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The Catapult Union has confirmed to PL that the publisher is being sold by owner and CEO Elizabeth Koch and operations will wind down on October 30. The sale includes the entire company, comprising the imprints Catapult, Counterpoint, Soft Skull, and Hawthorne Books. Formed in June, the union says the company “announced plans for a sale while the NLRB vote was ongoing.” The union writes that the sale includes the company’s assets only, and “continued employment with the prospective buyer is not an option.” The company has not yet responded to request for comment. The union writes in a statement: […]

Challenges with getting copies of Josh Silver’s Fruit Fly and Marlon James’s The Disappearers are just two examples of a supply chain stretched thin this fall. New US tariffs on goods from Canada including paper, higher fuel prices, and the closure of the Coral Graphics plant in New York have all made it harder for publishers to reprint to fill demand, and print books on time in order to hold their original publication dates. “The book manufacturing industry is experiencing elevated demand as publishers prepare for the fall season,” Book Manufacturers International executive director Matt Baehr said. “Recent changes in […]

Independent publisher Melville House has recapitalized thanks to a partnership with Illuminating Media LLC, which is headed by David Kelsey. Founders and publishers Valerie Merians and Dennis Johnson say the company will assist in an eventual succession plan. “I’m flattered that Dave recognizes the importance of what we’ve been doing,” Merians said in a release. “Dennis and I will be stepping back eventually and we’re looking forward to working with Dave on a leadership succession plan that will take the company into the future.” Merians, Johnson, and Kelsey will create an advisory board for the publisher, which will also include […]

After many authors highlighted incorrect claims filings from publishers in the Anthropic settlement, more issues have come to light, including claims by agents and apparent scammers. In a thorough rundown, Writer Beware lists several publishers that claimed 100 percent on works, rather than the default 50/50 split with the author. The Authors Guild posted guidance about the process, noting that some publishers say they claimed 100 percent in error. “Please note that certain publishers have informed the settlement administrator that they mistakenly selected a 100 percent allocation rather than the default option,” the AG writes. “The administrator is updating those publishers’ […]

Barack Obama will host a six-episode podcast on Audible about “the books that have profoundly shaped his worldview and our society.” In “A Great Book with Barack Obama,” the former president will be in conversation with to-be-announced guests. The show will debut on September 24 and each episode will be dedicated to a different book: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré. “Great books have always […]