Recent content by AgentPete

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Today’s Book News Wednesday, 24th December 2025 Chaos in Washington, Distribution Turmoil Made for a Tumultuous 2025 A Publishers Weekly review of 2025 said the U.S. administration targeted cultural agencies while libraries and comics publishers reeled from Baker & Taylor’s closure and Diamond...

It’s total shit :) Based on a fundamentally-flawed understanding of, well, everything to do with writing and reading. Make no mistake. This is very obviously the next “step” towards total manuscript automation, which has been a wet dream for a small band of deluded idiots in the business for a...

The Walliams story is one of the biggest of the year. He was a huge money-earner for HC. This together with yet more revelations about “The Salt Path” and its apparently-fraudulent author - Raynor Winn – raises very serious issues about due diligence / checking out authors’ veracity and...

Today’s Book News Tuesday, 23rd December 2025 Book industry M&A in 2025: key deals and trends A Publishers Weekly report on mergers and acquisitions noted that 2025 saw significant deals such as Lakeside Book Company’s purchase of Baker & Taylor Publisher Services after ReaderLink abandoned...

Today’s Book News Monday, 22nd December 2025 Mary Anne Carter returns to lead the National Endowment for the Arts The U.S. Senate confirmed Mary Anne Carter to a second term as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. Carter previously led the NEA and championed programs such as Big Read...

Today’s Book News Sunday, 21st December 2025 Unseen Tennessee Williams radio play published in literary magazine Tennessee Williams wrote a horror radio play called **The Strangers** during his college years; the tale is filled with stormy weather and spectral figures. The play has been...

Yes, today :)

Today’s Book News Saturday, 20th December 2025 HarperCollins drops David Walliams following misconduct investigation The Guardian reported that HarperCollins decided it would not publish further titles by David Walliams after an internal investigation into allegations he harassed junior female...

Today’s Book News Friday, 19th December 2025 Publishing Sales Remained Solid in October The Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program recorded a 6.7 % year‑over‑year rise in October 2025 publishing revenue. Adult fiction sales climbed 11.3 %, religious presses were up 10.6 % and...

Today’s Book News Thursday, 18th December 2025 People 12/17 Publishers Marketplace’s People column reported a slate of promotions across Macmillan Audio, where Jennifer Donovan became director of editorial, Emily Dyer was promoted to marketing director and Samantha Edelson moved up to...

Today’s Book News Wednesday, 17th December 2025 Little, Brown buys Annie Barrows’s Ghost Guild Publishers Weekly reported that Little, Brown acquired world rights to Annie Barrows’s new middle‑grade series Ghost Guild. The first book, The Lost Three, follows siblings whose botched transition...

Today’s Book News Tuesday, 16th December 2025 French Publishers Association seeks compensation for used book sales French publishers’ association SNE reported that used books make up roughly 20 % of the French market—about €351 million annually—and that second‑hand purchases have jumped from...

First quick thoughts… It’s probably in part a pre-emptive move by Amazon to forestall anti-competitive (EU?) lawsuits. Not entirely sure about this, but it’s probably a factor, i.e. consumer “lock-in”. They have a nice, tidy Kindle monopoly and don’t want the boat rocked. How will it affect...