I Must Die' went viral late last year after he was killed in an airstrike in Gaza.04/26/2024
ABFE Adds Support to Challenges to Iowa Book Banning Law
American Booksellers for Free Expression, the free expression initiative of the ABA, has filed an amicus brief in support of two lawsuits that challenge parts of Iowa’s “Don’t Say Gay” and book banning law.04/25/2024
Azuki Partners with Digital Entertainment
Digital manga app Azuki has teamed with manga distributor Digital Entertainment to add seven manga series to its library.04/24/2024
NYBF to Host Publishing Boot Camp
The New York Book Forum will host 'Publishing Boot Camp 101,' a one-day event for prospective and early-career publishing professionals, at the Macmillan offices in lower Manhattan on June 17.04/24/2024
Linda Ewing and Jeremy M. Davies Take the Helm at Coffee House
Minneapolis-based indie publisher Coffee House Press has announced the appointment of Linda Ewing to executive director and the promotion of Jeremy M. Davis to editor-in-chief.04/23/2024
PPN Conference Will Address 'Publishing for the Greater Good'
The Publishing Professionals Network meets April 26 in Berkeley, Calif., with a keynote on climate from novelist Aya de Léon and panels on topics from agenting and book promotion to printing and manufacturing.04/23/2024
Bookwire Partners with Aptara for Digital Solutions
Germany's Bookwire and U.S.-based Aptara have partnered to share expertise in digital book publishing solutions and distribution.04/23/2024
EU Excludes Books from Law to Fight Late Payments
The European Parliament has decided to exclude the book sector from a law that allows only 30 days for payments involving B2B transactions.04/19/2024
Greg Ruggiero Returns to Seven Stories
After 17 years at City Lights, the nonfiction editor known for publishing Noam Chomsky and Angela Y. Davis has returned to Seven Stories Press, where he began his book publishing career in 1998.04/19/2024
New York Book Forum to Host June 6 Fundraiser
The nonprofit will host a fundraiser at the Baylander in Manhattan on June 6 to support its continued sponsorship of literary and literacy-related programming.04/18/2024
Oxford UP Union Condemns Layoff of Unit Chair
The Oxford University Press USA Guild called the layoff of Scott Morales, its unit chair and strategy and transformation coordinator for the Press, "an illegal and retaliatory act."04/18/2024
HarperCollins Partners with ElevenLabs on AI Audiobooks
HarperCollins has inked an agreement with audio AI company ElevenLabs to create audiobooks for HarperCollins' foreign language business using ElevenLab's text-to-speech technology.04/17/2024
Airwave Podcast Network to Launch Imprint with BenBella Books
Airwave Books, an imprint of indie publisher BenBella Books, will feature nonfiction books by creators from the Airwave podcast network.04/17/2024
Mo Crist to Join Bloomsbury as Editor
Crist, who has served as an acquiring editor at W.W. Norton since 2020, will join Bloomsbury's adult trade team on May 7, reporting to Callie Garnett.04/17/2024
StreetLib and IBPA Collaborate to Provide Digital Tools to Indie Publishers
Digital-first distributor StreetLib, based in Italy, is partnering with the Independent Book Publishers Association, helping indie publishers distribute e-books and audiobooks globally.04/16/2024
Viz Manga Adds Marvel Comics to Digital Subscription Service
The platform will now offer such Marvel manga titles as 'Deadpool: Samurai' and 'Spider-Man: Fake Red.' The move follows a 2022 collaboration between Viz Media and Marvel to bring various Marvel IP into manga format.04/16/2024
NEH Announces $26.2 Million in Grants
The National Endowment for the Humanities will fund 238 humanities projects nationwide, including the writing of nearly 80 book manuscripts.04/16/2024
Oren Kessler Wins 2024 Sami Rohr Nonfiction Prize
Kessler's 'Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict' is the winners of the the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature's nonfiction award.04/12/2024
Tony Grimminck Named CEO of Scribd
Grimminck, who joined Scribd almost five years ago as CFO, has served as interim CEO since last fall when company cofounder and longtime CEO Trip Adler stepped down.04/11/2024
Former SPD Client Presses Launch GoFundMes
Black Lawrence Press and Rose Metal Press, which were formerly distributed by the now-shuttered Small Press Distribution, have launched GoFundMes to recoup losses.04/11/2024
Authors Withdraw Books from PEN Award Consideration Over Gaza Response
Maya Binyam and Christina Sharpe are among several authors to withdraw their books from the 2024 PEN Literary Awards over PEN America's response to the war in Gaza. Sublunary Editions also declined consideration for this year's awards.04/11/2024
Kundiman to Host 20th Anniversary Reading
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the Asian American literary organization will hold a reading at the New Orleans Poetry Festival on April 20 featuring Sally Wen Mao, Tiana Nobile, and Jane Wong.04/11/2024
2024 Guggenheim Fellows Announced
Ned Blackhawk, Jamel Brinkley, Beth Nguyen, Tracy K. Smith, Justin Torres, and Ed Yong are among the writers to receive this year's Guggenheim Fellowships.04/11/2024
Knopf to Publish Memoir by Alexei Navalny
Navalny's posthumous memoir, 'Patriot,' which he began writing following his 2020 poisoning and completed shortly before his death in 2024, is slated for October 22 with a first print run of 500,000.04/11/2024
'Poetry in America' Returns for National Poetry Month
The fourth season of the PBS series premiered on April 1 and will run through the spring, highlighting the work of such poets as Frank O'Hara, Tracy K. Smith, and Phillis Wheatley.News Brief Archive
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