Certified organic and AI-free: New stamp for human-written books launches
theguardian.com – Thursday October 16, 2025
As machine-made books flood online marketplaces, a new UK initiative is introducing an Organic Literature stamp to help readers identify books created by real authors
A new UK start-up is taking aim at the growing wave of AI-generated books, launching an initiative to verify and label human-written works.
Books By People has launched an “Organic Literature” certification, partnering with an initial group of independent publishing houses.
The scheme will involve Organic Literature stamps being placed on books written by humans, with only limited AI use permitted for tasks such as formatting or idea generation.
The start-up, founded by rare books specialist Esme Dennys along with Conrad Young and Gavin Johnston, said it plans to expand globally in 2026.
The first certified title will be Telenovela by Gonzalo C Garcia, publishing this November by Galley Beggar Press, one of the founding publishing partners. Other partners include Bluemoose Books, Snowbooks, Scorpius Books and Bedford Square Publishers.
The World’s Largest Publishers, 2025
publishersweekly.com – Thursday October 16, 2025
After a seven-year run, the RELX Group has given up its title as the world’s largest book publisher, displaced by Thomson Reuters. The Canadian-based legal and professional publisher had a solid 2024, with revenue rising 6%, to $6.43 billion. After a flat 2023, sales at RELX slipped slightly in 2024, falling about 1%, to $6.2 billion for the STM and legal publisher.
This year’s top 10 publisher list also includes a new addition, as McGraw Hill returns. The educational and professional publisher had been excluded for a number of years when its private equity owners refused to provide any financial data. But in July, MH returned to the public markets and according to its prospectus, the company had total sales in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025 of $2.10 billion, up 7% from fiscal 2024. The performance was good enough to put the publisher in seventh place on the ranking.
New Magazine Listing: The Lincoln Review
firstwriter.com – Thursday October 16, 2025
Welcomes original, unpublished work from both established and emerging contributors, with a particular interest in voices from marginalised and underrepresented communities including BAME, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, and disabled creatives. Submissions are invited annually between 1 September and 1 March and may include flash fiction, essays, creative nonfiction (each up to 2000 words), poetry (up to four poems), comics (up to seven pages), and portfolios of art or photography (up to six pieces). Book reviews and interviews are considered by prior query. Simultaneous submissions are accepted with notification upon acceptance elsewhere. Current students and staff of the university are ineligible, and alumni or former employees must observe a three-year embargo before submitting.
The inaugural Romance Writing Festival in Bournemouth
greatbritishlife.co.uk – Wednesday October 15, 2025
Dominic Wong, director of the Bournemouth Writing Festival, reveals the authors launching their books at the inaugural Romance Writing Festival in Bournemouth this month
Romance Writing Festival
Sunday Times bestselling authors Milly Johnson and Paige Toon will headline the inaugural Romance Writing Festival, taking place in Bournemouth on October 18. They join fellow Sunday Times bestseller Katie Fforde on an impressive programme featuring award-winning authors, editors, literary agents, and publishers.
This one-day event is dedicated to romance writing, offering a mix of panel discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities. Attendees can also book one-to-one sessions with agents and editors or take part in free activities designed to inspire writers at all stages of their journey.
Why trauma writers lie to us – The market wants uncomplicated stories
unherd.com – Tuesday October 14, 2025
As a longtime teacher of memoir writing who closely observes trends in the genre, I’ve recently been thinking of an episode involving a student I worked with in the late 2010s. “F.” had studied with me over several years. At one point, she took a long absence, confiding in me that she’d unearthed some childhood trauma and was taking the time to address it. Eventually, she sent me an essay she’d written during her leave. In it, F. described herself as a child in the care of indifferent adults who had been coerced into sexual acts with persons known to her. The essay contained disturbing details, cutting dialogue, and careful scene work. Overall, it was gripping, horrific — a good story, in narrative terms.
But I didn’t believe it at all. At most, I’d give it a 2% chance of being true.
I didn’t believe this student’s story was true because I’d read it before. A year or two earlier, a student in a workshop — a class in which F. was also enrolled — had written a nearly identical account of her own childhood assault. Her story was profoundly disturbing, a difficult story to get out of my mind. I wasn’t surprised it had affected F. in that way, too. But this was bizarre: F. had coopted her classmate’s story, one she knew I’d read, and claimed it as her own.
New Publisher Listing: Stanley/Barker
firstwriter.com – Tuesday October 14, 2025
Founded in London in 2014 with the intention of bringing a considered list of beautiful photobooks of substance and depth into the world. Each book is produced with the utmost care and craftsmanship by a host of renowned artisans: from designers, typographers, and illustrators to binders and printers all collaborating to actualise an artist's individual vision.
