New Publisher Listing: Fidelis Books
firstwriter.com – Wednesday October 7, 2026
Publishes Christian nonfiction and fiction addressing the church and contemporary culture, with an emphasis on works exploring faith, belief, and modern societal issues.
UK publishers unite behind major campaign championing print
printweek.com – Monday October 5, 2026
Leading UK magazine publishers have joined forces to champion the enduring value of print, in a campaign launched today (5 October).
Coordinated by the Professional Publishers Association (PPA), the campaign brings together nine publishers under the banner ‘Magazines. In the World’s Best Interests.’
It marks the first time in a decade that rival publishers have come together behind a single campaign, with the intention to promote retail magazine sales.
Those involved include Bauer Media, Future, Hearst UK, Immediate, Condé Nast, Anthem, Story House Egmont, New Scientist and DC Thomson, which are jointly funding the industry-wide collaboration.
The key campaign message invites readers to reclaim time for the things they love, whether it be film, music, fashion or cars, making the link between enjoying uninterrupted time with one’s passion and with magazines, which bring people together around the topics they care about.
New Literary Agency Listing: Blueprint Literary
firstwriter.com – Monday October 5, 2026
Publishes diasporic Jewish literature, current Israeli and Arab-Israeli writing, and Palestinian voices, alongside literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, children's books, and serious commercial work. Reads complete children's manuscripts, fiction queries with the first 50 pages, and nonfiction proposals. Based in Tel Aviv and New York.
JK Rowling’s agent launches a new chapter for muted writers
jewishnews.co.uk – Saturday October 3, 2026
There are plenty of people in publishing who will privately admit that the industry has become increasingly nervous about what it publishes and who it is prepared to upset. Literary agent Neil Blair has spent several years watching that nervousness at close quarters and has now decided to do something about it.
Blair, best known as J.K. Rowling’s literary agent, was speaking at the official launch of High Line, the new independent publishing company he has founded to give a platform to original voices and ideas he believes are increasingly being overlooked by the mainstream.
“I felt for quite a while there was something not quite right in the publishing space,” he told the room. “I saw great authors or new authors and new voices struggling to get published, not because of the quality of their writing or a lack of original thinking, but because their perspectives didn’t conform with the increasingly narrowing views in mainstream publishing.”
For Blair, the warning signs had been there for some time, as of the most striking involved was his most famous client. When Rowling spoke publicly on gender issues over six years ago, she was preparing to publish a children’s book with Little, Brown.
“A good number of the predominantly young employees wrote a letter to the CEOs, demanding not only that Little, Brown didn’t publish the book, but they sacked her as a client,” Blair said. The company refused, but he regarded the episode as “chilling and significant”.
Brockhall author calls on local writers to get in touch after launching literary agency
northamptonchron.co.uk – Saturday October 3, 2026
A Brockhall author has left his ghost-writing job to launch his own literary agency.
Jon Malysiak recently left his position heading up the global publishing department at a ghost-writing company to launch his own literary agency, named JFM Literary and Editorial.
Jon is well-versed in the world of books, having written two novels of his own, ‘Posh’ and ‘Trash’, which are described as upmarket satire along the lines of Jackie Collins and Jilly Cooper. The third book in the series is set to be released next year.
He decided to open his own agency after ‘missing the thrill’ of seeing a book through from idea to the bookstore shelves.
He said: “I missed working with publishers and their teams and seeing a book through its journey from an idea to a finished copy. There's nothing like it!
“One of the things I love most about being a literary agent is building relationships with people from different walks of life who have inspiring and extraordinary stories to tell.
Who's Telling Your Story? The Framing Question Horror Writers Keep Getting Wrong
nofilmschool.com – Friday October 2, 2026
When you are writing a story, there are a few unspoken rules that you agree to. Namely, that you as author are positioning yourself as an observer of some kind (omniscient, most likely) retroactively sharing the events that you've "seen," fictional or not. In screenwriting, you almost put yourself in the audience's shoes to relate what they will see.
