Audible Best SF Audiobooks

Audible has announced “The 12 Best Sci-Fi Listens of 2022”:

  • A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, Becky Chambers (Macmillan Audio)
  • Upgrade Soul, Ezra Claytan Daniels (Audible Originals)
  • The Blood Trials, N.E. Davenport (HarperAudio)
  • Leech, Hiron Ennes (Macmillan Audio)
  • The Spare Man, Mary Robinette Kowal (Audible Studios)
  • Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Recorded Books)
  • How High We Go in the Dark, Sequoia Nagamatsu (HarperAudio)
  • No
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People & Publishing Roundup, November 2022

MILESTONES

JEFF VANDERMEER’s liter­ary interests are now represented by Joe Veltre of the Gersh Agency, who was already his film and TV agent. VanderMeer has also joined the Gersh Speakers Bureau as a client. Alex Kohner of Yorn Levine provides additional representation as VanderMeer’s entertainment at­torney.

DEREK KÜNSKEN is step­ping down as programming co-chair of Can*Con, Ottawa’s liter­ary SF/F conference, after 11 years working on the conference. Co-chair MARIE

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Unnamed Press and Rare Bird Open Bookstore

Publishers Unnamed Press and Rare Bird have jointly opened North Figueroa Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Highland Park, Los Angeles.

The bookstore opened November 9, 2022 and aims to “connect the independent publishing community with readers, booksellers, authors, and book lovers.”

For more information, see their website.

©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus ...Read More

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Entangled Publishing Launches New Imprint

Entangled Publishing announced a new romantic fantasy and science fiction imprint, Red Tower Books. Red Tower “will champion feminist and empowered perspectives in the fantasy and science fiction space, while also enfolding in what Entangled Publishing does best…romance.”

Red Tower has planned seven titles for 2023. Their press release lists The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall, The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde, Bloodguard by Cecy Robson, ...Read More

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HarperCollins Union On Strike

Following their earlier statements, the HarperCollins Union began their strike today, forming an in-person picket line as well as posting to social media. The strike was originally scheduled for November 7, but was delayed until after Election Day. This is the second strike action this year: the union held a one-day strike on July 20, 2022. This time the union plans to picket until they secure a new contract.

Calls ...Read More

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Full PRH S&S Antitrust Decision

Judge Florence Pan has now issued her full decision blocking the proposed merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, following her brief announcement last week.

Her 80-page decision reveals that she had significant reservations about the merger from the start, and did not find the PRH and S&S arguments in favor of the deal convincing. Her conclusion reads,

The government has presented a compelling case that predicts substantial ...Read More

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Judge Forbids PRH/S&S Merger

Judge Florence Pan has ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, blocking the proposed merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.

According to Reuters:

Judge Florence Pan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in a brief order that she had found the Justice Department had shown the deal may substantially lessen competition “in the market for the U.S. publishing rights to anticipated ...Read More

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Katherine Tegen to Retire

Katherine Tegen, the vice president and publisher of the Katherine Tegen Books imprint at HarperCollins Children’s, is retiring in December 2022. The imprint will continue under a new name, yet to be announced.

Tegen began working for HarperCollins in 1984, at Harper & Row Junior Books. After stints at Houghton Mifflin and Disney, she rejoined HarperCollins in 2001 and launched her own imprint in 2003. Her authors included Veronica Roth ...Read More

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HarperCollins Union Sets Second Strike Date

The HarperCollins Union has voted to go on strike for the second time this year if their concerns are not addressed; the latest strike date is November 7, 2022. The Union held a one-day strike on July 20, 2022. You can read their latest statement here.

The employees of HarperCollins have been unionized for over 80 years, and are part of Technical, Office and Professional Union UAW Local 2110. They ...Read More

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Baker & Taylor Ransomware Attack

Distributor Baker & Taylor spent over two weeks with their operations offline after they were targeted in a ransomware attack around August 20, 2022, crippling their ability to process orders. Their sys­tems were restored in September, with a statement saying,

Bringing our systems back online safely and securely has been a top priority. Our internal technical teams with the support of external cyber-security experts have brought our servers and applications ...Read More

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People & Publishing Roundup, October 2022

MILESTONES

MARYANN HARRIS, artist, musician, and wife of Charles de Lint, became ill on September 6, 2021 with encephalitis, and was eventually diagnosed with the rare, tick-borne Powassan virus. She spent eight months in intensive care before being transferred to a com­plex care facility, where she is on a ventilator and almost entirely para­lyzed. Fundraising efforts are un­derway to defray the considerable costs; details, and updates on her condition,

