Speculative poetry and flash fiction magazine Arsenika announced that it will permanently close following the release of its upcoming Spring 2021 issue. The magazine ran for five years, starting with Issue 0 in Winter 2017. Issue 8 will be the last, and will include a longer statement from editor S. Qiouyi Lu.

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

There have been big changes at Quirk Books. Brett Cohen has resigned as president and publisher, end­ing a 20-year career there, with owner/founder David Borgenicht returning as president and Jhanteigh Ku­pihea promoted to publisher. Nicole De Jackmo rises to the new position of senior vice president of sales, marketing, and publicity. Megan Dipasquale was promoted to vice president of finance, Andie Reid to art director, Jane Morley to managing editor, ...Read More

News Corp, parent company of HarperCollins Publishers, has announced that it will acquire Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s (HMH) publishing company, HMH Books & Media, for $349 million in cash.

HMH will become part of HarperCollins, the second-largest consumer book publisher in the world. The deal will add more than 7,000 titles to the HarperCollins backlist, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy and other titles by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1984 and Animal ...Read More

Children’s publisher Egmont UK, which became part of HarperCollins UK in May 2020, is now being renamed as Farshore.

This mission underpins our broad and inclusive portfolio of child-friendly picture books, fiction, non-fiction and brands. We aim to inspire reading for pleasure for all ages, from the most ...Read More

The Authors Guild, the Open Markets Institute, and various writing organizations (including the Horror Writers Association and the Romance Writers Association) have released an open letter to the US Department of Justice, urging them to reject the proposed merger of Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House on antitrust grounds:

The deal would bring well more than half of key U.S. book markets under the control of a single corporation, ...Read More

HarperCollins has joined the other major publishers in raising starting salaries. They made an agreement with their union to increase starting salaries to $45,000 a year for staff in New York NY and San Francisco CA, starting January 18, 2021. The following three sal­ary tiers will also be increased commensurately. “This decision is part of the company’s ongoing review of industry data on salaries in order to remain competitive.” About ...Read More

We previously announced that PS Publishing would take over Interzone from TTA Press, with Ian Whates as the new editor. That deal has fallen through, but Whates will edit a new digital magazine for PS Publishing instead. The PS team says:

This has come as something of a considerable disappointment, particularly bearing in mind the amount of work that the whole team has put into the project. We had a ...Read More

Amara Hoshijo has joined Saga Press as an editor. She previously worked on science fiction titles at Soho Press including The Seep by Chana Porter, Annie and the Wolves by Andromeda Romano-Lax, and the forthcoming Midnight, Water City by Chris McKinney. Saga editorial director Joe Monti said,

Amara has a keen perspective and a high level of enthusiasm for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror that will be a boon to ...Read More

PS Publishing has announced that it will take over publication of Interzone magazine from TTA Press, which also produces the Black Static and Crimewave magazines. Ian Whates of NewCon Press will replace Andy Cox as editor.

PS co-founder Peter Crowther said, “The call came on the Saturday before Christmas Day, from Andy Cox, Main Man of Interzone magazine who wanted to know if I fancied taking on IZ’s production reins, ...Read More

Amazon Publishing may shift their longstanding stance against allowing libraries to lend their ebooks. The company is said to be in “active discussions” with the Digital Public Library of America to alter its policies. Amazon is reportedly “testing a number of different models” and may lend books as early as 2021, with a spokesperson saying, “We believe libraries serve a critical purpose in communities across the country, and our priority ...Read More

Knopf Random House Canada is splitting apart: beginning in 2021, Knopf Canada and Random House Canada will operate independently again (they were combined in 2009). Publisher Anne Collins will become executive editor and vice-president of Random House Canada on January 4, 2021. CEO Kristin Cochrane says, “I believe the time is right to have space for each to build on its past successes and pave the way for the future. ...Read More

Hachette Book Group has announced plans for a new imprint, Legacy Lit, “dedicated to books for and by people of color.” Executive editor Krishan Trotman has been promoted from executive editor to vice-president and publisher, reporting to Susan Weinberg of Perseus Books division. Beginning in 2022, Legacy Lit plans to produce 12 to 15 titles each year in various genres, and to “give voice to issues authors, and communi­ties that ...Read More

LitRPG publisher Portal Books is launching new imprint Monolith with a focus on more traditional science fiction and fantasy genres including “Post-Apocalyptic, Epic Fantasy, Young Adult Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Cyber Punk and others.” Titles acquired by Monolith include Everwinter by Peter Hackshaw, Ascendant by Michael R. Miller, a trilogy by Damien Hine, as well as the rights to the Landkist Saga by Steven Kelliher.

For more information, see the ...Read More

Penguin Random House has announced plans to purchase Simon & Schuster from ViacomCBS for $2.175 billion in an all-cash deal. ViacomCBS had reportedly hoped to sell S&S for at least $1.2 billion. S&S had $814 million in sales in 2019 and $823 million in 2018.

The company was initially offered for sale in March 2020, but plans were put on hold when the coronavirus pandemic hit. After the S&S acquisition ...Read More