Newly released documents in the Kadrey v. Meta copyright infringement suit state that the tech giant reached out to publishers to license books for AI training, but ultimately “paused” that effort. In a deposition, director of business development, AI partnerships Sy Choudhury said that in early 2023 Meta looked into licensing “fiction book data, scientific textbook data, normal textbook data, images, videos” but the work to license “fiction books, nonfiction books, and coding” was stopped in April 2023. In another deposition, Alexander Boesenberg, who works in business development and AI partnerships, said, “We got to a point where we decided […]
Archives for February 2025
Forthcoming: David McCullough’s ‘History Matters’
Simon & Schuster will publish a posthumous essay collection by Pulitzer and National Book Award winner David McCullough called HISTORY MATTERS on September 16. Many of the essays are previously unpublished and address “the importance of history, especially our shared history as Americans.” The book features a forward by Jon Meacham and is edited by McCullough’s daughter Dorie McCullough Lawson and his longtime researcher Michael Hill. Jonathan Karp acquired world rights from Anne Sibbald at Janklow & Nesbit, with Bob Bender, executive editor emeritus, editing.
B&N To Close Stationery Warehouse
Barnes & Noble will close a Paper Source warehouse in Forest Park, IL on April 1, eliminating 107 jobs, NBC Chicago reports. The lease on the warehouse expires at the beginning of 2026. “We have to vacate and have started the process with all our employees about the closure.” B&N senior director of store planning and design Janine Flanigan said. “As a retailer whose business is especially concentrated in the holiday period, we have to make the move in the summer to be able to meet the seasonality of the year-end.” The bookstore chain bought the stationery retailer out of […]
Imprints: Swift Water Books, Tilted Axis
Penguin Random House Canada’s Tundra Book Group is launching a new children’s imprint called Swift Water Books, publishing titles across picture books, graphic novels, middle grade and young adult fiction, and more. Led by author David A. Robertson, who is a member of Norway House Cree Nation, Swift Water will feature “the work of emerging Indigenous talent alongside established and celebrated Indigenous voices.” The imprint is named in honor of Robertson’s father. “He used to call the rivers around his ancestral home Swift Water,” says Robertson in a release. First titles will appear in spring 2026 and will include HERE […]
Oprah’s Book Club
Jon Yaged, Sarah Jessica Parker to Receive PEN America Awards
Sarah Jessica Parker will receive PEN America’s Literary Service Award, given to “a writer or advocate who has served the literary community through their words or work,” the AP reports. PEN co-ceo Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf said in a statement, “We are now at a crisis point with books by underrepresented writers being pulled from school libraries and classrooms. Sarah Jessica Parker is pushing back against these bans as an indispensable defender of the freedom to read and by shining a light on exceptional new voices of American contemporary literature through her publishing imprint SJP Lit.” Macmillan ceo Jon Yaged will […]