News

The Little Golden Book Biography of Taylor Swift by Wendy Loggia–the second bestselling backlist title for Penguin Random House last quarter–will be rereleased on November 5 with a new cover and 22 more pages of material, Today reports. The new pages will include additional information about Swift’s life and Eras tour, as well as coloring and activity pages. The book has sold over two million copies since publication in May 2023, according to a Random House Children’s press release. Circana Bookscan has recorded print sales of approximately 1.056 million copies. The revision comes as publishing enters its Taylor Swift era. […]

Independent digital publisher TouchPoint Press has shut down, according to a letter from publisher Sheri Williams shared by Writer Beware. They note she had been “under pressure from authors, staff, the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office” and the Authors Guild. Williams writes that she has met with Authors Guild attorneys since last November when she was hospitalized for mental health issues, who urged her to close the publisher, “but I was determined to keep going telling myself that hard work would get us back where we need to be.” She writes that she has filed a claim with her business insurance […]

Colleen Hoover’s IT ENDS WITH US has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide in print, audio, and ebook, Atria announced. Since the film adaptation came out in August, it has sold more than 800,000 print units in the US. Atria reports that they have sold more than 32 million copies of Hoover’s books in all formats. IT ENDS WITH US sold approximately 36,000 print copies in its first year of publication, issued in 2016.

OverDrive and Amazon have begun limiting summary titles from their online catalogs, similar to a recent move we reported recently by Barnes & Noble. These titles, which are based on existing popular books, have long frustrated authors and publishers because they are confusing to consumers who think they are purchasing the original work (and bring up legal questions around fair use). According to OverDrive, suppliers have been notified that approximately 30,000 books have been removed from the platform. “OverDrive decided to remove the summary books based on salability of the materials and customer feedback that this is not a category […]

The Black List, which since 2005 has been a go-to for producers to find unproduced screenplays, is expanding into book publishing. The goal is for authors and agents—as well as the existing film and TV professionals—to be able to find quality work from unpublished novelists. “Our mission has always been to increase access and visibility for writers and help industry members discover great writing, so it’s a no-brainer that we would one day expand into the world of fiction,” their site notes. “With this expansion, we hope to make fiction writing more visible and connect the film, television, and publishing […]

On Friday morning, St. Martin’s posted a statement on Twitter “about who we are and what we stand for,” apparently in response to a marketing boycott of their brands by a group of influencers called Readers 4 Accountability. They write: “The St. Martin’s Publishing Group is committed to publishing a wide variety of books from many viewpoints and perspectives. We condemn racism in all forms, including Islamophobia and antisemitism. This is a value of our company, and one that we hold ourselves accountable to every day. “We want authors, readers, media professionals, social media influencers, booksellers, librarians, and employees to feel […]