This year's top stories from abroad include booming English-language book sales across Europe, publishers rallying in support of Palestine, and more.
Mack has announced a new publishing imprint, Important Flowers, run by filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Its first three titles will be released next year.
The brief war of bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah this year destroyed millions of books in Lebanon, disrupting a Lebanese production sector that is critical to the book publishing business in the Middle East.
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and incoming International Publishers Association president Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia described how Russia's attacks on their countries are an augury of worse things to come if Russia’s expansionism is not stopped.
The Guadalajara International Book Fair hosted its first forum dedicated exclusively to audiobooks, reflecting the format's increasing popularity and recent production surge in Spanish-language markets.
Rebellion Developments began life as a video game production studio, but over the past 25 years, it has become a force in the U.K. publishing industry, developing robust businesses around valuable IPs including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.
This year's Guadalajara International Book Fair, which closed on Sunday, was the largest in the event's 38-year history, with a preliminary attendance of 907,300 visitors and participation from 2,769 publishing houses from 64 countries.
As sales of trade books in the U.S. have stalled since the pandemic peak, publishers are taking a harder look at expanding into international markets. How to best break into different territories was the focus of the November webinar “Publishing Now Fall ’24: Strategies for Success in International Markets.” (Sponsored)
Nanjing University professor Zhou Xian's outstanding work on cross-cultural research, 'A Theoretical Journey Across Cultures,' is now available in French. (Sponsored)
Growing global interest in Spanish-language content brought renewed energy to the Guadalajara International Book Fair this year, pushing the number of participating professionals beyond pre-pandemic levels.
The International Publishers Association awarded this year’s Prix Voltaire to Gaza-based publisher Samir Mansour, with a special award given to the late Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who was killed last year in a Russian missile attack.
The annual award, given by Barcelona-based publisher Editorial Anagrama, was shared by two authors this year—Xita Rubert (l.) and Cynthia Rimsky—for only the second time in its history.
Uri Levine, a cofounder of Waze and the author of 'Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution,' argues that unicorn companies and bestselling books have a lot in common.
More than 320 publishing-related tech startups, nearly all of them AI-related, have launched over the past two years. What impact they will have on the book business remains uncertain.
Mvua Press adds to a short, but growing, list of African independent publishers in a market where books, typically priced between $20 and $30, are beyond the means of many to buy.
Research commissioned by the British Council in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe found several successful trade publishers—and significant growth in self-publishing—despite growing costs and widespread piracy.
In honor of Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Norway has launched a new translation award and lecture series. The inaugural prize, worth $45,000, was won by Norwegian-German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, and the first lecturer will be French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.
Consumers listened to an average of 8.8 audiobooks last year in China, where enjoying audiobooks is a communal experience—one that can even include family pets.
One of the biggest foreign rights stories in book publishing this year is the resurgence in popularity of Japanese fiction, whose unique qualities are the result not just of cultural differences but of the distinct structure of the market.
HarperCollins Germany has acquired lifestyle and travel book publisher Gräfe und Unzer, which was founded in 1722. The acquisition will more than double HarperCollins’s operations in Germany.
Più libri più liberi (More Books, More Freedom), scheduled for December 4-8 at Rome's La Nuvola convention center, will showcase independent Italian publishers under the theme "The Measure of the World," a commemoration of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death.
Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina, whose two recently translated works from Harvard University Press examine the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, hopes her writing will serve as both testament and warning.
The Audio Forum at BolognaBookPlus will return next year on April 2 with a roster of industry speakers, and crime novelist Tom Benjamin has been named BolognaBookPlus 2025 author ambassador.
The recently announced plan from Veen Bosch & Keuning, the major Dutch publisher bought by Simon & Schuster in May, to use artificial intelligence for English-language translations has prompted pushback from industry organizations.
Despite recent challenges, the Chinese children’s book market, comprised of 370 million children and young adults, remains a big draw for publishers, making CCBF an important stop for companies looking to increase their sales in the country.
In a rapidly evolving publishing landscape, the executive director of the CCC is taking the lead on addressing one of the industry’s most pressing concerns: the use of copyrighted material in artificial intelligence systems.
Alison Tweed, CEO of U.K.–based charity Book Aid International, describes the destruction of libraries in Lebanon, Ukraine, and Iraq and advises on how the book business can help to rebuild them.
The literary agent with Armenia’s First Literary Agency describes the challenges facing the Armenian publishing industry and the necessity to be “persistent, patient, and flexible” in pursuing book deals from a small country.
The English novelist has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her latest, which follows six crew members on a space station as they orbit Earth over the course of a nine-month mission.
Tora Åsling, policy officer at the European and International Booksellers Federation, discusses the recently published RISE Bookselling Study on Consumer Behavior, which revealed book-buying trends, reading habits, and customer needs in 19 markets across the world.
The 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair opened on November 6 and will run through November 17. But the SIBF is only one event in which the Emirate of Sharjah, through the Sharjah Book Authority, has been showcased around the world.
The 11th Sharjah International Library Conference takes place on November 9-10, the first weekend of this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair. The SILC brings together 250 librarians annually from the MENA region and beyond to learn and share the latest trends and issues within global librarianship.
Jraissati, who established the agency in 2004 and has become one of the top literary agents working with Arabic authors, discusses the development of the rights and translation market for books from the Middle East and North Africa.
Daisy Meyrick and Helen Manders, two of CAA’s leading foreign rights agents, discuss current market trends, emerging opportunities, and the evolving nature of their work in an increasingly complex global publishing landscape.
Veteran literary agent Milly Ruggiero, currently foreign rights manager at the Rights Factory, spoke with PW about her new literary agency, Booklé, based in Naples, Italy.
The first Diwan bookshop opened in Cairo 2002, with further branches and other activities added over the years, the most recent of which was Diwan Publishing in 2021. We talked to Layal Al-Rusom and Ahmed Al-Qarmalawi, two of the four founders of Diwan Publishing in Cairo, about their expanding business.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s PublisHer initiative is working to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through partnerships in the international book business and beyond.
With more than 13 million titles in its global print-on-demand catalog and a new Lightning Source facility in Sharjah, John Ingram sees no impediment for growing interest and sales of Arabic content globally.
Across Europe, English-language editions are becoming increasingly popular, which affects the sales of local translated editions. One rights agent warns of “a massively dire state for foreign-language editions in certain markets.”
Nermin Mollaoğlu of the Kalem Agency of Istanbul, Turkey, and Ahmed Bedeir, general manager at Dar El Shorouk in Egypt, have been named the winners of this year's Sharjah Rights Connection Awards.
The Sharjah International Literacy Agency, which launched in 2021, aims to boost regional Arabic publishing, promote Arabic literary and cultural content globally, and more.
After aggressively adding 1,000 titles to its catalog in its first year, the company has emerged as a trailblazer in the Arabic-language audiobook and e-book market, and intends to increase the accessibility of Arabic digital content globally.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority and CEO of Kalimat Group, discusses the trends impacting her publishing company, the industry in the U.A.E., and future of the PublisHer community for women in publishing.
This year, the Sharjah Publishers Conference offered keynote talks and round table workshops on Sunday, November 3, with matchmaking sessions set for Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, introduces this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, which will host participants from 106 countries.
Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority, offers his own welcome to this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, as “we stand at the threshold of a new era in the publishing industry.”
BookTok is playing an increasingly important role in international book sales, according to new data from Nielsen BookData, as its global research points to “strong fiction, declining nonfiction, and slower price increases.”
