This week! Books! First up, if you need a great read for the holiday season, might I point you to The Darling Killers by Sarah McCarry, which was recently released in print and e-book? It’s a juicy and funny neo-noir centered around a group of authors in Los Angeles, perfect for book lovers. Get it! […]
This Week in Books
HarperCollins workers go on strike (This week in books)
This week! Books! Workers affiliated with HarperCollins’ union went on strike this week for better pay and benefits, including a minimum salary of $50,000 and greater commitments to a diverse workplace. The billionaire has bought The Twitter and there is Much Happening. Every dispatch from my former colleague Casey Newton’s Platformer newsletter is completely epic […]
Penguin Random House blocked from acquiring Simon & Schuster (This week in books)
This week! Books! Massive, massive news for the publishing industry, and, in truth, for all US antitrust law as the DOJ successfully convinced Judge Florence Pan that Penguin Random House’s proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster would create a monopsony that would harm authors. This is particularly notable because antitrust precedent over the past 50 […]
DongWon Song on the state of publishing (This week in books)
This week! Books! Literary agent DongWon Song has restarted their newsletter, the aptly named Publishing Is Hard, and they recently posted a really fantastic talk they gave at the Surrey International Writer’s Conference, which ranges from the effects the pandemic had on publishing to advice for authors and the importance of perseverance. An absolute must […]
PEN America releases comprehensive survey on race in publishing (This week in books)
This week! Books! PEN America released a wide-ranging survey of over 60 publishing employees on the paltry state of diversification and cultural change within the publishing industry when it comes to race, exploring “a host of historically underexplored financial and institutional factors that feed into underrepresentation across the industry,” and pointing to publishers’ “persistent obstacles […]
Annie Ernaux wins the Nobel (This week in books)
This week! Books! French memoirist Annie Ernaux won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Madeleine Schwartz wrote a fascinating profile of her in 2020, and Adam Gopnik argues her win marks the ascendency of the memoir as “perhaps the leading genre of our time.” Despite recording record profits in the 2022 fiscal year, HarperCollins has nevertheless […]
