Penthouse Global Media, publisher of adult magazine Pent­house and the recently relaunched science fiction and fact magazine OMNI, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2018. The company formed in 2016 when CEO Kelly Holland acquired the Penthouse assets in a management buyout. The company revived OMNI last year, with Pamela Weintraub as editor-in-chief and Ellen Datlow as fiction editor. The Winter 2017 issue appeared in late 2017, and was ...Read More

Online retailer Amazon.com is laying off “low hundreds” of employees, mostly at the Seattle headquarters. The terminations are primarily positions related to the established parts of the company, mainly the consumer retail business (the part that sells books, among other things). The company plans to hire new employees in growing areas, including their digital assistant Alexa, their digital entertainment division, and their Amazon Web Services technology segment. A spokesper­son said, ...Read More

Sales of print books continue to climb, with unit sales up 1.9% in 2017 over 2016, according to NPD Bookscan (which cap­tures an estimated 80-85% of total print sales): 687.2 million books were sold in every format, up from 674.1 million in 2016. Print sales have climbed every year since 2013, and are now 10.8% above that year’s numbers.

Most of the increase comes from bookstores and online retailers, which ...Read More

The YA/children’s literature community has been rocked by high-profile sexual harassment allegations in recent weeks. Late last year writer Anne Ursu con­ducted a survey of members of the community, asking about their experiences with sexual harassment, and recently published the results as “Sexual Harassment in the Children’s Book Industry“. Though the article did not name names, it prompted a number of people in the industry to discuss their experiences with ...Read More

Leading SF publisher Tor Books has announced significant changes to the publishing team. Fritz Foy, senior vice president of strategic technology at Macmillan and publisher of Tor.com, has been named president and publisher at Tom Doherty Associates. Tom Doherty says:

Fritz has had an impressive career in publishing, first at Simon & Schuster, and for the last 21 years at Macmillan. He has had roles in sales, marketing, operations, technology, ...Read More

Amazon is discontinuing its editorial, design, and marketing services for Createspace, their print self-publishing and distribution platform, “after a thorough review of our service offerings,” according to a spokesperson. They are cutting 58 jobs from their North Charleston SC office, most of them customer service positions. Createspace will otherwise continue as before.

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

HarperAudio, the audiobook division of HarperCollins, is launching a series of audiobooks on vinyl (alongside digital editions). The first title is Wild Horses Vinyl Edition by Joe Hill, narrated by Nate Corddry. Other vinyl releases planned include Lemony Snicket’s The Bad Beginning and Nikki Giovanni’s Love Poems. Titles will be distributed by indie record label Wax.

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

Amazon has launched an imprint of Amazon Publishing called Amazon Original Stories, publishing short fiction and non-fiction works meant to be read in a single sitting. They’ll be priced at $1.99 in the Kindle store, and free for Amazon Prime members. The first titles include The Sign of the Beast by Joyce Carol Oates (already available), and there are works scheduled by Dean Koontz and many others. The program seems ...Read More

Julia Rios is stepping down as reprint editor, poetry editor, and interviewer at Uncanny. Mimi Mondal will be poetry and reprint editor and Shana DuBois will be interviewer beginning with issue 19 (November/December 2017) .

For more information, see the official announcement at Uncanny. ...Read More