After three months of negotiations and two weeks after announcing plans to resume labor negotiations, HarperCollins has reached a tentative agreement with its employee union, Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers.
When it was announced last week that Bertelsmann, the parent company of Penguin Random House (PRH), the largest book publisher in the U.S., was going to acquire the third largest, Simon & Schuster (S&S), to form a mega-press (PRHS&S?), the outcry was swift and plentiful.
The battle between Amazon and the Big Five publishers is complicated by the fact that neither "side" is exactly easy for authors and readers to be on. Read more
‘I usually go back a little bit and then move forward. The objective is that I want the reader to be transported. Writing is like a ride - you're getting into a spaceship and you're going somewhere where you're going to have an adventure. It takes you away from the moment that you're in and your real life... It's a strange thing when I start a book.
Stewart Collins says support for the Petworth literary festival in West Sussex is growing, and Kathryn Streatfield suggests local events are the solution for a changing festival world
Though a global pandemic darkened the early 2020s, four children's book imprints that launched soon before its onset are shining brightly as they mark their fifth anniversaries this year. Read more
Aside from the wonder of engaging with tons of stories and fiction across genres, listening to audiobooks also opens older adults up to communities both online and offline.
Available statistics on the UK talking books market vastly underplay its size, says Kelli Fairbrother, who calls for more investment and innovation in the sector.
National Literacy TrustUK-based organisation which has campaigned since 1993 to improve literacy standards across all age groups. Excellent research information and details of the many initiatives the charity is currently involved in. www.literacytrust.org.uk. It also has a useful page of news stories on UK literacy, which links to newsletter http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/TheLibrary.aspx finds only 35% of eight to 18-year-olds enjoy reading in their spare time, a sharp drop on last year to the lowest figure yet recorded
A recent Nielsen BookData and GfK Entertainment report on global book sales for the first eight months of the year shows "rising revenues in fiction, while sales of nonfiction books are declining in many regions. The TikTok community BookTok is playing an increasingly important role."
The largest book publisher in The Netherlands has confirmed it plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to translate some of its books into English, The Bookseller can exclusively reveal.