Archives for February 2025
ABA’s Hill On the “Values-Focused” Work, As “Amazon Owns the Playing Field”
ABA ceo Allison Hill reflects on her five years leading the organization, ahead of a commemoration of the ABA’s 125th anniversary at Winter Institute next week. Her focus has been to “transform ABA into a values-focused organization over the past 5 years. It’s always been a mission-driven organization, but we’ve worked really hard to define our values and focus our work, using those values as a North Star.” More broadly, she says: “The challenges booksellers have faced during my time in the industry have been a roller coaster. “It was, ‘oh no, e-books are coming,’ but now we’re in a […]
People 2/20
Hoopla Removes Summary Titles, AI-Generated Content
Hoopla is working to remove AI-generated books from its platform, which provides ebooks to libraries, 404 Media reports. According to an email the company sent to libraries, they have removed some publishers and authors that provide “poor-quality and/or poor-quality AI-generated content.” They also told librarians that they are removing all summary titles “with some exceptions” (like CliffNotes), updating their “collection development policy to ensure we adhere to and evolve with industry best practices,” and giving librarians the option of contacting Hoopla directly.
Forthcoming: Michael Wolff’s ALL OR NOTHING; Katherine Rundell’s THE POISONED KING
On February 25, Crown will publish Michael Wolff‘s ALL OR NOTHING: How Trump Recaptured America, which covers 18 months of Trump’s campaign for his second term. Vanity Fair has published an excerpt. SVP, publisher, and editor-in-chief Gillian Blake acquired and edited the book. This is the author’s fourth title about Donald Trump, but the first with Crown. FIRE AND FURY, SIEGE, and LANDSLIDE were published by Holt, as was THE FALL: The End of the Murdoch Empire. The Bridge Street Press remains Wolff’s publisher in the UK. Elsewhere, Knopf Children’s announced it is expanding Katherine Rundell’s bestselling book Impossible Creatures […]
Ask an Expert: Michael Barrs, VP, Associate Publisher of Little, Brown
Michael Barrs is VP, Associate Publisher of Little, Brown and Company. Prior to joining the group Michael held a variety of senior positions at Hachette Book Group and HarperCollins Publishers over the past twenty years at imprints that include William Morrow, It Books, Dey Street, Hachette Books, and Hachette Go. In addition to his role at HBG, Michael is an Adjunct Professor at the NYU School of Professional Studies. Can you tell us a bit about what an associate publisher does? Great question! The role certainly varies by house and imprint, but I tend to think of the position like […]