In August, Interlink Publishing founders Michel and Ruth Moushabeck passed the Northampton, Mass.–based press on to their daughters Hannah, Leyla, and Maha, and son-in-law, Harrison Williams. The Palestinian American–owned press aims to be “a publishing house for the movement.”
The new online bookstore, aimed at readers in mainland China, is run in partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, and offers nearly 1,000 English-language print-on-demand titles.
Croatian publisher Ivan Sršen discusses the surprising success of Sandorf Passage, a U.S. publishing house focused on translations from Eastern Europe.
Chinese children’s literature writer and child psychology expert Bao Dongni, who's written numerous titles in the World Chinese Graded Readers series, spoke towithPW about where she finds inspiration for her fiction and nonfiction, her most memorable reader letters, and why these books are such effective tools for teaching kids Chinese. (Sponsored)
The Ingram Content Group will have a large presence at the 2024 Guadalajara Book Fair as the company seeks to significantly expand its engagement with Spanish-language publishers, retailers, authors, and other professionals.
Production has ramped up significantly over the past year, according to Dosdoce founder Javier Celaya, who will keynote the FIL’s 2024 audiobooks forum.
Spain’s guest of honor program at FIL will feature 150 authors from 60 publishing houses.
The 2024 Guadalajara International Book Fair will feature thousands of events, including an extensive program hosted by this year’s guest of honor nation.
As the Frankfurt Book Fair's professional program wraps up today, fair director Jurgen Boos reported a rise in trade visitors and a pivot to catering to consumers, many drawn by the rise of "new adult" publishing.
Freedom to read is imperiled in a world that is ill at ease with the idea of freedom of thought, of feeling, of difference. No one knows this better than Elif Shafak, the Turkish author of 20 books translated into 50 languages, who spoke at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair's opening press conference.
Ukraine has once again made a powerful statement at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair with its national stand themed “Reclaiming the Voice,” a poignant reflection of the country’s struggle to maintain its cultural identity amid ongoing conflict.
In what has been generally a drama-free event, the focus at this year's fair was on doing deals as the international publishing business settles into a post-pandemic rhythm.
Kim Hyung Joo, head of webtoons at leading digital publishing platform Munpia, discusses the growth of the billion-dollar Korean webcomic business.
The new publishing company combines AI-generated prompts with human creativity and editing, aiming to help authors—particularly busy professionals—transform their ideas into submission-ready manuscripts.
The outgoing IPA president reflects on her two-year tenure and her new project promoting reading in Latin America.
RELX Group remains in the number one slot, with sales at the STM and legal publisher holding relatively even at $6.3 billion, while Japan’s Hitotsubashi Group moved into the seventh spot due to the further integration of two publishers the holding company owns.
MediaScout aims to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation, explained Margaret Hepp Harrison, VP of digital services at Ingram Content Group, who is leading the project. The service made its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Publishing executives are rarely far from the podium at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this year, things looked a bit different: Simon & Schuster was joined onstage by its new owner, Hachette in the U.S. and U.K. was represented by just one CEO, and the former head of Penguin Random House U.S. extolled the virtues of disrupting the publishing model.
AI is a powerful tool, writes 'PW' senior international and bookselling editor Ed Nawotka. But the one thing AI is worst at is exactly the one thing the publishing industry is best at: storytelling.
In January, David Shelley took on a new role for Hachette, as CEO of an English-language management structure that united Hachette U.K. and the Hachette Book Group in the U.S. Ahead of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, 'PW' caught up with Shelley to talk about his expanded role, and to get his take on the state of global publishing.
Set for a September 23, 2025 publication, Follett’s 'Circle of Days' is one of the first big worldwide English-language acquisitions Hachette made under its new structure, and hopes are high the book will be yet another major bestseller for the author.
Ahead of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Scribner preempts Portia Elan’s debut novel, S&S takes English-language rights to Naomi Ishiguro's Japanese folklore–inspired fantasy series, and Inklore signs a 12-book deal with James Tynion IV.
The opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair featured fair director Juergen Boos extolling the inclusive, democratic values of the fair.
'Skin Contact' is the first acquisition in what will be "a close partnership" between Arthur's imprint and Hachette UK's Sceptre, made just before the start of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, U.S. agents will feature works by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Patti Callahan Henry, Rob Franklin, Amy Tan, and many more in a bustling LitAg.
The IPA has elected Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia its next president and Giovanni Hoepli of Italy its next vice president. Guatemala has joined the organization as a full member, and Croatia, the Dominican Republic, and Poland have joined as provisional members.
"Content is everything,” says Zhang Chaoyang, president of Nanjing-based Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG), which is ranked among the top 10 on the Global 50 publishing list since 2019. Zhang’s vision has led to Phoenix creating 26 brands, each differentiated by a unique logo, a distinctive book cover design, and a focus on a specific discipline or theme. (Sponsored)
The International Publishers Association is encouraging publishers to document the actions they are taking to support the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals in advance of this year’s IPA Congress in November.
Slated to go into effect next June, the EAA mandates that a range of products and services, including e-books, e-readers, and e-commerce websites, are accessible to people with disabilities.
Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles series, among other titles, has launched Horned Lark Press, a new Canadian publishing house focused on fantasy and science fiction with an emphasis on anti-authoritarian themes.
The agreement to buy the Melbourne-based independent publisher is Simon & Schuster's second overseas acquisition since it was bought by KKR late last year.
Slated to shutter in December after 59 years in business, ‘BuchMarkt’ will become the second key German trade magazine to close this year following the loss of ‘Buchreport’ in January.
This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met.
September Publishing in the U.K. has been acquired by Duckworth Books for an undisclosed sum, and will operate as an independent imprint under the Duckworth brand.
The 13-strong longlist for this year's Booker Prize has been announced. Among those listed are three debut novelists and several marquee names, including Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, and Richard Powers. Six Americans made this year's list.
The U.K. distributor United Independent Distributors and its subsidiary companies Marston Book Services, Orca Book Services, and Eurospan—all owned by Independent Publishers Group since October 2021—went into administration on July 25.
Independent Publishers Group, which is the U.S. owner of the U.K.–based book distributor, is seeking buyers for the company amid threats of winding up petitions.
Though 142 new bookshops opened in France last year, low margins and a decline in sales volume as a result of inflation may pose huge risks to the country’s bookselling sector.
Ballanco, senior VP and chief information officer at Hachette Book Group, will retire on September 27, with Brendan Goss, currently CIO of Hachette UK, to assume the newly created role of group CIO of HBG and HUK.
Damage to the Factor Druk printing plant, which produced a third of all of Ukraine's books, is causing shipping delays and price hikes. Support for a recovery, which may take six months, is coming from the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, among others.
Stephanie Jackson has been tapped to lead the Life segment, including the recently announced imprint DK Red, at DK Living, the publisher’s adult division, effective November 1.
This year's top stories from abroad include booming English-language book sales across Europe, publishers rallying in support of Palestine, and more.
Mack has announced a new publishing imprint, Important Flowers, run by filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Its first three titles will be released next year.
The brief war of bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah this year destroyed millions of books in Lebanon, disrupting a Lebanese production sector that is critical to the book publishing business in the Middle East.
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and incoming International Publishers Association president Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia described how Russia's attacks on their countries are an augury of worse things to come if Russia’s expansionism is not stopped.
The Guadalajara International Book Fair hosted its first forum dedicated exclusively to audiobooks, reflecting the format's increasing popularity and recent production surge in Spanish-language markets.
Rebellion Developments began life as a video game production studio, but over the past 25 years, it has become a force in the U.K. publishing industry, developing robust businesses around valuable IPs including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.
