Bowker, the company that provides ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers), has announced plans to introduce a new prefix, 979, for its 13-digit identifiers, because the high demand for the exist­ing 978 numbers is depleting the available digits. Bowker also announced that “there will be no 10-digit equivalent to a 979 ISBN.” The 13-digit numbers were introduced in 2007, but many older systems still use the old 10-digit format after per­forming ...Read More

Seth Fishman will manage a new west coast office of literary agency The Gernert Company in Culver City CA, with plans to hire new employees. Fishman has spent three years operat­ing from Los Angeles, and told Publishers Lunch, “I have been going to LA three or four times a year for 20 years, primarily doing work for John Grish­am, and have always thought it would be ideal to open an ...Read More

Macmillan CEO John Sargent sent a letter to librarians in late October, addressing their concerns about Mac­millan delaying sales of ebooks to libraries for eight weeks after publication:

“First, I would like to apologize. It is clear to me that I should have written to all of you directly with our terms change. I meant no disrespect…. Please know that this change was well consid­ered and deeply discussed with over ...Read More

Aconyte Books, the fiction publishing imprint of Asmodee Entertainment, made a multi-year deal with Marvel Entertainment to publish tie-in nov­els based on Marvel Comics properties. Publisher Marc Gascoigne says, “The Marvel comic book universe has featured a host of great characters and storylines crying out to be told over the years, and now is the time to step into the spotlight. You can look out for legends from Asgard, several ...Read More

Writer Aidan Moher has reported on Twitter that he and all other freelancers writing for the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog have been let go, effective immediately:

All freelancers at B&N SFF Blog were informed today they’d no longer be contracting work and to invoice for outstanding work immediately. I’ve LOVED my time writing for @BNSciFi, and I’m bummed to see it come to an end.

Writer Dahlia ...Read More

Hachette UK has restructured, with a new trade publishing operations unit over­seeing all imprints, headed by Ben Groves-Raines (COO of Orion and Little, Brown UK) as publish­ing operations director, reporting to Hachette dep­uty CEO Richard Kitson. Lucy Hale (deputy CEO of Hodder & Stoughton, Headline, Quercus, and John Murray Press) has “decided to leave,” and her position has been eliminated. The managing direc­tors of the trade publishing imprints have joined ...Read More

Bowker has updated their self-publishing statistics with numbers from 2018 – the second year in a row with more than one million self-published books carrying ISBNs. Bowker counted 1.68 million ISBNs issued to self-published authors, a 40% increase over 2017. (Even that number is far lower than the actual number of self-published books, because many ebook authors don’t bother with ISBNs at all – Amazon, the major ebook retailer, doesn’t ...Read More

Tachyon Publications has reached an agreement with distributor Baker and Taylor, which will begin full-service worldwide distribution and fulfillment for the publisher starting in January 2020.

Senior vice president of Baker & Taylor Publisher Services says, “Tachyon is an incredible presence in the science fiction and fantasy world, and we are elated to be partnering with them.”

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

Poisoned Pen Press (the mystery imprint at Source­books) will launch a new line, the Haunted Library of Horror Classics, edited by Eric J. Guignard and Leslie S. Klinger and conceived by Lisa Morton. The first title will be a new trade paperback edition of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (1911), out in January 2020. Each book will in­clude a new introduction by horror authors includ­ing Ramsey Campbell, ...Read More

Subterranean Press has announced that Navah Wolfe will acquire and edit novellas for release in 2021 and beyond. Wolfe says, “I’ve admired the work Subterranean Press has been doing for years, so it’s an honor to get to work with them to publish original fiction. I’m really looking forward to publishing great novellas in Subterranean’s famously gorgeous editions.” She will be open to agented submissions and will also be soliciting ...Read More

Multimedia company Vesuvian Media Group has acquired Black Spot Books, a small SF publisher that has produced a dozen titles so far. Its founder, Lindy Ryan, will continue to run the imprint. The parent company’s Vesuvian Books imprint has released around 50 adult, YA, and middle-grade books, and its Vesuvian Entertainment division has a first-look arrangement with Boilermaker Entertainment. CEO Italia Gandolfo says, “As we grow, the importance of acquiring ...Read More

Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, the long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, was under a worldwide embargo until Sep­tember 10, 2019. Amazon shipped “a small number” of copies a week early to customers who’d pre-ordered. A Penguin Random House spokesperson said the books “were distributed early due to a retailer error which has not been rectified. We appreciate that readers and booksellers have been waiting patiently… in order to ...Read More

The American Library Association launched a petition to protest Macmillan’s “recent efforts to limit library access to ebooks.” The petition reads, in part,

Beginning November 1, 2019, Macmil­lan Publishers will allow libraries to pur­chase only one copy of each new eBook title for the first eight weeks after a book’s release.

