According to NPD Bookscan, print sales for the week ending May 2, 2020 were strong, and the closest to a ‘‘normal’’ week since widespread shelter-in-place orders went into effect across the US in March and April: 12.24 million books sold, up from 11.04 million the prior week. Sales for the same week in 2019 were only 11.58 million.

Adult sales in particular rebounded, selling 7.8 million books, over 6.26 million ...Read More

Penguin Classics plans to “celebrate science fiction as the essential genre of modern times” with a new series of science fiction classics. Titles launching in August include Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Flatland by Edwin Abbott, and Ten Thousand Light-years from Home by James Tiptree, Jr. Penguin also plans to publish well-known international science fiction translated into English, such as The Hair Carpet Weavers by Andreas Eschbach (Doryl Jensen, translator) ...Read More

Jonathan Karp has been named president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, taking over after former president Carolyn Reidy died unexpectedly of a heart attack on May 12. He was promoted from president of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, where he oversaw key books like What Happened by Hillary Clinton, Fear by Bob Woodward, and Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. He plans to “continue to build on the strong foundation ...Read More

J.K. Rowling will publish a new children’s book, The Ickabog, with free chapters appearing online every weekday in 34 installments from May 26 – July 10, 2020.

The complete version will be published in November 2020 by Scholastic in the US and Little, Brown in the UK, with all royalties being donated to “help groups who’ve been particularly impacted by the pandemic.”

Rowling is holding an illustration competition for ...Read More

Numerous authors, editors, and pub­lishers are offering free material for readers stuck in isolation, including several of genre interest.

J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, Audible, Overdrive, Pottermore, and Scholastic launched the “Harry Potter at Home” initiative, making the ebook and audiobook of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone free, and issuing a general read-aloud license for teachers so they can read from the book on video. There are also special activities for ...Read More

LSC Communications, the largest book printer in the US, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April. The company plans to continue operations “in the ordinary course” and says it will “pay vendors in full under customary terms for all goods and services received on or after the filing date.” They are negotiating with lenders to restructure financially, but are required to “conduct a marketing process for the sale of ...Read More

On April 1, 2020 Bertelsmann completed its $675 million purchase of the last 25% of Penguin Random House owned by Pearson. Ber­telsmann plans to simplify the board structure, and Pearson’s two seats on the board are expected to be replaced. PRH US CEO Madeline McIntosh wrote to staff with some rare good news: regular employees not otherwise eligible for bonuses will receive $856 following strong 2019 financial results.

HarperCollins UK ...Read More

Jason Sizemore has announced that Apex magazine will relaunch in January 2021, on “a new bi-monthly publication schedule with one issue every two months for a total of six issues a year. The amount of yearly fiction published will remain the same as before, but this will allow for a more manageable production schedule of the zine.” He plans to run a subscription drive and a Kickstarter in July 2020 ...Read More

The Internet Archive announced a controversial “National Emergency Library” initiative, making nearly 1.5 million ebooks available for unrestricted borrowing through at least June 30, 2020, “to make a real difference for the nation and the world” during the pandemic. The Internet Archive is a private non-profit and has no legal right to give away these ebooks, most of which remain under copyright.

Authors may email <info@archive.org> with “National Emergency Library ...Read More

Bertelsmann, the parent company of Penguin Random House, has pledged to become climate neutral by 2030. They plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% as compared to 2018, and to pay for offsets for the remainder. The company joins 800 other organizations worldwide as part of the Science Based Target Initiative. Chairman and CEO Thomas Rabe says, “Protecting the environ­ment is part of our corporate values.” They plan to ...Read More

Riverdale Avenue Books has acquired over 170 titles from SF erotica publisher Circlet Press, founded in 1992 by Cecilia Tan. The entire backlist will remain in print under the Circlet name. Tan says, “I’ve always been impressed with Riverdale Avenue’s rapid growth. I always said I would never sell until I found someone who could do the job better than me, and I found that person” in Riverdale founder Lori ...Read More

John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, sent a memo on March 17, 2020 announcing an end to the company’s embargo on licensing new ebooks to libraries, seemingly in response to the COVID-19 epi­demic. He wrote a memo to librarians, authors, illustrators, and agents, saying

There are times in life when differences should be put aside. Effective on Friday (or whenever thereafter our wholesalers can effect the change), Macmillan will return to ...Read More

Simon & Schuster’s parent company ViacomCBS wants to sell their publish­ing division. CEO Bob Bakish’s said,

We’ve been conducting a portfolio review of our company. And coming out of that we’ve made the determination that Simon and Schuster is not a core asset of the company. It is not video based; it doesn’t have significant connectivity to our broader business. At the same time, there’s no question it’s a marquee ...Read More

Macmillan (parent company of Tor, Tor.com Publishing, St. Martin’s, and others) has instituted layoffs company-wide, reduced pay for some employees, and has frozen hiring effective April 2 in response to the projected impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The salary reductions are expected to last through June, and only impact those making more than $60,000 a year, with greater reductions for higher salaries; senior executives are on half pay, while others ...Read More

Dreamspinner Press, a small publisher of LGBTQ romance founded in 2006, has reportedly failed to pay many authors their royalties; by some reports, hundreds of writers have been affected. The press has more than 3,000 titles in its inventory – some genre-related – and authors say that as early as 2017, royalties began to arrive late, or not at all, or, at least once, in the form of a postdated ...Read More

Penguin Random House has removed its audiobooks from various unlimited audio subscription programs worldwide, including Storytel and Scribd. An announcement from PRH explained that the company “has decided that at this stage, we will not participate in unlimited access subscription models. Our decision was made collectively by the company’s international leadership team to preserve a diversity of content in the marketplace and the actual and perceived long-term value of our ...Read More

The Board of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has posted the following statement:

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