This year's Guadalajara International Book Fair, which closed on Sunday, was the largest in the event's 38-year history, with a preliminary attendance of 907,300 visitors and participation from 2,769 publishing houses from 64 countries.
As sales of trade books in the U.S. have stalled since the pandemic peak, publishers are taking a harder look at expanding into international markets. How to best break into different territories was the focus of the November webinar “Publishing Now Fall ’24: Strategies for Success in International Markets.” (Sponsored)
Nanjing University professor Zhou Xian's outstanding work on cross-cultural research, 'A Theoretical Journey Across Cultures,' is now available in French. (Sponsored)
Growing global interest in Spanish-language content brought renewed energy to the Guadalajara International Book Fair this year, pushing the number of participating professionals beyond pre-pandemic levels.
The International Publishers Association awarded this year’s Prix Voltaire to Gaza-based publisher Samir Mansour, with a special award given to the late Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who was killed last year in a Russian missile attack.
The annual award, given by Barcelona-based publisher Editorial Anagrama, was shared by two authors this year—Xita Rubert (l.) and Cynthia Rimsky—for only the second time in its history.
Uri Levine, a cofounder of Waze and the author of 'Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution,' argues that unicorn companies and bestselling books have a lot in common.
More than 320 publishing-related tech startups, nearly all of them AI-related, have launched over the past two years. What impact they will have on the book business remains uncertain.
Mvua Press adds to a short, but growing, list of African independent publishers in a market where books, typically priced between $20 and $30, are beyond the means of many to buy.
Research commissioned by the British Council in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe found several successful trade publishers—and significant growth in self-publishing—despite growing costs and widespread piracy.
In honor of Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Norway has launched a new translation award and lecture series. The inaugural prize, worth $45,000, was won by Norwegian-German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, and the first lecturer will be French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.
Consumers listened to an average of 8.8 audiobooks last year in China, where enjoying audiobooks is a communal experience—one that can even include family pets.
One of the biggest foreign rights stories in book publishing this year is the resurgence in popularity of Japanese fiction, whose unique qualities are the result not just of cultural differences but of the distinct structure of the market.
HarperCollins Germany has acquired lifestyle and travel book publisher Gräfe und Unzer, which was founded in 1722. The acquisition will more than double HarperCollins’s operations in Germany.
Più libri più liberi (More Books, More Freedom), scheduled for December 4-8 at Rome's La Nuvola convention center, will showcase independent Italian publishers under the theme "The Measure of the World," a commemoration of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death.
Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina, whose two recently translated works from Harvard University Press examine the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, hopes her writing will serve as both testament and warning.
The Audio Forum at BolognaBookPlus will return next year on April 2 with a roster of industry speakers, and crime novelist Tom Benjamin has been named BolognaBookPlus 2025 author ambassador.
The recently announced plan from Veen Bosch & Keuning, the major Dutch publisher bought by Simon & Schuster in May, to use artificial intelligence for English-language translations has prompted pushback from industry organizations.
Despite recent challenges, the Chinese children’s book market, comprised of 370 million children and young adults, remains a big draw for publishers, making CCBF an important stop for companies looking to increase their sales in the country.
In a rapidly evolving publishing landscape, the executive director of the CCC is taking the lead on addressing one of the industry’s most pressing concerns: the use of copyrighted material in artificial intelligence systems.
Alison Tweed, CEO of U.K.–based charity Book Aid International, describes the destruction of libraries in Lebanon, Ukraine, and Iraq and advises on how the book business can help to rebuild them.
The literary agent with Armenia’s First Literary Agency describes the challenges facing the Armenian publishing industry and the necessity to be “persistent, patient, and flexible” in pursuing book deals from a small country.
The English novelist has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her latest, which follows six crew members on a space station as they orbit Earth over the course of a nine-month mission.
Tora Åsling, policy officer at the European and International Booksellers Federation, discusses the recently published RISE Bookselling Study on Consumer Behavior, which revealed book-buying trends, reading habits, and customer needs in 19 markets across the world.
The 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair opened on November 6 and will run through November 17. But the SIBF is only one event in which the Emirate of Sharjah, through the Sharjah Book Authority, has been showcased around the world.
The 11th Sharjah International Library Conference takes place on November 9-10, the first weekend of this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair. The SILC brings together 250 librarians annually from the MENA region and beyond to learn and share the latest trends and issues within global librarianship.
Jraissati, who established the agency in 2004 and has become one of the top literary agents working with Arabic authors, discusses the development of the rights and translation market for books from the Middle East and North Africa.
Daisy Meyrick and Helen Manders, two of CAA’s leading foreign rights agents, discuss current market trends, emerging opportunities, and the evolving nature of their work in an increasingly complex global publishing landscape.
Veteran literary agent Milly Ruggiero, currently foreign rights manager at the Rights Factory, spoke with PW about her new literary agency, Booklé, based in Naples, Italy.
The first Diwan bookshop opened in Cairo 2002, with further branches and other activities added over the years, the most recent of which was Diwan Publishing in 2021. We talked to Layal Al-Rusom and Ahmed Al-Qarmalawi, two of the four founders of Diwan Publishing in Cairo, about their expanding business.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s PublisHer initiative is working to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through partnerships in the international book business and beyond.
With more than 13 million titles in its global print-on-demand catalog and a new Lightning Source facility in Sharjah, John Ingram sees no impediment for growing interest and sales of Arabic content globally.
Across Europe, English-language editions are becoming increasingly popular, which affects the sales of local translated editions. One rights agent warns of “a massively dire state for foreign-language editions in certain markets.”
Nermin Mollaoğlu of the Kalem Agency of Istanbul, Turkey, and Ahmed Bedeir, general manager at Dar El Shorouk in Egypt, have been named the winners of this year's Sharjah Rights Connection Awards.
The Sharjah International Literacy Agency, which launched in 2021, aims to boost regional Arabic publishing, promote Arabic literary and cultural content globally, and more.
After aggressively adding 1,000 titles to its catalog in its first year, the company has emerged as a trailblazer in the Arabic-language audiobook and e-book market, and intends to increase the accessibility of Arabic digital content globally.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority and CEO of Kalimat Group, discusses the trends impacting her publishing company, the industry in the U.A.E., and future of the PublisHer community for women in publishing.
This year, the Sharjah Publishers Conference offered keynote talks and round table workshops on Sunday, November 3, with matchmaking sessions set for Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, introduces this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, which will host participants from 106 countries.
Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority, offers his own welcome to this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, as “we stand at the threshold of a new era in the publishing industry.”
BookTok is playing an increasingly important role in international book sales, according to new data from Nielsen BookData, as its global research points to “strong fiction, declining nonfiction, and slower price increases.”
In August, Interlink Publishing founders Michel and Ruth Moushabeck passed the Northampton, Mass.–based press on to their daughters Hannah, Leyla, and Maha, and son-in-law, Harrison Williams. The Palestinian American–owned press aims to be “a publishing house for the movement.”
The new online bookstore, aimed at readers in mainland China, is run in partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, and offers nearly 1,000 English-language print-on-demand titles.
Croatian publisher Ivan Sršen discusses the surprising success of Sandorf Passage, a U.S. publishing house focused on translations from Eastern Europe.
Chinese children’s literature writer and child psychology expert Bao Dongni, who's written numerous titles in the World Chinese Graded Readers series, spoke towithPW about where she finds inspiration for her fiction and nonfiction, her most memorable reader letters, and why these books are such effective tools for teaching kids Chinese. (Sponsored)
The Ingram Content Group will have a large presence at the 2024 Guadalajara Book Fair as the company seeks to significantly expand its engagement with Spanish-language publishers, retailers, authors, and other professionals.