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HarperCollins Layoffs

HarperCollins has let 12 staffers go across adult and children’s divisions and instituted a hiring freeze, citing “cost pressures.” In a statement to Publishers Lunch, the company said,

The business is facing continued cost pressures, including price increases related to printing, production, freight and distribution, and we are taking decisive steps to operate as efficiently as possible. As part of this process, we have made some difficult decisions and a ...Read More

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Kensington Acquires Erewhon

Kensington Publishing has acquired Erewhon Books, which will continue as a Kensington imprint. Sarah Guan will continue to lead the imprint, and the rest of the Erewhon team will continuing working under the new owners.

Kensington President and CEO Steven Zacharius said,

The diverse, high-quality list Erewhon has built and the level of support they’ve been able to offer their authors as a small, but effective and passionate team is ...Read More

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HWA 2022 Election Results

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has announced the results of the election for its open officers’ positions. John Edward Lawson was elected President, and Becky Spratford was re-elected Secretary. Linda Addison, James Chambers, and Ellen Datlow were all re-elected to the Board of Trustees.

The election team volunteers were Rhonda Jackson Joseph, Nicole Kurtz, and Lisa Marie Wood. The Ballot Master was Angel Leigh McCoy, and the election verifiers were

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Ring of Fire Press to Close

Ring of Fire Press, the publishing company founded by the late Eric Flint, is closing. Flint’s widow Lucille Robbins posted:

Our Fellow Members of the Ring of Fire Press Family,

It has taken the staff and the family to both assess and absorb the sad passing of our friend and mentor, Eric Flint. In the wake of his passing, we have looked at the finan­cial realities of the publisher 1632, ...Read More

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Amazon Changes Ebook Return Policy

Amazon has announced changes to a controversial policy which allowed readers to return ebooks for an automatic refund within seven days of purchase, whether they’d read the book or not. Once the new policy is implemented, automatic refunds will be limited to books where under 10% of the book has been read.

A statement from the Authors Guild said,

The Authors Guild is proud to report that our discussions with ...Read More

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New Jo Fletcher Books Publishing Director

With Jo Fletcher stepping down from Jo Fletcher Books, the imprint she founded 11 years ago, Anne Perry will be taking over as publishing director.

Quercus fiction publisher Cassie Browne says of the hire:

We are all completely over the moon to be welcoming Anne to Quercus Fiction as the new imprint head of Jo Fletcher Books.

Anne’s reputation as one of the very best in the SFF community is ...Read More

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People & Publishing Roundup, September 2022

MILESTONES

WENDY N. WAGNER is now represented via Lane Heymont of The Tobias Agency.

AWARDS

IDZA LUHUMYO’s “Five Years Next Sunday”(Disruption) won the £10,000 Caine Prize for African Writing, “awarded for a short story via an African writer published in English,”presented July 18, 2022 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

MONICA BYRNE’s The Actu­al Star (Harper Voyager) won the 2022 Manly Wade Wellman Award, ...Read More

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PRH and S&S Merger Trial

The lawsuit filed by the US Department of Jus­tice to stop the proposed merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster went to trial on August 1, 2022, with Judge Florence Pan presiding. The trial included expert testimo­ny from a wide variety of authors, agents, and publishing professionals. Closing arguments took place on August 19. A ruling is expected in November. The fundamental question is wheth­er the merger will ...Read More

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People & Publishing Roundup, August 2022

MILESTONES

RUDY RUCKER sold his liter­ary archive to the Special Collec­tions of the UCR Library at UC Riverside. “The Rudy Rucker Ar­chive includes marked-up drafts of forty books, story drafts, letters, videos, audio, scientific papers, rare ’zines, and email.” Henry Wessells of James Cummins Bookseller ne­gotiated the deal with Cherry Wil­liams and Andrew Lippert of UCR.

AWARDS

JESMYN WARD will receive the 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction ...Read More

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Daily Science Fiction Hiatus

Online magazine Daily Science Fiction, which also delivers stories to subscribers via email every weekday, is going on hiatus after 12 years. Editors Michele-Lee Barasso and Jonathan Laden wrote to subscribers on August 11, 2022:

Hi. Many of you have noted that we’ve been closed for story submissions for a bit. Many more of you (our most loyal supporters–Thank you!) noticed that today we just canceled automatic renewals for the ...Read More

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Tom Doherty Associates Renamed

Tom Doherty Associates, a division of Macmillan, is rebranding as Tor Publishing Group, effective immediately.