Get Creative: On writing a TV show - where do ideas come from?
rte.ie – Monday October 13, 2025
Ever dreamed of writing a TV show but didn't know where to start? Now's the perfect time to pick up your pen (or keyboard) and dive in - no experience needed, just your imagination.
In a new series, screenwriter Ray Lawlor - creator of RTÉ's popular black comedy series Obituary - offers some tips for the budding TV writer...
Like it or not, the job of a screenwriter is to relentlessly come up with one great idea after another. Ideas that inspire people to invest millions, and crews to work terrible hours. So: where do those ideas come from? And how do you take something summed up in a pithy single line and transform it into six hours of television?
Over the following series of articles, I'll use my own series Obituary (returning for a second season on RTÉ One on October 14th) to guide you through the process of creating a TV show, from initial spark to complete series.
When I first set out to write a TV show, I studied the best series around and asked what they had in common. The Sopranos, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad quickly stood out. I realised these shows were built around the jobs of their main characters: Tony Soprano was a mob boss, Don Draper an ad man, and Walter White made meth.
New Romance Novels Are Transforming the Publishing Industry
goethe.de – Wednesday October 8, 2025
The New Adult genre is not only filling bookstores and topping bestseller lists – it’s transforming the publishing industry. Long dismissed as “light reading”, these novels are shaking up publishers and book fairs – and forcing literary critics to reevaluate popular fiction.
The shifting dynamics of Germany’s publishing industry are on full display at Frankfurter Buchmesse. As soon as the doors of the world’s largest book fair open, crowds flock to Lyx’s glittering, pastel-hued booth. The New Adult imprint of publishing house Bastei Lübbe has become home to the country’s most successful authors in this flourishing genre, including Mona Kasten, Laura Kneidl and Anabelle Stehl.
Enemies to Lovers
Last year, the “safe space for everyone who loves reading” even set an international record when the TV adaptation of Mona Kasten’s Maxton Hall became the most-streamed non-American series Amazon has ever produced. Set not in Germany but at an elite British boarding school, this coming-of-age story embodies the “dark academia” aesthetic popularised on social media. Here, ambitious, kind-hearted Ruby Bell, who comes from a humble background, meets privileged heir James Beaufort. Their initial rivalry soon blossoms into a passionate romance. It’s a familiar storytelling pattern – or trope: enemies to lovers, foes who gradually fall for each other.
Baker & Taylor Prepares Plan to Shut Down
publishersweekly.com – Wednesday October 8, 2025
At a town hall meeting yesterday, Baker & Taylor owner and CEO Aman Kochar said that while he had hoped to find another way forward for the company after its acquisition deal with ReaderLink was called off, he now does not see a sustainable path to keep the library wholesaler in business.
As a result, B&T let go about 520 employees yesterday and plans to wind down the business by January. Employees who were laid off had their severance plans canceled as well. B&T had undergone some layoffs earlier this year, but recently had as many as 1,500 full-time and part-time employees.
A story in the Shaw Local, a business journal for Northern Illinois, said that of the 318 employees in the B&T distribution center in Momence, IL., 253 were let go on October 6. Sixty-two employees will remain until December 22 and a “post–wind down” group of three employees will be let go on Jan. 3.
Princeton University Press acquires Island Press
press.princeton.edu – Wednesday October 8, 2025
Princeton University Press (PUP) and Island Press are thrilled to announce that Island Press will become an imprint of PUP, effective January 1, 2026. The unification of these two mission-driven, nonprofit publishers will support the future sustainability of Island Press’s esteemed list as well as their founding ethos that “knowledge is power.”
PUP will assume all publishing and rights responsibility for Island Press publications, including its distinguished backlist and its current and future publishing program of titles, which focus on ecosystems, conservation, and biodiversity; food systems, water, and health; and the built environment. Island Press’s commitment to “elevate voices of change, shine a spotlight on crucial issues, and focus attention on sustainable solutions” will remain integral to its identity as a PUP imprint. PUP will begin marketing and publicizing Island Press titles in January, with the vendor of record changeover April 1.
Princeton University Press Director Christie Henry comments, “Island Press has since its origin been an inspiration in catalyzing change with knowledge. Island Press books have influenced policy, informed global public debate, and empowered individuals and organizations to take action toward a more sustainable, healthier future. Princeton University Press is incredibly grateful and excited to now be a part of that future, and to unite the missions of PUP and Island Press in symbiotic support of the ongoing resilience of ecosystems of knowledge.”
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