• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

Relief Given, and Still Needed

April 10, 2020
By Erin Somers

First Book says its Covid-19 Action Response has shipped 1.3 million books and distributed digital access codes for more than 2 million children, all donated by publishers and related organizations. CEO Kyle Zimmer, president, CEO and co-founder of First Book. “These books are so meaningful. They super-charge learning for kids in need, who are particularly vulnerable right now—when schools closed, these kids lost a place that was not only providing education, but so many different forms of critical support…. Not a day goes by that we aren’t grateful to our publishers.”

Coffee House Press will commission original, short, digital works from writers and booksellers who have been financially impacted by COVID-19. The Coffee House Writers Project, is accepting donations to help pay contributors. They write on the website, “We want to put money in these writers’ hands as quickly as possible, and we are committed to writing checks at the time of commission.”

In the UK, Arts Council England donated £400,000 to the SoA Authors’ Emergency Fund. The fund has been set up to support writers affected by COVID-19.

In Canada, the Access Copyright Foundation donated $100,000 donation to expand the Canadian Writers’ Emergency Relief Fund.

Bookselling
Among those still in need, San Francisco’s City Lights Booksellers and Publishers, founded in 1953 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, started a GoFundMe campaign to raise the $300,000 needed to stay open. The store has been closed to the public since March 16, and is not taking online orders because they want to their staff to remain at home. Elaine Katzenberger, publisher and ceo of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, wrote on the fundraising page, “With no way to generate income, our cash reserves are quickly dwindling, with bills coming due and with a primary commitment to our staff, who we sent home with full pay and healthcare, and who we hope to keep as healthy and financially secure as possible.” In the first day of fundraising, the store raised almost $125,000.

Filed Under: Bookstores, Crisis reference, Free

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Solid State Books Workers Announce Plans to Unionize March 28, 2023 Union website
  • Following Sale, America's Test Kitchen Lays Off 23 Employees, Including All of ATK Kids Staff March 28, 2023 Union instagram post
  • Acquire and Fire: Hachette UK In Consultations to Eliminate About Half the Staff of Welbeck March 28, 2023 Bookseller
  • Jefferson, de Kretser Win Folio Prizes March 27, 2023 Prize announcement
  • Harper UK Edits Agatha Christie Novels to Remove "Offensive" Language March 27, 2023 The Guardian
  • NYU Launches Five-Day "Advanced Publishing Institute" Program for January 2024 March 25, 2023 NYU site
  • Hachette UK to Publish "Spare Us!" Parody on April 6 March 23, 2023 Publisher site
  • Netflix to Stream Series Based on Ramit Sethi's Book, "How to Get Rich" March 23, 2023 THR
  • James Patterson Signs First-Look Development Deal with Skydance Television March 22, 2023 Deadline
  • "I find it kind of stunning that the [Internet] Archive would put its entire free service at risk over such an obviously wrong stand" March 21, 2023 Dan Kennedy / Media Nation
© 2023 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.