Sometimes you use what's known as a framing device to help you in your storytelling. A framing device is how a script answers who is telling the story, when, and why. It's a device that positions your storyteller more clearly, sometimes as a character.
In Interview with the Vampire, the framing device is that a vampire is telling his story to an interviewer. In The Princess Bride, the grandfather reads the story from a book that we can visualize as the movie. In The Grand Budapest Hotel, there are a couple of layers—a girl in a cemetery reads a book, and then we enter the book's author's point of view, who speaks with Zero Moustafa, whose perspective we're in for most of the film. (Whew.)
The point is, you can get creative. And the horror genre is one area where filmmakers get very creative. Most films never draw attention to these devices. The ones that do, through voiceover, a confession, or a camera someone forgot to turn off, are making a promise about how the story reached us.
New Publisher Listing: KiN-TXT
firstwriter.com – Friday October 2, 2026
A UK-based kinetic reading platform inviting direct manuscript submissions for the first book it will publish. New and experienced writers can apply without a literary agent, an existing publisher or previous publishing credits. The format presents writing over time, with pace, rhythm, emphasis, imagery and background audio. The first-book call advertises a 60% author royalty on book sales through the platform. Submission costs £10 or is free for Pro members. The current call closes on 31 December 2026. Manuscripts can be supplied through the online form as view-only links or as PDF, DOCX, DOC, RTF, TXT or EPUB uploads up to 50 MB. No manuscript word-count limit or cash prize is stated. Full publication and royalty terms should be confirmed before committing work. The platform also welcomes poetry, fiction, essays, columns and reportage through a contributor application form; contributor payment and rights terms are not specified publicly. Operated by a limited company.
KiN-TXT opens contributor and first-book submission calls
firstwriter.com – Thursday October 1, 2026
KiN-TXT, a kinetic reading platform, is inviting applications from writers for an ongoing contributor roster and submissions for the first book it will publish.
The contributor call welcomes poetry, short fiction, essays, columns, reviews, criticism and reportage, including work on sport, arts, fashion and travel. New and experienced writers can apply with a link to published work or a portfolio, or paste a sample into the Writers Wanted form. The sample does not need to be finished. Contributor payment and publication-rights terms are not specified on the public page; writers should contact hello@kin-txt.com for details before committing work.
Maidstone LitFest 2026: Sian Williams, Helen McGinn, Adele Parks plus children’s authors Onjali Q. Raúf and Harriet Muncaster
kentonline.co.uk – Thursday October 1, 2026
Murder mysteries, supernatural tales, bestselling fiction and children’s favourites are coming to Maidstone as its book festival returns for a fourth year.
Maidstone LitFest will run from Thursday, October 1 to Sunday, October 11, bringing authors, broadcasters and illustrators to venues across the town for talks, workshops and special events, including pne whole day dedicated entirely to children and teenagers.
Highlights include award-winning journalist and psychologist Sian Williams, wine expert Helen McGinn and bestselling thriller writers Adele Parks and Louise Candlish.
Publishing industry lays down AI rules to counter 'click-to-publish' books
koreatimes.co.kr – Wednesday September 30, 2026
One of South Korea’s two major publishing organizations has announced a set of principles for the use of artificial intelligence (AI), seeking to address mass-produced books created with AI, often referred to as “click-to-publish” books.
The Korea Publisher Society said the principles aim to ensure that books remain trusted in the AI era by clearly defining human responsibility and roles throughout the publishing process. The organization said it will use the establishment of the principles as a starting point for further efforts to improve systems protecting the rights of authors and publishers.
The Korea Publisher Society held a publishing and AI policy forum at Mapo Central Library in Seoul on Tuesday, where it unveiled the “Principles for the Use of AI by Publishers and Authors for Readers,” consisting of five chapters and 20 articles. Eleven organizations, including the Korea Publisher Society, the Writers Association of Korea and the Critics Alliance, participated in drafting the principles.
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