President and publisher Devi Pillai said, “Although the Tor name has always been associated with science fiction and fantasy, our list has included titles beyond that genre since our inception. With this name change and continued growth, the Tor name will now stand for quality in various types of genre publishing, with each imprint representing ...Read More

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DoJ vs PRH Trial Begins

The lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice to stop the proposed merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster has gone to trial this week.

Publishers Weekly has been covering the case: Monday featured opening arguments and testimony by Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch for the government, giving an overview of the book business and discussing how the merger would have a deleterious effect on competition.

Tuesday’s proceedings ...Read More

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Publishing News

Disney Publishing World­wide is shifting its global sales and distribution services to Penguin Random House Publisher Ser­vices (PRHPS), effective April 1, 2023. Disney will also expand their subsidiary Marvel Publishing’s existing partnership with PRHPS. Disney is leaving their partnership with Hachette Book Group, which has distributed Disney books since 2013.

French media conglomerate Vivendi now owns just over 55% of Lagardere, parent company of Hachette Book Group, having purchased 11 ...Read More

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Simon & Schuster’s Canedy Leaves

Publisher Dana Canedy is stepping down from Simon & Schuster’s adult imprint after two years to focus on writing her next memoir (out from S&S in 2024). She was the first Black woman to ever hold the position. CEO Jonathan Karp will take over her position “for the foreseeable future.”

Karp says Canedy “has improved and bolstered the Simon & Schuster imprint in innumerable ways: by attracting incredibly talented authors ...Read More

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SFWA Launches Indie Resources

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has “launched the first wave of resources for Indie Pub 101, a new section of the SFWA.org website.”

Whether veterans of traditional publishing or brand-new authors with debut books in hand, independent authors, also known as self-publishing authors, must take on the multiple roles of designer, publisher, and publicist, which can be daunting. Indie Pub 101 will help! Its first three sections ...Read More

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People & Publishing Roundup, July 2022

AWARDS

QUENTIN BLAKE, SALMAN RUSHDIE, and MARINA WARNER all received the High Award Companion of Honour dis­tinction in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. IAN RANKIN received the Knights Bachelor distinction, while JOANNE HARRIS and MICHAEL FOREMAN received the Officer of the Order of the Brit­ish Empire distinction for services to literature. JAMES DAUNT, head of Waterstones in the UK and CEO of Barnes & Noble in the US, received ...Read More

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DAW Books Sold to Astra Publishing House

DAW Books owners and co-publishers Betsy Wollheim and Sheila Gilbert have sold the company to Astra Publishing House. The entire DAW staff will continue working under the new owners.

Astra CFO and president Leying Jiang said,

We’re so thrilled to have DAW Books and its talented team joining Astra Publishing House. It feels like we are adding another bright star to our growing program. And so this acquisition marks a ...Read More

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HarperCollins Union Sets Strike Date

As previously announced, the HarperCollins Union has voted to go on strike if their concerns are not addressed. They’ve now announced their one-day strike date as Wednesday, July 20th.

The employees of HarperCollins have been unionized for over 80 years, and are part of Technical, Office and Professional Union UAW Local 2110. They have been negotiating with management since December 2021, when their contract was due to expire (after a ...Read More

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Macmillan to Reopen Offices

Macmillan expects to reopen offices on July 7, 2022, following the “security incident” that shut down their operations on June 25, 2022. The closure included physical offices “out of an abundance of caution.”

Most systems are operational for employees again, and Macmillan has resumed warehouse operations, and are now receiving, processing, and shipping orders again.

In its latest statement Macmillan says the company is bringing extra resources to bear in ...Read More

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Wilmot Wins ECW Press Novel Contest

Andrew Wilmot’s Withered is the winner of ECW Press‘s Best New Speculative Novel Contest. The novel will be published by ECW in a deal negotiated by Kelvin Kong at K2 Literary.

The contest received over 170 entries, with the winner chosen by judges Jen R. Albert and Terese Mason Pierre.

For more information, see the announcement.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time ...Read More

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HarperCollins Union Threatens Strike

The HarperCollins Union has voted to go on strike if their concerns are not addressed:

Unionized employees of HarperCollins Publishers voted by 99% to authorize a strike if the publisher does not agree to a fair contract.

The union, Local 2110 of the UAW, represents 250+ employees in editorial, sales, publicity, design, legal, and marketing departments. The union is bargaining for higher pay, improved family leave benefits, a greater commitment ...Read More

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