News

Lakeside Book Company indicated in a WARN notice to the state of Wisconsin that it will “permanently close its print production facility” in Menasha, WI, “due to changing market conditions.” As a result they will terminate all 339 employees at the plant, starting June 7 and ending June 21, when it will close. “Each employee impacted will receive a written 60-day notice of position elimination and will be paid all earned wages and agreed upon benefits at the time of their termination.” That work force was already reduced in 2023 through both voluntary and mandatory layoffs. General counsel and chief […]

Independent Publishers Group has partnered with Books International to launch a new hardcover short run digital printing program at a lower price point. They write in a release, “The cost of the average black and white, 200-page, 6 x 9 casebound title with foil stamping and dust jacket is now deep into the single digits per copy and may approach half the price of what many are used to seeing in the marketplace. If all that is needed is case laminate, the price drop is even more pronounced.” The program debuts at the end of March. David Hetherington, Books International’s […]

The Hawthornden Foundation is sponsoring two capacity-building grant programs for literary nonprofits in partnership with the National Book Foundation and the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses. On Monday, both organizations announced individual one-year programs that will distribute $5,000 and $10,000 grants. The NBF writes in a release that the grants will “support projects that aim to create a sustainable and effective organization in the areas of fundraising, finance, or marketing; skill-building opportunities for staff and/or Board members; strategic planning consultants; diversity and equity initiatives; leadership development and management training; sabbaticals for long-term staff members and leaders; and succession planning.” […]

Protesters with the group Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG) disrupted a PEN America event in Los Angeles on the evening of January 31, resulting in the writer Randa Jarrar being physically removed. Videos on Twitter show footage of the protest, which involved playing audio recordings of names of Palestinian writers killed in Gaza since October 7, and of Jarrar’s removal. The protest was about the participation of actor and Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik, who was speaking to comedian Moshe Kasher about his new memoir Subculture Vulture as part of the PEN Out Loud series. Bialik has been vocal […]

Simon & Schuster will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2024 with an event on April 8 at Town Hall in NYC, featuring more than 30 S&S authors, including Judy Blume, Sandra Boynton, Ray Dalio, Anthony Doerr, Angela Duckworth, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Jennifer Egan, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Sanjay Gupta, Zakiya Dalila Harris, John Irving, Walter Isaacson, Susan Orlean, Jason Reynolds, Safiya Sinclair, Brad Thor, Colm Tóibín, Jeannette Walls, Jesmyn Ward, and Bob Woodward. The company also announced The Simon & Schuster 100, “titles from our history that are believed to best represent the breadth and depth of the company’s publishing program, […]

We often get asked who in publishing is doing interesting things and where to find innovation of note and often there are not a lot of great answers. Last year was unusual, however, in that a lot interesting things happened and there’s been very little attention paid — so we thought it was worth a quick review to underscore some of these potentially powerful new ideas at work in the marketplace. Two of the hottest imprints came from outside the mainstream of big five publishing. Sourcebooks’ Bloom Books imprint was on track to register close to $100 million in gross […]