Small-press horror press Silver Shamrock Publishing closed this weekend. While there has been no official statement from publisher Kenneth McKinley, editor Kenneth W. Cain posted the following on Twitter:

Philip Pullman is stepping down as Society of Authors (SoA) president. Pullman has been with the SoA for 35 years, and was elected as president in 2013. He will remain a member of the trade union’s council. Pullman says,

When it became clear that statements of mine were being regarded as if they represented the views of the Society as a whole (although they did nothing of the sort, and ...Read More

S.B. Divya is stepping down as co-editor of Escape Pod on April 8, 2022. Mur Lafferty remains co-editor,  joined by new co-editor Valerie Valdes.

It’s been my great privilege and pleasure to work on Escape Pod for the last 7 years, but it is time for me to say goodbye. Unfortunately, due to my health problems, I no longer have the energy to juggle 3 jobs plus family responsibilities…. This ...Read More

Liz Gorinsky is stepping down as publisher of Erewhon Books, effective immediately. Gorinsky founded the press in 2018, and their first titles were released in 2020.

Senior editor Sarah Guan will lead the editorial program, and oversee an expansion of the editorial team. Director of publishing and production Cassandra Farrin and marketing and publicity manager Martin Cahill remain in their positions. Viengsamai Fetters has joined as an editorial assistant, and ...Read More

SF Magazine Cossmass Infinities will cease publishing in print, and stop producing regular issues, but will still publish some work online. Editor Paul Campbell says,

Unfortunately, Cossmass Infinities will stop publishing regular issues after Issue 9. We will continue publishing stories to our website once a month, and we will continue paying a pro-rate for them.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us this far. Unfortunately, it is not working ...Read More

Fireside Magazine will close later this year, primarily due to financial concerns, according to publisher Brian J. White:

When I launched the first Fireside Kickstarter 10 years ago, it was an experiment in online publishing and crowdfunding, and an attempt o hike the standard of pay for writers up much higher than was considered the norm at the time. I wasn’t sure that first campaign would succeed, and back then ...Read More

HarperCollins UK imprint Harper Voyager announced a new imprint, Magpie, launching January 2023. Magpie will publish “YA fantasy, science fiction, speculative romance and horror” and will be led by publishing director Natasha Bardon with editor Vicky Leech Mateos also acquiring. The imprint “will be based in the HarperFiction division and ran by the HarperVoyager team as a parallel imprint.”

For more information, see the Harper Voyager UK Twitter account or ...Read More

On March 1, 2022, Brandon Sanderson’s Dragonsteel Entertainment launched a Kickstarter campaign, Surprise! Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson. It rapidly became the most successful publishing-related Kickstarter of all time, and is on track to break the site’s overall fundraising record.

As of this writing, the total stands at over $15.6 million, with backing from nearly 60,000 supporters. The most successful campaign ever, for a smart watch, made just over ...Read More

Penguin Random House (PRH) has pledged $100,000 to PEN America for their 100th anniversary. PRH and PEN America have partnered together before with projects such as Book the Vote.

Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, says:

We are grateful and inspired that Penguin Random House is expanding its generous support for PEN America at this critical time. Rising authoritarianism around the world, coupled with flagging support for freedom of speech ...Read More

As part of its attempts to improve diversity, Penguin Random House has published its “phase one” study on the demographics of authors, illustrators, and translators of works published from the start of 2019 to the end of 2021. They received 3,415 responses, and concluded that the company’s ‘‘contributor demographics do not reflect U.S. reader demographics when it comes to race and ethnicity. Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous representation is low, while ...Read More

Many publishers have once again paused, post­poned, or rescinded their plans to open offices for in-person employees, this time in response to the rise of the omicron variant of COVID-19.

Macmillan was scheduled to reopen its offices in New York City on January 10, but the opening has been postponed indefinitely. Employees will receive 30 days notice before they have to come back. Vaccinated staff may continue to come in ...Read More

Lit Hub has announced its 48-title list of the best books of 2021. Titles and authors of genre interest follow.

• Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters (One World)
• The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez (Hogarth)
• The Vixen, Francine Prose (Harper)
• Light Perpetual, Francis Spufford (Scribner)
• The Scapegoat, Sara Davis (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Dear Senthuran, Akwaeke Emezi (Riverhead)
• The Wrong End of the Telescope

Buzzfeed has announced its 22-title list of the best books of 2021. Titles and authors of genre interest follow.

For the full list of Buzzfeed‘s recommendations, see their post.

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

Penguin Random House published their latest annual report on their workplace demographics, tracking their efforts to improve diversity. The majority of employees in both office and warehouse jobs are still white (74% and 75%), but 52% of new hires in 2021 are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). That’s an increase from 43% the year before. 17% of new hires were of Asian descent (up from 9.9%), 14% were ...Read More