Sourcebooks has joined with the Penguin Random House North Asia office to create Callisto China. The new line will publish a selection of Callisto’s titles in the local language. When PRH acquired Callisto’s assets in May in a Sourcebooks-led deal, Sourcebooks ceo Dominique Raccah identified international expansion as a clear growth opportunity. She says in the announcement, “Callisto has developed an extraordinary line of books which have never had exposure to an international audience. This new collaborative partnership with PRH North Asia brings Callisto to the Chinese market in a really comprehensive way.” PRH North Asia already distributes Sourcebooks and […]
Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud On Generative AI
As we have noted recently, the various AI companies (and their backers) have dutifully filed comments with the US Copyright Office explaining why they believe training their systems on copyrighted work is fair use and “just math.” So it’s notable that vice president of audio at Stability AI Ed Newton-Rex left the company recently and made clear at the Cerebral Valley AI Summit he believes those arguments are wrong. (He oversaw their music creation product, Stability Audio.) He resigned “because I don’t agree with the company’s opinion that training generative AI models on copyrighted works is ‘fair use’.” As he […]
Big Opening for IRON FLAME
Despite the issues over misprints, Rebecca Yarros’s much-anticipated IRON FLAME sold approximately 585,000 hardcovers in its first week on sale at outlets tracked by Circana Bookscan. A new-release limited “special edition” of her earlier book, FOURTH WING, sold approximately 271,000 hardcovers, giving Yarros the top two positions on Bookscan’s charts. Meanwhile, as usual be wary of simplistic proclamations about the marketplace. Yarros lifted print sales for the week ending November 11 to 4 percent above the same week last year — and measured print sales have been ahead of the same weeks in 2022 for five of the last seven […]
NBA Nominee Bilal Explains Plans to Speak Out at National Book Awards Ceremony
Finalist for the NBA fiction award for TEMPLE FOLK Aaliyah Bilal indicated to the NYT in their story that followed ours “that a number of finalists planned to take the stage at the end of the [awards] ceremony” on Wednesday night “as one person reads the statement. In framing the call for a cease-fire, she said, she and other writers wanted to demonstrate their sensitivity to losses on all sides and intend to specifically denounce antisemitism.” Bilal says: “It was very important, as we were constructing it, that we were clear that we are sensitive to all of the antisemitism going […]
Shelley to Become CEO of Hachette Book Group, As Pietsch Retires and Becomes Chair and Mangan Retires
Michael Pietsch will retire from his role as CEO of Hachette Book Group and take on a new role as chairman, effective January 1, it was announced Tuesday. Pietsch will hold that new role for one year. Hachette UK CEO David Shelley becomes CEO for both Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK, part of a “new English language management structure” for HBG “to develop the longstanding excellent collaboration” between the US and UK companies. Richard Kitson will take the role of Deputy CEO of both HBG and HUK. Shelley will report to Hachette Livre’s Deputy CEO Stéphanie Ferran and chair […]
National Book Awards Prepare For Protest As Zibby Media Withdraws Sponsorship
At least one sponsor of tomorrow’s National Book Awards ceremony recently withdrew their support of the event. CEO of Zibby Media Zibby Owens provided PL with a lengthy statement and posted it Tuesday morning. Owens had written to NBF executive director Ruth Dickey earlier this week after hearing a report that nominees might be planning collective action at the ceremony. Owens reports she wrote in an email, “I am deeply troubled to learn that all the nominees of the National Book Awards this year have decided to collectively band together to use their speeches to promote a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli agenda. […]