Production has ramped up significantly over the past year, according to Dosdoce founder Javier Celaya, who will keynote the FIL’s 2024 audiobooks forum.
Spain’s guest of honor program at FIL will feature 150 authors from 60 publishing houses.
The 2024 Guadalajara International Book Fair will feature thousands of events, including an extensive program hosted by this year’s guest of honor nation.
As the Frankfurt Book Fair's professional program wraps up today, fair director Jurgen Boos reported a rise in trade visitors and a pivot to catering to consumers, many drawn by the rise of "new adult" publishing.
Freedom to read is imperiled in a world that is ill at ease with the idea of freedom of thought, of feeling, of difference. No one knows this better than Elif Shafak, the Turkish author of 20 books translated into 50 languages, who spoke at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair's opening press conference.
Ukraine has once again made a powerful statement at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair with its national stand themed “Reclaiming the Voice,” a poignant reflection of the country’s struggle to maintain its cultural identity amid ongoing conflict.
In what has been generally a drama-free event, the focus at this year's fair was on doing deals as the international publishing business settles into a post-pandemic rhythm.
Kim Hyung Joo, head of webtoons at leading digital publishing platform Munpia, discusses the growth of the billion-dollar Korean webcomic business.
The new publishing company combines AI-generated prompts with human creativity and editing, aiming to help authors—particularly busy professionals—transform their ideas into submission-ready manuscripts.
The outgoing IPA president reflects on her two-year tenure and her new project promoting reading in Latin America.
RELX Group remains in the number one slot, with sales at the STM and legal publisher holding relatively even at $6.3 billion, while Japan’s Hitotsubashi Group moved into the seventh spot due to the further integration of two publishers the holding company owns.
MediaScout aims to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation, explained Margaret Hepp Harrison, VP of digital services at Ingram Content Group, who is leading the project. The service made its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Publishing executives are rarely far from the podium at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this year, things looked a bit different: Simon & Schuster was joined onstage by its new owner, Hachette in the U.S. and U.K. was represented by just one CEO, and the former head of Penguin Random House U.S. extolled the virtues of disrupting the publishing model.
AI is a powerful tool, writes 'PW' senior international and bookselling editor Ed Nawotka. But the one thing AI is worst at is exactly the one thing the publishing industry is best at: storytelling.
In January, David Shelley took on a new role for Hachette, as CEO of an English-language management structure that united Hachette U.K. and the Hachette Book Group in the U.S. Ahead of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, 'PW' caught up with Shelley to talk about his expanded role, and to get his take on the state of global publishing.
Set for a September 23, 2025 publication, Follett’s 'Circle of Days' is one of the first big worldwide English-language acquisitions Hachette made under its new structure, and hopes are high the book will be yet another major bestseller for the author.
Ahead of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Scribner preempts Portia Elan’s debut novel, S&S takes English-language rights to Naomi Ishiguro's Japanese folklore–inspired fantasy series, and Inklore signs a 12-book deal with James Tynion IV.
The opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair featured fair director Juergen Boos extolling the inclusive, democratic values of the fair.
'Skin Contact' is the first acquisition in what will be "a close partnership" between Arthur's imprint and Hachette UK's Sceptre, made just before the start of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, U.S. agents will feature works by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Patti Callahan Henry, Rob Franklin, Amy Tan, and many more in a bustling LitAg.
The IPA has elected Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia its next president and Giovanni Hoepli of Italy its next vice president. Guatemala has joined the organization as a full member, and Croatia, the Dominican Republic, and Poland have joined as provisional members.
"Content is everything,” says Zhang Chaoyang, president of Nanjing-based Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG), which is ranked among the top 10 on the Global 50 publishing list since 2019. Zhang’s vision has led to Phoenix creating 26 brands, each differentiated by a unique logo, a distinctive book cover design, and a focus on a specific discipline or theme. (Sponsored)
The International Publishers Association is encouraging publishers to document the actions they are taking to support the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals in advance of this year’s IPA Congress in November.
Slated to go into effect next June, the EAA mandates that a range of products and services, including e-books, e-readers, and e-commerce websites, are accessible to people with disabilities.
Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles series, among other titles, has launched Horned Lark Press, a new Canadian publishing house focused on fantasy and science fiction with an emphasis on anti-authoritarian themes.
The agreement to buy the Melbourne-based independent publisher is Simon & Schuster's second overseas acquisition since it was bought by KKR late last year.
Slated to shutter in December after 59 years in business, ‘BuchMarkt’ will become the second key German trade magazine to close this year following the loss of ‘Buchreport’ in January.
This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met.
September Publishing in the U.K. has been acquired by Duckworth Books for an undisclosed sum, and will operate as an independent imprint under the Duckworth brand.
The 13-strong longlist for this year's Booker Prize has been announced. Among those listed are three debut novelists and several marquee names, including Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, and Richard Powers. Six Americans made this year's list.
The U.K. distributor United Independent Distributors and its subsidiary companies Marston Book Services, Orca Book Services, and Eurospan—all owned by Independent Publishers Group since October 2021—went into administration on July 25.
Independent Publishers Group, which is the U.S. owner of the U.K.–based book distributor, is seeking buyers for the company amid threats of winding up petitions.
Though 142 new bookshops opened in France last year, low margins and a decline in sales volume as a result of inflation may pose huge risks to the country’s bookselling sector.
Ballanco, senior VP and chief information officer at Hachette Book Group, will retire on September 27, with Brendan Goss, currently CIO of Hachette UK, to assume the newly created role of group CIO of HBG and HUK.
Damage to the Factor Druk printing plant, which produced a third of all of Ukraine's books, is causing shipping delays and price hikes. Support for a recovery, which may take six months, is coming from the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, among others.
Stephanie Jackson has been tapped to lead the Life segment, including the recently announced imprint DK Red, at DK Living, the publisher’s adult division, effective November 1.
This year's top stories from abroad include booming English-language book sales across Europe, publishers rallying in support of Palestine, and more.
Mack has announced a new publishing imprint, Important Flowers, run by filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Its first three titles will be released next year.
The brief war of bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah this year destroyed millions of books in Lebanon, disrupting a Lebanese production sector that is critical to the book publishing business in the Middle East.
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and incoming International Publishers Association president Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia described how Russia's attacks on their countries are an augury of worse things to come if Russia’s expansionism is not stopped.
The Guadalajara International Book Fair hosted its first forum dedicated exclusively to audiobooks, reflecting the format's increasing popularity and recent production surge in Spanish-language markets.
Rebellion Developments began life as a video game production studio, but over the past 25 years, it has become a force in the U.K. publishing industry, developing robust businesses around valuable IPs including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.
This year's Guadalajara International Book Fair, which closed on Sunday, was the largest in the event's 38-year history, with a preliminary attendance of 907,300 visitors and participation from 2,769 publishing houses from 64 countries.
As sales of trade books in the U.S. have stalled since the pandemic peak, publishers are taking a harder look at expanding into international markets. How to best break into different territories was the focus of the November webinar “Publishing Now Fall ’24: Strategies for Success in International Markets.” (Sponsored)
Nanjing University professor Zhou Xian's outstanding work on cross-cultural research, 'A Theoretical Journey Across Cultures,' is now available in French. (Sponsored)
Growing global interest in Spanish-language content brought renewed energy to the Guadalajara International Book Fair this year, pushing the number of participating professionals beyond pre-pandemic levels.
The International Publishers Association awarded this year’s Prix Voltaire to Gaza-based publisher Samir Mansour, with a special award given to the late Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who was killed last year in a Russian missile attack.
