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.
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.
Obituary: Edite Kroll
publishersweekly.com – Tuesday September 29, 2026
Literary agent Edite Kroll, known for her passion for mentoring and supporting authors, and her keen eye for talent, died at her home in Maine following a long illness. She was 87.
Kroll was born in Blasheim, Germany, in 1939 and was educated in Germany, France, and England. In the early 1960s, she was working in foreign and subsidiary rights and editing children’s books at London publisher Chatto & Windus, which was then home to revered authors and editors Leonard Woolf and Cecil Day-Lewis. It was at there that she met American editor and eventual children’s book author Steven Kroll, whom she married in 1964. (The couple later divorced.)
The Krolls relocated to New York City in 1965 and Edite landed a position as associate children’s book editor at Knopf. She then transitioned to the same role at Holt, Rinehart and Winston, before she and her husband both left Holt and moved to Maine, where Edite embarked on a freelance editorial career that included translating German children’s books into English.
By 1973, back in New York, Kroll joined publishing house M. Evans as a children’s book editor. The following year she moved to Harper Junior Books as associate children’s book editor, and in 1976 she was appointed executive assistant to Charlotte Zolotow, then associate publisher of the division. Kroll later represented Zolotow and her daughter Crescent Dragonwagon as author clients for many years.
Quest is a highly designed sci-fi and fantasy magazine built for web fiction
itsnicethat.com – Monday September 28, 2026
Every story gets its own typeface, artwork and visual world, with gaming-inspired navigation, sound and video bringing each piece to life online.
One of the best things about alternative literature is that it really originated online, and with it, ushered in a new world of blog writing, GeoCities prose and intertextual genre writing that would’ve previously been rare finds in niche magazines. Those magazines are now largely online, just take a look at Tractor Beam, a “soilpunk” magazine, Elastic, made for art and literature surrounding the new psychedelic. And today, we are looking at Quest, for boundary-pushing sci-fi and fantasy writing – created by founders Ross Gendels, associate creative director at Base Design in New York and Zane Miller, a freelance creative director and writer. To say Quest has a strong visual idea for itself would be an understatement; this isn’t just made by people passionate about reading genre fiction, but about accommodating it with a platform that feels like an extension of its prose.
Issue 2 launched in August 2026 with nine fiction stories, an essay, a dispatch, 11 artists and 11 typefaces used across the site. Quest received 1,154 submissions – double its first issue – and is funded entirely by readers and subscribers who believe writers and artists should be paid properly for their work. It’s also a space for readers to explore and for contributors to experiment. Using sci-fi and fantasy as a filter to examine society, culture and politics, every piece of writing is paired with commissioned artwork and set in its own typeface, both chosen to extend the world of that specific text. Oh, and it’s totally free (and anyone can subscribe on Patreon or join the Discord without a paid membership).
Profile Books completes sale of 2000AD publisher Rebellion’s SFF and horror imprint, Solaris
downthetubes.net – Sunday September 27, 2026
Profile Books has completed its acquisition of the SFF and horror imprint Solaris from 2000AD publisher Rebellion Publishing first announced back in June, for an undisclosed sum, taking over all turnover and e-book distribution.
Founded in 2007, Solaris was acquired by Rebellion in 2009, growing to publish 30 to 35 titles per year, with a focus on commercial genre fiction. New titles range from speculative fiction to mysterious folklore, supernatural horror and explosive space opera, offering something for every genre-loving reader.
Published authors include Katherine Addison (in the UK and Commonwealth), fantasy author and fashion historian Natania Barron, Vajra Chandrasekera, C.S.E. Cooney, R.T. Ester (author of The Ganymedan), Corry L. Lee, Emma Newman, MK Hardy, Ren Hutchings, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Simon Jimenez and Rebecca Roanhorse (both also only in (in the UK and Commonwealth), RuNyx and Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Dystel, Goderich, & Bourret Leaves AALA Over Ethics Disagreement
lunch.publishersmarketplace.com – Saturday September 26, 2026
Dystel, Goderich & Bourret has resigned from the Association of American Literary Agents in protest over the organization’s new Canon of Ethics, the agency announced. The agency takes issue specifically with a clause in the canon that allows agencies to offer paid editorial services to non-clients, and could decide to represent those clients in the future. The cannon states that agents must put in writing that providing those services does not “indicate or imply that the member will represent them as a literary agent.” In DGB’s view, the policy indicates a “conflict of interest.”
Was this award-winning book written by AI? Scandal deepens skepticism in literary world
cbc.ca – Saturday September 26, 2026
Thélyson Orélien's debut novel shortlisted for prestigious prizes. Then the allegations started pouring in
A Quebec-based author is at the centre of an artificial intelligence scandal shaking the French literary world and raising questions around how the industry should be using AI — and its detection tools.
Breakthrough star Thélyson Orélien, a Canadian-Haitian poet and author, has been accused of writing his debut novel using generative AI, which he vehemently denies. The scandal comes as C’était ça ou mourir is being considered for various prestigious awards.
The allegation first surfaced Monday – the same day Orélien won the Prix du roman Fnac – on the anonymous X account "Balance ton Claude," which claims to expose AI slop.
The account claims to have analyzed several excerpts from the book using the AI-detector tool Pangram, which found the text was "100 per cent" AI.
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