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

Compelling Science Fiction has switched to a subscription model with the June issue, their 13th. Publisher Joe Stetch wrote, “New issues will only be available to people who subscribe to the magazine or buy individual issues. Full issues will no longer be posted for free on the website, although the stories that have already been posted will remain up.” He explains, “Moving to a purchase-only model was a difficult decision, ...Read More

Sourcebooks sold 45% ownership of the company to Penguin Random House. PRH will be a “collaborative inves­tor,” with founder and CEO Dominique Raccah working closely with Madeline McIntosh, CEO of Penguin Random House US. Both have seats on the newly created board of directors. There are no immediate changes planned to “leader­ship, management, publishing autonomy, or entrepreneurial culture” at Sourcebooks, which hopes to double in size.

While you are here, ...Read More

Mark Teppo has announced that Underland Press is open to novel submissions. He’s looking for SF, fantasy, dark fantasy, and “noir mystery with a tinge of otherworldliness,” between 75,000 and 100,000 words in length. Submit to <editors@underlandpress.com> with a brief cover letter “that hits the highlights.” Teppo also welcomes submissions to anthology Eighteen in his “loosely tarot-themed” series, due out in late 2020. The 18th tarot card, the Moon, is ...Read More

Baker & Taylor, one of the two major book distributors in the US, will no longer wholesale books to stores. Parent company Follett calls it a “strategic shift,” explaining, “Exiting wholesale book distribution will allow us to align our resources, technology, and people to do what we do best – helping public libraries support the communities they serve.” Baker & Taylor president Dave Cully says they will work “closely with ...Read More

Macmillan Publishers (including Tor, Forge, Tor.com Publishing, St. Martin’s Press, and Farrar, Straus, Giroux, among other imprints) is moving from the Flatiron Building to new, bigger office space in the Equitable Building. The move, first announced back in 2017, is projected to happen in June, with Tor Associates et al moving June 7-10. The new address is 120 Broadway, 22nd Floor, New York NY 10271. [Edited to correct move dates.] ...Read More

Saga Press, launched in 2015 as an imprint of the Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, is now an imprint of the Gallery Publishing Group, effective March 20, 2019. Editorial director Joe Monti and senior editor Navah Wolfe remain with the imprint, and now report to Gallery senior vice-president and publisher Jennifer Bergstrom. Bergstrom explained that despite starting in the children’s division, Saga “has always acquired and published for a ...Read More

Amazon is closing its 87 popup stores by the end of April 2019. A spokesperson said, “After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program and are instead expanding Amazon Books and Amazon 4-Star, where we provide a more comprehensive customer experience and broader selection.” The company has opened 19 Amazon Books stores, the most recent in Denver CO in March 2019, and has three ...Read More

Editor Arthur A. Levine has left Scholastic after 23 years to launch his own independent publishing company, effective March 30, 2019. Levine’s eponymous imprint was founded in 1996, and he is a major figure in children’s publishing, best known for bringing J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series to the US.

Levine told Publishers Weekly, “I’ve had a wonderful run at Scholastic and will greatly miss working here. There are such strengths ...Read More

F+W Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2019, and plans to sell its assets in order to pay its creditors (at least partially). F+W published some works of SF interest, including collectibles guides from the Krause Publications imprint, art books from the Impact imprint, and writing guides from Writer’s Digest Books. The filing blames the bankruptcy largely on a failed attempt to shift to an e-commerce model in ...Read More

Amazon Publishing has announced a new imprint, Amazon Crossing Kids, publishing picture books in translation, starting in July.

Amazon has cancelled plans to open a new branch office for their headquarters in the Long Island City neighborhood in Queens NY. The local community opposed the plans, voicing concerns about transit and real estate problems, and objecting to the new $3 billion in incentives that New York City and state offered ...Read More

Random House publisher Susan Kamil announced the closure of imprint Spiegel & Grau:

I am very sorry to announce that with the reorganization of our Group, Cindy Speigel and Julie Grau will be leaving the company, and the Spiegel & Grau imprint, which they have led for the past thirteen years, will be discontinued.

The imprint was launched at Doubleday in 2007 and joined Random House in 2008, and published ...Read More

Eugene Teplitsky, co-owner of Curiosity Quills Press, says the company has fallen behind on paying royalties, and will temporarily cease print publishing, except for middle-grade novels. He blames “month after month” of dwindling sales, and is offering “no strings attached” termination of contracts for any of their authors who want to leave the company: authors should “simply email <editor@curiosityquills.com> and we will revert rights to all who ask for it, ...Read More

Clarkesworld editor Neil Clarke has started Clarkesworld Books, a new imprint of Wyrm Publishing dedicated to publishing translated fiction. The imprint plans to launch with A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction by Xia Jia.

Clarke also announced that Clarkesworld has received a grant from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) to translate and publish Korean science fiction stories, the first ...Read More

The Authors Guild has released their 2018 Author Income Survey. 5,067 authors participated, and the Guild says the results point to a “crisis of epic proportions for American authors, particularly literary writers.” The median income from writing was $6,080, a decline of 3% from their 2013 survey, and 42% from 2009, a drop the Guild ascribes to declining royalties, “blockbuster mentality” at publishing companies, and the sales practices of Amazon.com. ...Read More

Hachette Book Group is reor­ganizing. The Hachette Books non-fiction line will be folded into Perseus Books with the departure of founder Mauro DiPreta. Da Capo Press, a Per­seus imprint, is in turn becoming part of Hachette Books, with Da Capo publisher John Radziewicz retiring. Susan Weinberg will be acting publisher until a new publisher is chosen. “Several positions” are being eliminated as part of the consolidation.

Dark Horse Comics CEO ...Read More

Susan Moldow is retiring from her position as presi­dent of Scribner Publish­ing Group and president of the Touchstone imprint at Simon & Schuster at the end of the year. Moldow has worked in publishing since 1966, and has held senior positions at Dell, Penguin, Doubleday, and HarperCollins, as well as Simon & Schuster, and her authors included Anthony Doerr, Charles Johnson, Stephen King, and Colm Tóibín, among many others.

In ...Read More

Crown Publishing Group has joined Random House Publishing group to form a new division, effective immediately, run by Random House president and publisher Gina Centrello. Crown president and publisher Maya Mavjee will leave Penguin Random House at the end of 2018. The imprints will maintain their current editorial identities. Penguin Random House US CEO Madeline McIntosh explained in a letter to the staff that “book discovery and buying patterns continue ...Read More

Amazon has announced plans to raise their minimum wage for US workers to $15 an hour after public condemnation for their poor pay practices, including criticisms from Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. CEO Jeff Bezos – the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of over $155 billion, who declared earlier this year that “the only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is ...Read More