The annual award, given by Barcelona-based publisher Editorial Anagrama, was shared by two authors this year—Xita Rubert (l.) and Cynthia Rimsky—for only the second time in its history.
Uri Levine, a cofounder of Waze and the author of 'Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution,' argues that unicorn companies and bestselling books have a lot in common.
More than 320 publishing-related tech startups, nearly all of them AI-related, have launched over the past two years. What impact they will have on the book business remains uncertain.
Mvua Press adds to a short, but growing, list of African independent publishers in a market where books, typically priced between $20 and $30, are beyond the means of many to buy.
Research commissioned by the British Council in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe found several successful trade publishers—and significant growth in self-publishing—despite growing costs and widespread piracy.
In honor of Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Norway has launched a new translation award and lecture series. The inaugural prize, worth $45,000, was won by Norwegian-German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, and the first lecturer will be French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.
Consumers listened to an average of 8.8 audiobooks last year in China, where enjoying audiobooks is a communal experience—one that can even include family pets.
One of the biggest foreign rights stories in book publishing this year is the resurgence in popularity of Japanese fiction, whose unique qualities are the result not just of cultural differences but of the distinct structure of the market.
HarperCollins Germany has acquired lifestyle and travel book publisher Gräfe und Unzer, which was founded in 1722. The acquisition will more than double HarperCollins’s operations in Germany.
Più libri più liberi (More Books, More Freedom), scheduled for December 4-8 at Rome's La Nuvola convention center, will showcase independent Italian publishers under the theme "The Measure of the World," a commemoration of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death.
Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina, whose two recently translated works from Harvard University Press examine the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, hopes her writing will serve as both testament and warning.
The Audio Forum at BolognaBookPlus will return next year on April 2 with a roster of industry speakers, and crime novelist Tom Benjamin has been named BolognaBookPlus 2025 author ambassador.
The recently announced plan from Veen Bosch & Keuning, the major Dutch publisher bought by Simon & Schuster in May, to use artificial intelligence for English-language translations has prompted pushback from industry organizations.
Despite recent challenges, the Chinese children’s book market, comprised of 370 million children and young adults, remains a big draw for publishers, making CCBF an important stop for companies looking to increase their sales in the country.
In a rapidly evolving publishing landscape, the executive director of the CCC is taking the lead on addressing one of the industry’s most pressing concerns: the use of copyrighted material in artificial intelligence systems.
Alison Tweed, CEO of U.K.–based charity Book Aid International, describes the destruction of libraries in Lebanon, Ukraine, and Iraq and advises on how the book business can help to rebuild them.
The literary agent with Armenia’s First Literary Agency describes the challenges facing the Armenian publishing industry and the necessity to be “persistent, patient, and flexible” in pursuing book deals from a small country.
The English novelist has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her latest, which follows six crew members on a space station as they orbit Earth over the course of a nine-month mission.
Tora Åsling, policy officer at the European and International Booksellers Federation, discusses the recently published RISE Bookselling Study on Consumer Behavior, which revealed book-buying trends, reading habits, and customer needs in 19 markets across the world.
The 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair opened on November 6 and will run through November 17. But the SIBF is only one event in which the Emirate of Sharjah, through the Sharjah Book Authority, has been showcased around the world.
The 11th Sharjah International Library Conference takes place on November 9-10, the first weekend of this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair. The SILC brings together 250 librarians annually from the MENA region and beyond to learn and share the latest trends and issues within global librarianship.
Jraissati, who established the agency in 2004 and has become one of the top literary agents working with Arabic authors, discusses the development of the rights and translation market for books from the Middle East and North Africa.
Daisy Meyrick and Helen Manders, two of CAA’s leading foreign rights agents, discuss current market trends, emerging opportunities, and the evolving nature of their work in an increasingly complex global publishing landscape.
Veteran literary agent Milly Ruggiero, currently foreign rights manager at the Rights Factory, spoke with PW about her new literary agency, Booklé, based in Naples, Italy.
The first Diwan bookshop opened in Cairo 2002, with further branches and other activities added over the years, the most recent of which was Diwan Publishing in 2021. We talked to Layal Al-Rusom and Ahmed Al-Qarmalawi, two of the four founders of Diwan Publishing in Cairo, about their expanding business.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s PublisHer initiative is working to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through partnerships in the international book business and beyond.
With more than 13 million titles in its global print-on-demand catalog and a new Lightning Source facility in Sharjah, John Ingram sees no impediment for growing interest and sales of Arabic content globally.
Across Europe, English-language editions are becoming increasingly popular, which affects the sales of local translated editions. One rights agent warns of “a massively dire state for foreign-language editions in certain markets.”
Nermin Mollaoğlu of the Kalem Agency of Istanbul, Turkey, and Ahmed Bedeir, general manager at Dar El Shorouk in Egypt, have been named the winners of this year's Sharjah Rights Connection Awards.
The Sharjah International Literacy Agency, which launched in 2021, aims to boost regional Arabic publishing, promote Arabic literary and cultural content globally, and more.
After aggressively adding 1,000 titles to its catalog in its first year, the company has emerged as a trailblazer in the Arabic-language audiobook and e-book market, and intends to increase the accessibility of Arabic digital content globally.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority and CEO of Kalimat Group, discusses the trends impacting her publishing company, the industry in the U.A.E., and future of the PublisHer community for women in publishing.
This year, the Sharjah Publishers Conference offered keynote talks and round table workshops on Sunday, November 3, with matchmaking sessions set for Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, introduces this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, which will host participants from 106 countries.
Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority, offers his own welcome to this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, as “we stand at the threshold of a new era in the publishing industry.”
BookTok is playing an increasingly important role in international book sales, according to new data from Nielsen BookData, as its global research points to “strong fiction, declining nonfiction, and slower price increases.”
In August, Interlink Publishing founders Michel and Ruth Moushabeck passed the Northampton, Mass.–based press on to their daughters Hannah, Leyla, and Maha, and son-in-law, Harrison Williams. The Palestinian American–owned press aims to be “a publishing house for the movement.”
The new online bookstore, aimed at readers in mainland China, is run in partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, and offers nearly 1,000 English-language print-on-demand titles.
Croatian publisher Ivan Sršen discusses the surprising success of Sandorf Passage, a U.S. publishing house focused on translations from Eastern Europe.
Chinese children’s literature writer and child psychology expert Bao Dongni, who's written numerous titles in the World Chinese Graded Readers series, spoke towithPW about where she finds inspiration for her fiction and nonfiction, her most memorable reader letters, and why these books are such effective tools for teaching kids Chinese. (Sponsored)
The Ingram Content Group will have a large presence at the 2024 Guadalajara Book Fair as the company seeks to significantly expand its engagement with Spanish-language publishers, retailers, authors, and other professionals.
Production has ramped up significantly over the past year, according to Dosdoce founder Javier Celaya, who will keynote the FIL’s 2024 audiobooks forum.
Spain’s guest of honor program at FIL will feature 150 authors from 60 publishing houses.
The 2024 Guadalajara International Book Fair will feature thousands of events, including an extensive program hosted by this year’s guest of honor nation.
As the Frankfurt Book Fair's professional program wraps up today, fair director Jurgen Boos reported a rise in trade visitors and a pivot to catering to consumers, many drawn by the rise of "new adult" publishing.
Freedom to read is imperiled in a world that is ill at ease with the idea of freedom of thought, of feeling, of difference. No one knows this better than Elif Shafak, the Turkish author of 20 books translated into 50 languages, who spoke at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair's opening press conference.
Ukraine has once again made a powerful statement at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair with its national stand themed “Reclaiming the Voice,” a poignant reflection of the country’s struggle to maintain its cultural identity amid ongoing conflict.
