News Today's Book News

I get a daily summary of the most important publishing news (UK and US) from the usual trade news sources… today’s bulletin is below.

I’d be happy to share it in the Colony… Let me know if you might find this useful, or if it would be overkill.

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Author Sam Blake urges 'better protections' from Amazon after AI rip-off books appear under her name​

Bestselling author Sam Blake urged Amazon to strengthen safeguards after AI-generated 'rip-off' books were marketed under her name on the Kindle platform, calling for better protection for authors and readers.

Author Sam Blake urges 'better protections' from Amazon after AI rip-off books appear under her name

S&S wins ten-way auction for Jeneva Rose thrillers​

Simon & Schuster won a ten-way rights auction for Jeneva Rose’s high-concept thrillers; the author has sold more than five million copies of her books.

S&S wins ten way auction for Jeneva Rose thrillers

Good Housekeeping announces GH Good Books Autumn collection​

Good Housekeeping launched its GH Good Books accreditation programme, announcing an autumn collection in which Carmel Harrington’s novel ‘The Stolen Child’ took the top spot.

Good Housekeeping announces GH Good Books Autumn collection

British Academy Book Prize shortlist released​

The British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding released a shortlist of six international nonfiction books competing for the £25,000 prize, including Sophie Harman’s ‘Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women’s Health’.

British Academy Book Prize shortlist released

Ebury pre-empts 'absolute peak performance' title​

Ebury pre-empted a peak-performance book that aims to help readers identify and overcome unhelpful thought patterns and behaviours to unlock greater confidence, courage and energy.

https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article-detail/ebury-pre-empts-absolute-peak-performance-title/

Neurobollocks deal for Transworld​

Transworld’s Torva imprint triumphed in an eight-way auction for Dr Joseph Devlin’s book “Neurobollocks: Why Nearly Everything You Know About Your Brain Is Wrong,” which debunks common neuroscience myths.

https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article-detail/neurobollocks-deal-for-transworld/

Canongate signs 'transformative' book from science journalist​

Canongate acquired Jo Marchant’s “In Search of Now,” a book described as a transformative exploration of the nature of time, self and reality.

https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/a...-transformative-book-from-science-journalist/

The Kingdom of Tigers finds its home at HCCB​

HarperCollins Children’s Books (HCCB) bought “The Kingdom of Tigers,” a debut picture book by Felicity Yeoh and illustrator Megan Snyders, which includes an afterword by actress Michelle Yeoh.

https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article-detail/the-kingdom-of-tigers-finds-its-home-at-hccb/

Piccadilly Press enters The Ministry of Manners​

Piccadilly Press acquired David Solomons’ middle‑grade adventure “The Ministry of Manners,” with illustrations by Hazem Asif.

https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article-detail/piccadilly-press-enters-the-ministry-of-manners/

Andrew Ridker’s novel Hope in Netflix deal​

Andrew Ridker’s novel “Hope,” published by Duckworth Books’ Farrago imprint, is being developed into a Netflix series by filmmaker Noah Baumbach and production company A24.

https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article-detail/andrew-ridkers-novel-hope-in-netflix-deal/

Worlds Apart at Moth Books​

Moth Books acquired Julia Franck’s coming-of-age novel “Worlds Apart,” which draws on the German writer’s family history.

https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article-detail/worlds-apart-at-moth-books/

Akoya signs Cardboard Boxes​

Akoya signed Tom Lanoye’s novel “Cardboard Boxes,” a coming-of-age story about a gay teenager in Flanders that has sold more than 200,000 copies.

https://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article-detail/akoya-signs-cardboard-boxes/

Anthropic Agrees to Pay $1.5 Billion to Settle Copyright Lawsuit​

Publishers Weekly reported that AI company Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle allegations that it illegally downloaded hundreds of thousands of books to train its language models. The settlement covers about 500,000 works, includes a commitment to destroy the pirated copies, and is considered the largest copyright recovery in U.S. history.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw...-1-5-billion-to-settle-copyright-lawsuit.html

Apple Sued by Authors for Copyright Infringement​

Authors Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson filed a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that Apple’s “OpenELM” language model illegally copied books for training, including scraping data from the Books3 dataset and using Applebot to gather content. The lawsuit was filed on the same day the Anthropic settlement was announced, underscoring growing legal challenges over AI training practices.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw...ed-by-authors-for-copyright-infringement.html

National Book Festival Crowds Out Troubling Times​

The Library of Congress’s 25th National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., drew 2,200 people to hear Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett discuss her forthcoming book “Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution”. Acting Librarian of Congress Robert Newlen presented Geraldine Brooks with the 2025 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, while protesters outside condemned the National Guard’s presence in the city.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw...book-festival-crowds-out-troubling-times.html

Global Illiteracy Is On the Rise, New Report Finds​

A World Literacy Foundation report released on International Literacy Day found that global illiteracy rates increased by 2.2% over 2024 and 2025, with 773 million people unable to read. The report noted that 61% of children from low socioeconomic backgrounds don’t own a single book and estimated the economic cost of illiteracy at $1.4 trillion annually.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw...literacy-is-on-the-rise-new-report-finds.html

This is extremely useful, thank you for sharing.

