Breaking news on authors, publishers, and book-related topics

Waterstones, leading UK bookstore chain, comes "back from the dead"

Feb 06 2017: The Guardian reports on how Waterstones, the UK's leading chain of bookstores "came back from the dead... with a mixture of tough love and an unshakeable belief in the power of the physical book."

A radical move was to no longer do business through sales reps and no...

Full Story

George Orwell's dystopian classic "1984" tops the USA bestseller charts less than two weeks into the Trump presidency.

Feb 02 2017: George Orwell's dystopian classic 1984 is the #1 selling book in the USA following the first week and a half of the presidency of Donald J. Trump.

Sales of other dystopian classics are also up considerably such as Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," which has ...

Full Story

Sebastian Barry wins Costa Book of the Year with "Days Without End"

Feb 01 2017: Sebastian Barry's Days Without End has won the overall Costa Award: Book of The Year. The judges called it, "A miracle of a book - both epic and intimate - that manages to create spaces for love and safety in the noise and chaos of history." It's Barry's second Costa ...

Full Story

New York Times eliminating a number of bestseller lists

Jan 27 2017: Publishers reacted with a mixture of dismay, confusion and surprise at the announcement from the New York Times that it will eliminate a number of its print and online bestseller lists, effective February 5.

Although it is still unclear exactly which lists have been ...

Full Story

Four movies based on books nominated for best picture Oscar

Jan 25 2017: Four of the nine best picture nominations for this year's Academy Awards, which will be presented February 26, are based on books:

• Lion, adapted from Saroo Brierley's memoir A Long Way Home
• Arrival, based on Ted Chiang's short story, "Story of Your Life"
...

Full Story

Ebook sales fall 16% year on year

Jan 24 2017: Unit sales of ebooks were down 16% in 2016 compared to 2015 according to recently released figures from Nielsen. Possible contributing factors include rising prices since (the typical price for an ebook from one of the "big 5" publishers is now about $8 per book) and ...

Full Story

Kelly Barnhill wins Newbery

Jan 23 2017: The American Library Association (ALA) today announced their annual awards for the top books, video and audio books for children and young adults - including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery and Printz awards - at its Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

...

Full Story

Author sued for publishing unauthorized children's versions of classic works

Jan 20 2017: Fredrik Colting, who was sued by J. D. Salinger’s estate several years ago for publishing an unauthorized sequel to "The Catcher in the Rye," is now being sued by four literary estates, representing Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Kerouac, Truman Capote and Ernest Hemingway. In ...

Full Story