In what has been generally a drama-free event, the focus at this year's fair was on doing deals as the international publishing business settles into a post-pandemic rhythm.
Kim Hyung Joo, head of webtoons at leading digital publishing platform Munpia, discusses the growth of the billion-dollar Korean webcomic business.
The new publishing company combines AI-generated prompts with human creativity and editing, aiming to help authors—particularly busy professionals—transform their ideas into submission-ready manuscripts.
The outgoing IPA president reflects on her two-year tenure and her new project promoting reading in Latin America.
RELX Group remains in the number one slot, with sales at the STM and legal publisher holding relatively even at $6.3 billion, while Japan’s Hitotsubashi Group moved into the seventh spot due to the further integration of two publishers the holding company owns.
MediaScout aims to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation, explained Margaret Hepp Harrison, VP of digital services at Ingram Content Group, who is leading the project. The service made its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Publishing executives are rarely far from the podium at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this year, things looked a bit different: Simon & Schuster was joined onstage by its new owner, Hachette in the U.S. and U.K. was represented by just one CEO, and the former head of Penguin Random House U.S. extolled the virtues of disrupting the publishing model.
AI is a powerful tool, writes 'PW' senior international and bookselling editor Ed Nawotka. But the one thing AI is worst at is exactly the one thing the publishing industry is best at: storytelling.
In January, David Shelley took on a new role for Hachette, as CEO of an English-language management structure that united Hachette U.K. and the Hachette Book Group in the U.S. Ahead of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, 'PW' caught up with Shelley to talk about his expanded role, and to get his take on the state of global publishing.
Set for a September 23, 2025 publication, Follett’s 'Circle of Days' is one of the first big worldwide English-language acquisitions Hachette made under its new structure, and hopes are high the book will be yet another major bestseller for the author.
Ahead of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Scribner preempts Portia Elan’s debut novel, S&S takes English-language rights to Naomi Ishiguro's Japanese folklore–inspired fantasy series, and Inklore signs a 12-book deal with James Tynion IV.
The opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair featured fair director Juergen Boos extolling the inclusive, democratic values of the fair.
'Skin Contact' is the first acquisition in what will be "a close partnership" between Arthur's imprint and Hachette UK's Sceptre, made just before the start of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, U.S. agents will feature works by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Patti Callahan Henry, Rob Franklin, Amy Tan, and many more in a bustling LitAg.
The IPA has elected Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia its next president and Giovanni Hoepli of Italy its next vice president. Guatemala has joined the organization as a full member, and Croatia, the Dominican Republic, and Poland have joined as provisional members.
"Content is everything,” says Zhang Chaoyang, president of Nanjing-based Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG), which is ranked among the top 10 on the Global 50 publishing list since 2019. Zhang’s vision has led to Phoenix creating 26 brands, each differentiated by a unique logo, a distinctive book cover design, and a focus on a specific discipline or theme. (Sponsored)
The International Publishers Association is encouraging publishers to document the actions they are taking to support the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals in advance of this year’s IPA Congress in November.
Slated to go into effect next June, the EAA mandates that a range of products and services, including e-books, e-readers, and e-commerce websites, are accessible to people with disabilities.
Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles series, among other titles, has launched Horned Lark Press, a new Canadian publishing house focused on fantasy and science fiction with an emphasis on anti-authoritarian themes.
The agreement to buy the Melbourne-based independent publisher is Simon & Schuster's second overseas acquisition since it was bought by KKR late last year.
Slated to shutter in December after 59 years in business, ‘BuchMarkt’ will become the second key German trade magazine to close this year following the loss of ‘Buchreport’ in January.
This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met.
September Publishing in the U.K. has been acquired by Duckworth Books for an undisclosed sum, and will operate as an independent imprint under the Duckworth brand.
The 13-strong longlist for this year's Booker Prize has been announced. Among those listed are three debut novelists and several marquee names, including Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, and Richard Powers. Six Americans made this year's list.
The U.K. distributor United Independent Distributors and its subsidiary companies Marston Book Services, Orca Book Services, and Eurospan—all owned by Independent Publishers Group since October 2021—went into administration on July 25.
Independent Publishers Group, which is the U.S. owner of the U.K.–based book distributor, is seeking buyers for the company amid threats of winding up petitions.
Though 142 new bookshops opened in France last year, low margins and a decline in sales volume as a result of inflation may pose huge risks to the country’s bookselling sector.
Ballanco, senior VP and chief information officer at Hachette Book Group, will retire on September 27, with Brendan Goss, currently CIO of Hachette UK, to assume the newly created role of group CIO of HBG and HUK.
Damage to the Factor Druk printing plant, which produced a third of all of Ukraine's books, is causing shipping delays and price hikes. Support for a recovery, which may take six months, is coming from the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, among others.
Stephanie Jackson has been tapped to lead the Life segment, including the recently announced imprint DK Red, at DK Living, the publisher’s adult division, effective November 1.
This year's top stories from abroad include booming English-language book sales across Europe, publishers rallying in support of Palestine, and more.
Mack has announced a new publishing imprint, Important Flowers, run by filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Its first three titles will be released next year.
The brief war of bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah this year destroyed millions of books in Lebanon, disrupting a Lebanese production sector that is critical to the book publishing business in the Middle East.
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and incoming International Publishers Association president Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia described how Russia's attacks on their countries are an augury of worse things to come if Russia’s expansionism is not stopped.
The Guadalajara International Book Fair hosted its first forum dedicated exclusively to audiobooks, reflecting the format's increasing popularity and recent production surge in Spanish-language markets.
Rebellion Developments began life as a video game production studio, but over the past 25 years, it has become a force in the U.K. publishing industry, developing robust businesses around valuable IPs including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.
This year's Guadalajara International Book Fair, which closed on Sunday, was the largest in the event's 38-year history, with a preliminary attendance of 907,300 visitors and participation from 2,769 publishing houses from 64 countries.
As sales of trade books in the U.S. have stalled since the pandemic peak, publishers are taking a harder look at expanding into international markets. How to best break into different territories was the focus of the November webinar “Publishing Now Fall ’24: Strategies for Success in International Markets.” (Sponsored)
Nanjing University professor Zhou Xian's outstanding work on cross-cultural research, 'A Theoretical Journey Across Cultures,' is now available in French. (Sponsored)
Growing global interest in Spanish-language content brought renewed energy to the Guadalajara International Book Fair this year, pushing the number of participating professionals beyond pre-pandemic levels.
The International Publishers Association awarded this year’s Prix Voltaire to Gaza-based publisher Samir Mansour, with a special award given to the late Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who was killed last year in a Russian missile attack.
The annual award, given by Barcelona-based publisher Editorial Anagrama, was shared by two authors this year—Xita Rubert (l.) and Cynthia Rimsky—for only the second time in its history.
Uri Levine, a cofounder of Waze and the author of 'Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution,' argues that unicorn companies and bestselling books have a lot in common.
More than 320 publishing-related tech startups, nearly all of them AI-related, have launched over the past two years. What impact they will have on the book business remains uncertain.
Mvua Press adds to a short, but growing, list of African independent publishers in a market where books, typically priced between $20 and $30, are beyond the means of many to buy.
Research commissioned by the British Council in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe found several successful trade publishers—and significant growth in self-publishing—despite growing costs and widespread piracy.
In honor of Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Norway has launched a new translation award and lecture series. The inaugural prize, worth $45,000, was won by Norwegian-German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, and the first lecturer will be French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.