Readers cannot stay silent! We need your help!

This embargo would limit libraries’ abil­ity to provide access to information ...Read More

Audible was recently sued by seven publishers who allege that the audiobook publisher’s new “Captions” feature, which scrolls machine-generated text along with audio narra­tion, violates their copyrights. Audible agreed not to enable the feature “for all audiobooks for which Publishers own, or are the exclusive licensee of, the text or audiobook rights” until the court rules on the plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction.

Audible also notified its self-published authors ...Read More

CBS and Viacom are merg­ing, becoming one company again after their sepa­ration in 2006. As a result, their publishing divi­sion Simon & Schuster will report to Viacom CEO Robert Bakish (it previously reported to the head of CBS). S&S head Carolyn Reidy told her staff, “I always say that with change comes opportunity, and we will now be proudly associated with an even more formidable portfolio of brands and content. ...Read More

Strange Horizons has raised its pay rate for fiction to 10 cents per word, for original essays to $90, and for poetry to $50 a poem. The rates will take effect for works published in 2020. They will also collaborate with Be the Serpent for a joint podcast in 2020, and will publish special issues next year on Mexican SF/F and climate change.

While you are here, please take a ...Read More

Magazine distributor Comag Marketing Group (CMG) has acquired Curtis Circulation Com­pany, effective October 1, 2019. CMG will take up obligations and services for Curtis’s existing publisher agreements after that, and Curtis “will provide transition services to CMG to assure a seamless transition.”

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site ...Read More

Haikasoru Books, an imprint of VIZ Media “dedicated to translating Japanese science fiction, fantasy, and horror into English,” will go on hiatus following the November 19, 2019 release of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Vol. 10: Sunset by Yoshiki Tanaka (trans. Matt Treyvaud). Haikasoru editor-in-chief Masumi Washington said,

After this production, I will take a break from new acquisitions for Haikasoru a while and would like to see what I ...Read More

Science Fiction Trails maga­zine has closed following the publication of their 14th issue in April 2019, with magazine editor David B. Riley citing a “huge drop” in sales for the last two issues. The magazine published sci­ence fiction weird Westerns. This does not affect Science Fiction Trails Books, which will release its 11th anthology, Tales from Dry Gulch, in September 2019.

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

Penguin Random House has acquired the publishing-related assets of F+W Media, including around 2,000 backlist titles, most illustrated non-fiction. PRH made the winning bid on June 6, 2019 in the auction held by the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. F+W Media’s parent company filed bankruptcy in March 2019.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely ...Read More

Malcolm Edwards has been named publisher of André Deutsch, a venerable imprint recently acquired by the fledgling Welbeck Publishing Group. Edwards has been charged with “resurrecting and reviving” their backlist and acquiring new titles in the SF, fantasy, horror, crime, and thriller genres.

Deutsch was founded in 1952 and published works by Margaret Atwood, Jack Kerouac, Philip Roth, and John Updike, among others. Edwards says, “The appeal was that it’s ...Read More

Marc Gascoigne has been named publisher of Aconyte, a new fiction imprint from game company Asmodee (which publishes Arkham Horror, Legend of the Five Rings, Pandemic, Dead of Winter, and Catan, among other games). The imprint will focus on titles based on their games, but also has plans to publish tie-in works for other parties. They recently made a deal with Simon & Schuster for US and Canadian distribution, with ...Read More

Amazon’s ongoing legal issues in Europe continue. The Federal Cartel Office in Germany has accepted concessions from Amazon regarding the retailer’s terms for third-party sellers, and has closed the “abuse of dominance” procedure begun last fall. According to Cartel Office head Andreas Mundt, Amazon has agreed to improve “the lack of transparency of the terms of business; the unexpected termination and blocking of sellers accounts…; the lack of possibilities for ...Read More

Comics publisher DC is retiring their Vertigo imprint, created in 1993 to publish edgier and more adult content, including Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and Stardust, Bill Willingham’s Fables, Chris Rob­erson’s iZOMBIE, Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta, and many other works by authors of interest. The imprint will “sunset” at the end of 2020. DC is reorganizing all of its content under three new age-specific imprints: DC Kids (for readers ...Read More