HarperCollins Completes Purchase of HMH Trade
publishersweekly.com – Tuesday May 11, 2021
HarperCollins, the second largest trade publisher in the U.S., has completed its acquisition of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media. HC, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, agreed to buy the HMH trade division in March for $349 million.
In a letter to employees, HC CEO Brian Murray acknowledged that "many" decisions need to be made over the coming months surrounding the acquisition. Still, he noted that he has outlined an initial, temporary organizational plan that will be kept in place until a new, permanent structure has been conceived.
Town & Country UK magazine to close as publisher Hearst slashes jobs
cityam.com – Tuesday May 11, 2021
Town & Country UK magazine is set to fold as part of cost-cutting operation at publisher Hearst that will see up to a fifth of UK staff made redundant.
The luxury title, the British version of which was first published in 2014, is set to be scrapped as the company adapts to a decline in print media consumption.
The proposed move will also mean up to one in five UK staff face redundancy or will have their roles pooled. It is understood employees will be offered enhanced redundancy packages.
Hearst, whose UK titles include Cosmopolitan, Elle, Men’s Health and Good Housekeeping, has so far weathered the pandemic without making job cuts or using the furlough scheme.
Douglas Murray criticises transphobia letter, slamming 'left-wing bubble' of publishing
thebookseller.com – Monday May 10, 2021
Author Douglas Murray has criticised an open letter published in The Bookseller, which claimed UK book publishing is transphobic.
In the article for Unherd, a digital magazine which aims “to push back against the herd mentality with new and bold thinking”, Murray generally lamented the left-wing presence in UK publishing as well as criticising the letter urging acceptance of transgender rights published on 3rd May.
Murray's article, entitled "Publishing is now a Left-wing bubble", cited a US study comparing professions with voting preferences which showed 100% of those in publishing were left-wing. Murray, author of The Madness of Crowds (Bloomsbury) and associate editor of the Spectator, wrote: “To those with friends in publishing, despairing at the regular struggle session-style get-together they are now subjected to in which every conceivable centre-left political orthodoxy is celebrated, this is not a revelation. Although the survey in question is from the US, it is certain that a similar pattern can be found over here, too.”
GoodNovel hosts series of writing contests to strengthen author's creative welfare
prnewswire.com – Saturday May 8, 2021
GoodNovel, an international platform focusing on the creation of original online novels, has launched two writing contests – The Blessed Wolf and The CEO and Me – to celebrate its first anniversary. The two contests run till August and September, 2021 respectively and reach over 5 million readerships on the platform prospectively, with total prizes add up to over 40,000 dollars.
GoodNovel attracts readers from over 100 countries and authors from more than 50 countries. They are producing and consuming online stories in languages including English, French, Indonesian, Filipino, and Russian. Officially launched in April 2020, GoodNovel is featured as one of the Top3 reading Apps on Appstore and Google Play store ranked by grossing.
In the past year, GoodNovel has successfully held several writing contests on diversified topics, receiving thousands of works from online writing talents around the world, among which winning works received customized promotion and extra exposure. Correspondingly, winning stories gained great reputation for their edge over other novels and the authors also benefited greatly from their works.
Nosy Crow, the ONLY book publisher ever to win TWO Queen's Awards for Enterprise for International Trade
prnewswire.co.uk – Thursday April 29, 2021
Nosy Crow, the UK's fastest-growing independent children's publisher, today celebrates a second consecutive Queen's Award for Enterprise for International Trade, the most prestigious business award in the UK.
It is the only book publisher ever to win a second award and the only publisher to have won one in the last 10 years.
Nosy Crow is one of 205 organisations nationally to be recognised with a prestigious Queen's Award this year and, within that, one of 122 recognised for its excellence in International Trade.
Employing 56 people, Nosy Crow is a multi-award-winning publisher of child-focused, parent-friendly children's books and eBooks for ages 0–12. It began publishing in 2011 and celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
Felicity Bryan Publishing Mentorship Scheme launched
thebookseller.com – Tuesday April 27, 2021
The Felicity Bryan Publishing Mentorship Scheme has been launched, created in honour of the renowned literary agent who died in June 2020.
An annual paid three-month mentorship programme, the scheme is aimed at anyone from an underrepresented background who is interested in pursuing a career in the publishing industry.
The mentee will be paid the Oxford Living Wage for the duration of the mentorship and there will be a stipend available to cover the cost of accommodation. The scheme is supported by Bryan's family, and “reflects her own energetic nurturing of talent and potential in young people starting out on their careers”.
UK book sales soared in 2020 despite pandemic
theguardian.com – Tuesday April 27, 2021
Fiction sales in 2020 soared by more than £100m for UK publishers, as readers locked down at home made their escape into books, with audiobook sales also climbing by more than a third.
New figures from the Publishers Association show that fiction sales for UK publishers rose by 16% from £571m to £688m in 2020, with key titles cited for the rise including Maggie O’Farrell’s Women’s prize-winner Hamnet, Douglas Stuart’s Booker-winner Shuggie Bain, Richard Osman’s cosy crime novel The Thursday Murder Club, Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other, and Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing. The bestselling title of last year was Charlie Mackesy’s philosophical picture book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.
Fast-Growing Independent Publishers, 2021
publishersweekly.com – Sunday April 25, 2021
Launched in 2013 to publish digital editions of out-of-print genre fiction from the 1960s and ’70s, Las Vegas’s Wolfpack Publishing reports that while revenue growth was steady in its first five years, its strongest growth was between 2018 and 2020. In this period, 90% of Wolfpack’s sales were books in digital formats. The company does things its own way, releasing titles weekly, president and CEO Mike Bray says, rather than seasonally. “We publish four to eight titles a week, both fresh stuff and reissues.”
Though Wolfpack’s list focuses on westerns, it has been supplementing its offerings with adventure, mystery, and historical fiction releases. And series are an essential component in its business model, publisher Rachel Del Grosso says, explaining, “When we are approached by any author or agent, the first thing we’re looking at is how many titles the author is bringing to the table. We invest in an author, not a single book.”
Revolutionary New Writing School May Signal the Death of the Traditional MFA Writing Program
prnewswire.com – Tuesday April 20, 2021
SAN FRANCISCO, April 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bay Area Writer and former Marin County Poet Laureate Albert Flynn DeSilver, Founder of Brilliant Writer, LLC, today announced the opening of his innovative new writing program. The Mindful Authors Accelerator goes beyond conventional MFA writing programs to offer practical tools for project completion, a supportive community, and lifetime access to the community and course materials.
"Many writers have told me how frustrated they were by academic classes or one-off writing seminars that inspired them but didn't help them finish that novel or memoir they've been burning to write," DeSilver said. "And most didn't have $40,000 or more to spend on an educational offering."
Literary Scammers are the Weirdest Scammers
insidehook.com – Tuesday April 20, 2021
Late last year, The New York Times recounted the tale of an odd case of impersonation. The article, written by Elizabeth A. Harris and Nicole Perlroth, recounted “a mysterious international phishing scam that has been tricking writers, editors, agents and anyone in their orbit into sharing unpublished book manuscripts.” Weird, right? Well, an even stranger scam has come to light in the literary world — though this one looks to be a bit more financially lucrative for whomever pulled it off.
Someone has been impersonating prize-winning writers in an effort to claim their winnings for themselves. And in a few cases, it’s worked.
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