Consumers listened to an average of 8.8 audiobooks last year in China, where enjoying audiobooks is a communal experience—one that can even include family pets.
One of the biggest foreign rights stories in book publishing this year is the resurgence in popularity of Japanese fiction, whose unique qualities are the result not just of cultural differences but of the distinct structure of the market.
HarperCollins Germany has acquired lifestyle and travel book publisher Gräfe und Unzer, which was founded in 1722. The acquisition will more than double HarperCollins’s operations in Germany.
Più libri più liberi (More Books, More Freedom), scheduled for December 4-8 at Rome's La Nuvola convention center, will showcase independent Italian publishers under the theme "The Measure of the World," a commemoration of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death.
Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina, whose two recently translated works from Harvard University Press examine the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, hopes her writing will serve as both testament and warning.
The Audio Forum at BolognaBookPlus will return next year on April 2 with a roster of industry speakers, and crime novelist Tom Benjamin has been named BolognaBookPlus 2025 author ambassador.
The recently announced plan from Veen Bosch & Keuning, the major Dutch publisher bought by Simon & Schuster in May, to use artificial intelligence for English-language translations has prompted pushback from industry organizations.
Despite recent challenges, the Chinese children’s book market, comprised of 370 million children and young adults, remains a big draw for publishers, making CCBF an important stop for companies looking to increase their sales in the country.
In a rapidly evolving publishing landscape, the executive director of the CCC is taking the lead on addressing one of the industry’s most pressing concerns: the use of copyrighted material in artificial intelligence systems.
Alison Tweed, CEO of U.K.–based charity Book Aid International, describes the destruction of libraries in Lebanon, Ukraine, and Iraq and advises on how the book business can help to rebuild them.
The literary agent with Armenia’s First Literary Agency describes the challenges facing the Armenian publishing industry and the necessity to be “persistent, patient, and flexible” in pursuing book deals from a small country.
The English novelist has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her latest, which follows six crew members on a space station as they orbit Earth over the course of a nine-month mission.
Tora Åsling, policy officer at the European and International Booksellers Federation, discusses the recently published RISE Bookselling Study on Consumer Behavior, which revealed book-buying trends, reading habits, and customer needs in 19 markets across the world.
The 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair opened on November 6 and will run through November 17. But the SIBF is only one event in which the Emirate of Sharjah, through the Sharjah Book Authority, has been showcased around the world.
The 11th Sharjah International Library Conference takes place on November 9-10, the first weekend of this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair. The SILC brings together 250 librarians annually from the MENA region and beyond to learn and share the latest trends and issues within global librarianship.
Jraissati, who established the agency in 2004 and has become one of the top literary agents working with Arabic authors, discusses the development of the rights and translation market for books from the Middle East and North Africa.
Daisy Meyrick and Helen Manders, two of CAA’s leading foreign rights agents, discuss current market trends, emerging opportunities, and the evolving nature of their work in an increasingly complex global publishing landscape.
Veteran literary agent Milly Ruggiero, currently foreign rights manager at the Rights Factory, spoke with PW about her new literary agency, Booklé, based in Naples, Italy.
The first Diwan bookshop opened in Cairo 2002, with further branches and other activities added over the years, the most recent of which was Diwan Publishing in 2021. We talked to Layal Al-Rusom and Ahmed Al-Qarmalawi, two of the four founders of Diwan Publishing in Cairo, about their expanding business.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s PublisHer initiative is working to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through partnerships in the international book business and beyond.
With more than 13 million titles in its global print-on-demand catalog and a new Lightning Source facility in Sharjah, John Ingram sees no impediment for growing interest and sales of Arabic content globally.
Across Europe, English-language editions are becoming increasingly popular, which affects the sales of local translated editions. One rights agent warns of “a massively dire state for foreign-language editions in certain markets.”
Nermin Mollaoğlu of the Kalem Agency of Istanbul, Turkey, and Ahmed Bedeir, general manager at Dar El Shorouk in Egypt, have been named the winners of this year's Sharjah Rights Connection Awards.
The Sharjah International Literacy Agency, which launched in 2021, aims to boost regional Arabic publishing, promote Arabic literary and cultural content globally, and more.
After aggressively adding 1,000 titles to its catalog in its first year, the company has emerged as a trailblazer in the Arabic-language audiobook and e-book market, and intends to increase the accessibility of Arabic digital content globally.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority and CEO of Kalimat Group, discusses the trends impacting her publishing company, the industry in the U.A.E., and future of the PublisHer community for women in publishing.
This year, the Sharjah Publishers Conference offered keynote talks and round table workshops on Sunday, November 3, with matchmaking sessions set for Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, introduces this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, which will host participants from 106 countries.
Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority, offers his own welcome to this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, as “we stand at the threshold of a new era in the publishing industry.”
BookTok is playing an increasingly important role in international book sales, according to new data from Nielsen BookData, as its global research points to “strong fiction, declining nonfiction, and slower price increases.”
In August, Interlink Publishing founders Michel and Ruth Moushabeck passed the Northampton, Mass.–based press on to their daughters Hannah, Leyla, and Maha, and son-in-law, Harrison Williams. The Palestinian American–owned press aims to be “a publishing house for the movement.”
The new online bookstore, aimed at readers in mainland China, is run in partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, and offers nearly 1,000 English-language print-on-demand titles.
Croatian publisher Ivan Sršen discusses the surprising success of Sandorf Passage, a U.S. publishing house focused on translations from Eastern Europe.
Chinese children’s literature writer and child psychology expert Bao Dongni, who's written numerous titles in the World Chinese Graded Readers series, spoke towithPW about where she finds inspiration for her fiction and nonfiction, her most memorable reader letters, and why these books are such effective tools for teaching kids Chinese. (Sponsored)
The Ingram Content Group will have a large presence at the 2024 Guadalajara Book Fair as the company seeks to significantly expand its engagement with Spanish-language publishers, retailers, authors, and other professionals.
Production has ramped up significantly over the past year, according to Dosdoce founder Javier Celaya, who will keynote the FIL’s 2024 audiobooks forum.
Spain’s guest of honor program at FIL will feature 150 authors from 60 publishing houses.
The 2024 Guadalajara International Book Fair will feature thousands of events, including an extensive program hosted by this year’s guest of honor nation.
As the Frankfurt Book Fair's professional program wraps up today, fair director Jurgen Boos reported a rise in trade visitors and a pivot to catering to consumers, many drawn by the rise of "new adult" publishing.
Freedom to read is imperiled in a world that is ill at ease with the idea of freedom of thought, of feeling, of difference. No one knows this better than Elif Shafak, the Turkish author of 20 books translated into 50 languages, who spoke at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair's opening press conference.
Ukraine has once again made a powerful statement at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair with its national stand themed “Reclaiming the Voice,” a poignant reflection of the country’s struggle to maintain its cultural identity amid ongoing conflict.
In what has been generally a drama-free event, the focus at this year's fair was on doing deals as the international publishing business settles into a post-pandemic rhythm.
Kim Hyung Joo, head of webtoons at leading digital publishing platform Munpia, discusses the growth of the billion-dollar Korean webcomic business.
The new publishing company combines AI-generated prompts with human creativity and editing, aiming to help authors—particularly busy professionals—transform their ideas into submission-ready manuscripts.
The outgoing IPA president reflects on her two-year tenure and her new project promoting reading in Latin America.
RELX Group remains in the number one slot, with sales at the STM and legal publisher holding relatively even at $6.3 billion, while Japan’s Hitotsubashi Group moved into the seventh spot due to the further integration of two publishers the holding company owns.
