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

Bowker has updated their self-publishing statistics with numbers from 2017 – the first year with more than one million self-published books carrying ISBNs. Bowker counted 1,009,188 ISBNs issued to self-published authors, a 28% increase over 2016. (That’s doubtless far lower than the actual number of self-published books, as many ebook authors don’t bother with ISBNs at all since Amazon, the dominant ebook retailer, doesn’t require them.)

The increase comes from ...Read More

With the threat of a “hard” Brexit looming, European Union-based POD publishers are wondering where to go to print their books. Many so far have been using the services of Lightning Source UK, a division of the Ingram Content Group. But in the event of Britain failing to remain in the European customs union, the importation of books printed in England into the EU may suddenly become subject to customs ...Read More

Penguin Random House US is offering early retirement buyouts to “long-tenured” employees who’ve been with the company for more than 20 years, and who will be 60 years of age or older by the end of 2018. The deadline to take early retirement is October 8, 2018, and those who take the buyout will leave by December 31. Company spokesperson Claire von Schilling told Publisher’s Lunch that the “voluntary separation ...Read More

Abrams has purchased The Overlook Press, with some em­ployees (notably publisher Tracy Carns) set to remain after the transition. The move began in August 2018, with Abrams taking immediate control of all editorial, marketing, and business elements, and planning to take over sales and distribution once existing service contracts run out – Overlook is currently distributed by Nor­ton, while Abrams is distributed by Hachette Book Group.

The Overlook Press was ...Read More

Starting in July, Tor Books has begun delaying release of ebook ver­sions of some titles to the library market for four months after the on-sale date as “part of a test program to determine the impact of eLending on retail sales.” They plan to “work closely with our library vendors who service this channel to evaluate the results and develop ongoing terms that will best support Tor’s authors, their agents, ...Read More

Author Chuck Palahniuk and other clients of literary agency Donadio & Olson have collectively lost millions, victims of a long-running embezzlement scheme allegedly run by agency accountant Darin Webb. Webb reportedly confessed to embezzling at least $3.4 million in author advances and royalties from the agency since January 2011. Webb apparently gave a videotaped interview in March 2018 admitting to the theft, saying his reports “contained false and fraudulent representations ...Read More

Macmillan is celebrating 175 years of operations with events throughout the year, with a “kickoff toast” event at Book Expo, May 30 – June 1, 2018 at the Javits Center in NY. They will publish a history of the company, The Macmillan Story, with distribution to their employees and authors. CEO John Sargent says, “We try to keep that family feel with Macmil­lan. We believe that staying true to ...Read More

Founder Kathryn Falk and her husband and co-owner Kevin Rubin announced that romance publishing industry magazine RT Book Reviews is shutting down, effective immediately. The long-running RT Booklovers Convention is also ending, with the one held this May 15-20 in Reno NV being the last. This year’s RT Reviewer’s Choice Awards were the last that will be given. Falk wrote, “After 38 years, I am retiring and ending my participation ...Read More

Penguin Books for Young Readers has announced a new imprint, Kokila, focusing on diverse YA and children’s books. Nam­rata Tripathi will be publisher (she was associate publisher and editorial director of Dial Books for Young Readers). They expect to publish between 15 and 20 books per year, both fiction and non-fiction, from picture books to middle-grade and YA, as well as graphic novels. The first titles should launch in summer ...Read More

Skyhorse has eliminated 16 full-time employees (from a total of 77) in “a major reorganization,” and plans to reduce their output of new titles by “approximately 25 percent.” They published around 1,100 titles in 2017. President Tony Lyons says the changes are “in response to shortfalls in Skyhorse revenues in 2017 and early 2018, including issues related to its distribution deal and paper shortages, as well as changes in the ...Read More

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter website Pottermore laid off a number of both senior and junior editorial staff as part of a “reorganization.” A spokesperson said the firings “reflect the evolution of the business and are being handled as sensitively as possible.” Those let go were responsible for writing original content for the site.

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