The Anthropic ruling is interesting. It seems to set the precedent that it is okay to train LLMs on published works, as long as these have been acquired legally. Or did I misinterpret that?

I very much appreciate this curated rundown. Thank you, AP

Aethalope said:

This is extremely useful, thank you for sharing.

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OK, so unless folk object (it can be quite long!) I'll continue posting it, then. It does give you a quick overview of what's happening in my little neck of the woods

Aethalope said:

The Anthropic ruling is interesting. It seems to set the precedent that it is okay to train LLMs on published works, as long as these have been acquired legally. Or did I misinterpret that?

Click to expand...

Yes, it inches that possibility closer.

I’ve always said that “LLM rights” ought to be sold like any other rights in a book, e.g. serial, audio, foreign language, etc.

For this to happen, three things need to occur:

1) An acceptance by AI companies that there is such a thing as “LLM rights” which they need to license;
2) A marketplace for those rights with the usual buying/selling mechanics;
3) The technical ability to withdraw specific titles from LLM models at the end of the license period if no extension is agreed.

All of these are looking a bit more likely, but we’re not there yet.

Yes please. This is indeed useful.

P.S. Would any major actresses out there like to be my sister?

Thank you, this is great info. Much appreciated.

The British Audio Awards shortlists revealed for inaugural year​

NEWSSEP 18, 2025BY THE BOOKSELLER EDITORIAL TEAM

Louise Brealey
The shortlists for the inaugural year of The British Audio Awards, also known as The Speakies, have been revealed and include industry names such as Hamza Yassin, AF Steadman, and Dr Rangan Chatterjee.


Any info on this. No real info of what these are. Just that it is a first. Are these books published to audio wo going to print first?

It’s a new awards gig, from the publisher of The Bookseller… who also happens to publish The Stage (for actors). They will be hoping for some synergy between the two fairly differing markets.

Bookseller on sales figures Nit sure it means anything new?

Paperback paradox: volume falls as value rises​

SEP 18, 2025BY ALEX CALL


Freida McFadden © Mira Whiting
Bookshops across the country might be starting to rejig their displays in an effort to make room for publishers’ switch of focus to hardbacks, but we should pause before then to say goodbye to summer properly by taking a look at the paperbacks that kept UK readers company on their travels.

According to data from NielsenIQ BookData’s Total Consumer Market (TCM), nearly 14.5 million paperbacks were sold in the 13 weeks to 30th August – a fall of 4.9% compared with 2024’s summer, when 15.2 million paperbacks were packed in suitcases alongside swimming trunks and suncream.

That number is a little alarming at first, but it is only a little worse than the full TCM, which saw a volume decline of 4.5% over the same period. Where it does differ though, is in terms of value. £110.9m went through bookseller tills for paperbacks this summer, a rise of 1.8% compared with the year before, the equivalent of an extra £1.9m – the value figure in TCM fell 1.7% in the same period.

Compare that to the Children’s market, which has seen volume and value drops of 1.3% and 0.5% respectively in the same weeks and it is clear that the adult fiction market has proven to be a little more of a mixed (travel) bag. It is worth noting at this point that owing to a data-processing error, an article in the 5th September issue included incorrect figures on the children’s book market.

These extreme changes in volume and value have led to an extra 50p being added to the average selling price, which rests at £7.69, just 25.8% lower than the average RRP of £10.38. Incidentally, that average RRP is only 6p higher than the 2024 average, so neither the volume nor value changes can be attributed to the price printed on the back covers.

These changes in volume and value have led to an extra 50 pence being added to the average selling price

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Nor is the increase in value coming from the Top 50 – this year the top slice of paperbacks brought in £18.2m, 4.7% down compared with the same period in 2024, roughly a £0.9m loss, across a unit decline of just under a quarter of a million, a third of the category’s decline.

There are five authors whose books earned more than £1m this summer – the same five authors who achieved the feat in 2024, but in a slight change to the line-up it is Freida McFadden who takes the headline slot with sales of £3.2m, up 42.8% compared with last year. Perhaps an unsurprising twist, since eight of the Top 50 belong to the psychological thriller writer.

After achieving first place in 2024 with sales of £3m, Colleen Hoover is relegated to fifth place as sales drop £1.8m – allowing both Claire Douglas and Richard Osman to move up a single place in the rankings, but both with increased sales. Sarah J Maas retains second place with a slight rise in sales.

The next tranche of authors on the list – such as Bob Mortimer, David Nicholls and Sally Rooney – all benefit from big year-on-year increases thanks to not having had a new release in 2024, while Chloe Walsh benefits from a new release and a surge on TikTok to increase sales by 128.2% and take sixth place.

At a sub-category level, most of the big areas have seen rises in value sales, with only Romance & Sagas falling – a 19% drop, exacerbated in part by Hoover’s declining sales – and Crime, Thriller & Adventure remaining flat. The biggest winner is Historical & Mythological Fiction, which has seen its sales rise by 24.1% summer-on-summer, although three quarters of that comes from the Women’s Prize-winning The Safekeep – indie favourite Yael van der Wouden is the only author in the Top 10 to get there on the strength of one title alone, earning £901,678 in total.