This year legal themes were almost all holdovers from the battles being fought in 2023. In one significant final chapter, the Association of American Publishers prevailed over the Internet Archive—again. In September, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the finding that held IA guilty of “wholesale and unauthorized copying” and the illegal files started coming down. That decision became final in December, as the deadline for IA to file a cert petition with the Supreme Court passed. The IA will now make an unspecified monetary judgment payment to the organization. Book bans were once again—and will likely continue to […]
Year End
Best Of: The New Yorker, WSJ, Apple, Kobo, And More
HBG to Encourage Pleasure Reading Among Kids in 2025
HBG and Hachette UK ceo David Shelley’s year-end letter focuses on concern over declines in pleasure reading by children. In response, “We’re launching a new venture next year which is relatively simple but hopefully will have some efficacy: Raising Readers, which is to include a page at the back of many of our black-and-white adult books, talking about the value of fostering a lifelong habit of reading for pleasure and tips on how to do so. Ideally, this letter would be signed by whoever created the book, either based on a template we’ll provide or in your own words.” He […]
Best of: Washington Post
Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year
The New Bestsellers of 2023
As always, backlist titles dominated the top-selling books of last year. Of the top 200 books on Circana Bookscan through December 23, 2023 (their week 51, so nearly final)—including paperbacks and new editions—142 were more than a year old, in line with the roughly 70 percent of all print unit sales comprised by backlist titles. Classics such as The Outsiders and 1984 and perennial kids favorites from Eric Carle and Sandra Boynton took their spots on the list, as did books with big media tie-ins (which have been bestsellers in their own right): Killers of the Flower Moon, Daisy Jones […]