As a number of state legislatures work on unconstitutional bills to dictate terms of licensing ebooks to libraries—instead of simply funding their popular libraries to keep up with inflation and citizens’ needs—a coalition has formed to Protect the Creative Economy. Coalition members include the ABA, the AAP, the Authors Guild and the IPBA, plus Copyright Alliance, News Media Alliance and NMPA.
Archives for March 2023
Call for Fall/Winter Season Preview Listings
Our forthcoming Buzz Books 2023: Fall/Winter sampler will include, as usual, extensive seasonal preview listings of notable titles on the way. We compile these big roundups by looking at publisher catalogs; our own comprehensive monthly lists of significant forthcoming books; hints from our substantial flow of deal reports; aggregation of “anticipated books” lists from other publications; word-of-mouth within the industry; and more. If you have notable fall/winter titles you would like to have considered for the preview list — particularly ones you are concerned we might have missed from the regular signals, along with drop-ins and rescheduled releases — now is […]
People 3/14
At the Washington Post, Sophia Nguyen is joining Book World as news and features writer, "reporting on developments in the literary field," starting March 20. She moves over from the National Politics desk, where she was an assistant editor. Becca Rothfield joins as the paper's nonfiction book critic starting April 10. Her work has appeared regularly in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the New York Times, Bookforum, the New York Review of Books and elsewhere.
International Booker Longlist
The 13-title longlist for the International Booker Prize has been announced. The shortlist will be released on April 18 and the winner will be announced on May 23.
New Strategy: Vivendi Will Sell Editis Outright
Vivendi announced it is abandoning its plan to spin off publishing company Editis into an independent, publicly traded company, and instead they are negotiating to sell the division outright. Vivendi “received several offers for the sale of 100 percent of the shares of Editis,” and has “decided to enter into exclusive negotiations” with International Media Invest (IMI), a subsidiary of billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s Czech Media Invest (which owns a number of prominent French magazines). Kretinsky’s portfolio also includes stakes in the newspaper Le Monde and the TV group TF1. The sale of Editis is designed to win approval from regulators […]
Obituary: Pat Schroeder
Former Congresswoman and longtime president and CEO of the AAP Patricia Schroeder, 82, died in Florida of complications from a stroke. The NYT calls her “a trailblazing feminist legislator who helped redefine the role of women in American politics and used her wit to combat egregious sexism in Congress.” Current AAP ceo Maria Pallante comments: “As many will write, Pat Schroeder was a principled and pioneering Member of Congress, where she used her ferocious legal chops, wit, and skill to advance issues that were often called women’s issues but were really about families or fighter pilots. The American publishing community […]