It’s a busy day for bookish headlines: mega‑publishers brag about booming profits, tech‑savvy fairs resolve boycott threats, and translation judges conjure witchcraft, wars and wax dolls on the International Booker longlist. Meanwhile an accessible paperback era fades, novelists dream up magical cats and wartime twins, and activists rally for a jailed Iranian poet.
Publishing Industry News
Bangladeshi publishers threatened to boycott the 2026 Amar Ekushey Book Fair over Ramadan scheduling and stall allocations, but last‑minute talks with the government and Bangla Academy resolved the dispute. The fair will now run 26 February–15 March, stalls will be free of charge, and organisers expect more than 500 publishers to attend, with the prime minister opening the event.
Hachette Livre reported revenue “just over €3.0 billion” for 2025, up 4.5 % year‑over‑year and buoyed by strong performance in France, the UK and the US. Executives said the group’s growing audiobook catalogue and board‑game segment helped it edge ahead of competitors, making Hachette the third‑largest trade publisher in the US for the first time since 2012.
The Frankfurter Buchmesse awarded its 2026 wildcard — a free exhibition stand — to two tech companies: Germany’s Garage51 and Ireland’s Druid Learning. The fair’s organisers said the wildcard encourages service‑providers to exhibit; Garage51 offers AI‑powered content discovery, while Druid Learning provides an education platform for interactive textbooks.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson outbid rivals for Irish author Sarah Maria Griffin’s forthcoming novel in a pre‑emptive six‑figure deal. The publisher described the book as “wildly original” and committed to a major launch, marking Griffin’s first adult novel after her YA successes.
Independent press Fitzcarraldo Editions acquired UK rights to three prose collections by American poet Mary Ruefle. The books — “My Private Property”, “The Book” and “The More or Less — will appear in the UK for the first time, expanding the poet’s audience.
HarperCollins digital imprint One More Chapter announced a four‑book deal with crime writer Jackie Kabler. The agreement continues the author’s bestselling Cotswold detective series and signals the publisher’s commitment to serialised digital fiction.
Academic & Scholarly Publishing
A guest post in The Scholarly Kitchen argues that scholarly publishers are becoming central to AI companies seeking licensed text and data. The authors warn that large language models need authoritative, semantically enriched content to provide reliable outputs, and they encourage publishers to invest in metadata and rights management to capture future revenue from AI applications.
Audiobook News
The Alliance of Independent Authors reports that Amazon is trialling an “immersion reading” feature in Audible, letting listeners switch seamlessly between audiobooks and their Kindle ebooks. ALLi notes that royalties remain unchanged but warns that the bundled pricing could blur format boundaries and raise questions about whether authors are compensated fairly for both formats.
Book Riot’s Liberty Hardy picks three standout fantasy audiobooks released in February: Heba Al‑Wasity’s “Weavingshaw” (a ghost‑hunting adventure with a mercenary saint), Heather Fawcett’s “Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter” (magical cats and 1920s Montréal), and Cameron Sullivan’s “The Red Winter” (a chaotic buddy‑comedy starring two personalities in one body). The list offers playful escapism for listeners craving enchantment.
Notable Book News & Book Reviews
The International Booker Prize 2026 longlist features 13 titles translated from 11 languages and representing 14 nationalities. Highlights include Olga Ravn’s “The Wax Child”, Daniel Kehlmann’s “The Director” and Ia Genberg’s “Small Comfort”; judges praised the range of themes — witchcraft, revolution, and murder — and noted that two longlisted books were first published more than 30 years ago.
The Guardian reports that ReaderLink, the last major distributor of mass‑market paperbacks in the US, plans to exit the format as sales have plunged from 131 million units in 2004 to just 21 million in 2024. Critics lament that the cheap, pocket‑sized paperbacks that once offered working‑class readers affordable fiction are disappearing, shrinking authors’ backlist revenues.
In a wry debut, Ashani Lewis portrays a young woman whose unstable mother turns every family event into a melodrama. The Guardian praises the novel’s crisp tone and tender exploration of class and identity, likening it to Deborah Levy’s “Hot Milk”.
Francis Spufford’s latest novel follows twin Londoners drawn into dark magic and secret romances during the second world war. Reviewers describe it as a dazzling wartime fantasy that combines technical wizardry with heartfelt storytelling.
A forthcoming scholarly edition of Thomas Kyd’s works will expand the Elizabethan playwright’s attributed canon from three plays to eight. Scholars have used computational analysis to argue that previously anonymous or co‑authored dramas — including “Arden of Faversham” — should be credited solely to Kyd, repositioning him alongside Marlowe.
Author and historian Meredith Hooper, celebrated for making climate science accessible, has died aged 82. Her book “The Ferocious Summer” explored how warming seas threatened the Adelie penguin population, and obituarists note her lifelong fascination with Antarctica.
NPR interviews Tayari Jones about her novel “Kin,” set in 1950s Louisiana and Atlanta. Jones recounts crashing a college writing class taught by Pearl Cleage — who sent her away to become a writer — and explains how the story follows two motherless girls whose lives diverge when one attends Spelman College, exploring themes of loss, friendship and ambition.
PEN America and PEN Sydney released an open letter signed by more than 100 writers — including Margaret Atwood, Khaled Hosseini and George Saunders — calling for the immediate release of Iranian poet and translator Ali Asadollahi. The letter highlights Asadollahi’s translation of banned books, his arrest amid protests, and the broader crackdown on free expression.
Books Ireland reports that Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish Language Week) will feature the launch of two new Irish‑language books — “Rúnaí an Aire” and “Cairdeas & Cogadh” — on 5 March. Authors Anna Heussaff, Brian Ó Tiomáin and Áine Ní Ghlinn will discuss themes of power, politics, friendship and identity at the Inchicore event.
Book Riot notes that the UK’s Department of Education and more than 60 partners have launched “Go All In,” a National Year of Reading campaign to combat declining reading rates. The year‑long programme will align books with citizens’ passions — from football to food — and aims to recruit 100,000 volunteers and get one million more people using libraries.
