Orbit plans to print over half a million new copies of Andrzej Sapkowski’s eight Witcher books: The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny, Blood of Elves, The Time of Con­tempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of Swal­lows, The Lady of the Lake, and Season of Storms. The books are the basis for a popular series of video games and, most recently, TV se­ries ...Read More

Gollancz publisher Anne Clarke is leaving the Orion imprint after one year in the post. Marcus Gipps is receiving a promotion to publishing director. Gipps worked as a bookseller for ten years before joining Gollancz in 2011, and most recently held the title of editorial director of Gollancz and SF Gateway. Gipps will work with deputy publisher Gillian Redfearn and will report to Orion managing director Katie Espiner.

Rachel Winterbottom ...Read More

German conglomerate Bertelsmann is now the sole owner of Penguin Random House after Pearson sold them its 25% owner­ship stake for an estimated $675 million. The deal is expected to be complete in the spring. Pearson owned Penguin, and Ber­telsmann owned Random House, before the merger in 2012, at which point Bertels­mann had a 53% share and Pearson 47%. Pearson later sold 22% of its shares to the other company ...Read More

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