MediaScout aims to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation, explained Margaret Hepp Harrison, VP of digital services at Ingram Content Group, who is leading the project. The service made its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Publishing executives are rarely far from the podium at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this year, things looked a bit different: Simon & Schuster was joined onstage by its new owner, Hachette in the U.S. and U.K. was represented by just one CEO, and the former head of Penguin Random House U.S. extolled the virtues of disrupting the publishing model.
AI is a powerful tool, writes 'PW' senior international and bookselling editor Ed Nawotka. But the one thing AI is worst at is exactly the one thing the publishing industry is best at: storytelling.
In January, David Shelley took on a new role for Hachette, as CEO of an English-language management structure that united Hachette U.K. and the Hachette Book Group in the U.S. Ahead of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, 'PW' caught up with Shelley to talk about his expanded role, and to get his take on the state of global publishing.
Set for a September 23, 2025 publication, Follett’s 'Circle of Days' is one of the first big worldwide English-language acquisitions Hachette made under its new structure, and hopes are high the book will be yet another major bestseller for the author.
Ahead of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Scribner preempts Portia Elan’s debut novel, S&S takes English-language rights to Naomi Ishiguro's Japanese folklore–inspired fantasy series, and Inklore signs a 12-book deal with James Tynion IV.
The opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair featured fair director Juergen Boos extolling the inclusive, democratic values of the fair.
'Skin Contact' is the first acquisition in what will be "a close partnership" between Arthur's imprint and Hachette UK's Sceptre, made just before the start of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, U.S. agents will feature works by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Patti Callahan Henry, Rob Franklin, Amy Tan, and many more in a bustling LitAg.
The IPA has elected Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia its next president and Giovanni Hoepli of Italy its next vice president. Guatemala has joined the organization as a full member, and Croatia, the Dominican Republic, and Poland have joined as provisional members.
"Content is everything,” says Zhang Chaoyang, president of Nanjing-based Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG), which is ranked among the top 10 on the Global 50 publishing list since 2019. Zhang’s vision has led to Phoenix creating 26 brands, each differentiated by a unique logo, a distinctive book cover design, and a focus on a specific discipline or theme. (Sponsored)
The International Publishers Association is encouraging publishers to document the actions they are taking to support the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals in advance of this year’s IPA Congress in November.
Slated to go into effect next June, the EAA mandates that a range of products and services, including e-books, e-readers, and e-commerce websites, are accessible to people with disabilities.
Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles series, among other titles, has launched Horned Lark Press, a new Canadian publishing house focused on fantasy and science fiction with an emphasis on anti-authoritarian themes.
The agreement to buy the Melbourne-based independent publisher is Simon & Schuster's second overseas acquisition since it was bought by KKR late last year.
Slated to shutter in December after 59 years in business, ‘BuchMarkt’ will become the second key German trade magazine to close this year following the loss of ‘Buchreport’ in January.
This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met.
September Publishing in the U.K. has been acquired by Duckworth Books for an undisclosed sum, and will operate as an independent imprint under the Duckworth brand.
The 13-strong longlist for this year's Booker Prize has been announced. Among those listed are three debut novelists and several marquee names, including Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, and Richard Powers. Six Americans made this year's list.
The U.K. distributor United Independent Distributors and its subsidiary companies Marston Book Services, Orca Book Services, and Eurospan—all owned by Independent Publishers Group since October 2021—went into administration on July 25.
Independent Publishers Group, which is the U.S. owner of the U.K.–based book distributor, is seeking buyers for the company amid threats of winding up petitions.
Though 142 new bookshops opened in France last year, low margins and a decline in sales volume as a result of inflation may pose huge risks to the country’s bookselling sector.
Ballanco, senior VP and chief information officer at Hachette Book Group, will retire on September 27, with Brendan Goss, currently CIO of Hachette UK, to assume the newly created role of group CIO of HBG and HUK.
Damage to the Factor Druk printing plant, which produced a third of all of Ukraine's books, is causing shipping delays and price hikes. Support for a recovery, which may take six months, is coming from the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, among others.
Stephanie Jackson has been tapped to lead the Life segment, including the recently announced imprint DK Red, at DK Living, the publisher’s adult division, effective November 1.
This year's top stories from abroad include booming English-language book sales across Europe, publishers rallying in support of Palestine, and more.
Mack has announced a new publishing imprint, Important Flowers, run by filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Its first three titles will be released next year.
The brief war of bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah this year destroyed millions of books in Lebanon, disrupting a Lebanese production sector that is critical to the book publishing business in the Middle East.
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and incoming International Publishers Association president Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia described how Russia's attacks on their countries are an augury of worse things to come if Russia’s expansionism is not stopped.
The Guadalajara International Book Fair hosted its first forum dedicated exclusively to audiobooks, reflecting the format's increasing popularity and recent production surge in Spanish-language markets.
Rebellion Developments began life as a video game production studio, but over the past 25 years, it has become a force in the U.K. publishing industry, developing robust businesses around valuable IPs including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.
This year's Guadalajara International Book Fair, which closed on Sunday, was the largest in the event's 38-year history, with a preliminary attendance of 907,300 visitors and participation from 2,769 publishing houses from 64 countries.
As sales of trade books in the U.S. have stalled since the pandemic peak, publishers are taking a harder look at expanding into international markets. How to best break into different territories was the focus of the November webinar “Publishing Now Fall ’24: Strategies for Success in International Markets.” (Sponsored)
Nanjing University professor Zhou Xian's outstanding work on cross-cultural research, 'A Theoretical Journey Across Cultures,' is now available in French. (Sponsored)
Growing global interest in Spanish-language content brought renewed energy to the Guadalajara International Book Fair this year, pushing the number of participating professionals beyond pre-pandemic levels.
The International Publishers Association awarded this year’s Prix Voltaire to Gaza-based publisher Samir Mansour, with a special award given to the late Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who was killed last year in a Russian missile attack.
The annual award, given by Barcelona-based publisher Editorial Anagrama, was shared by two authors this year—Xita Rubert (l.) and Cynthia Rimsky—for only the second time in its history.
Uri Levine, a cofounder of Waze and the author of 'Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution,' argues that unicorn companies and bestselling books have a lot in common.
More than 320 publishing-related tech startups, nearly all of them AI-related, have launched over the past two years. What impact they will have on the book business remains uncertain.
Mvua Press adds to a short, but growing, list of African independent publishers in a market where books, typically priced between $20 and $30, are beyond the means of many to buy.
Research commissioned by the British Council in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe found several successful trade publishers—and significant growth in self-publishing—despite growing costs and widespread piracy.
In honor of Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Norway has launched a new translation award and lecture series. The inaugural prize, worth $45,000, was won by Norwegian-German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, and the first lecturer will be French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.
Consumers listened to an average of 8.8 audiobooks last year in China, where enjoying audiobooks is a communal experience—one that can even include family pets.
One of the biggest foreign rights stories in book publishing this year is the resurgence in popularity of Japanese fiction, whose unique qualities are the result not just of cultural differences but of the distinct structure of the market.
HarperCollins Germany has acquired lifestyle and travel book publisher Gräfe und Unzer, which was founded in 1722. The acquisition will more than double HarperCollins’s operations in Germany.
Più libri più liberi (More Books, More Freedom), scheduled for December 4-8 at Rome's La Nuvola convention center, will showcase independent Italian publishers under the theme "The Measure of the World," a commemoration of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death.
Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina, whose two recently translated works from Harvard University Press examine the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, hopes her writing will serve as both testament and warning.
The Audio Forum at BolognaBookPlus will return next year on April 2 with a roster of industry speakers, and crime novelist Tom Benjamin has been named BolognaBookPlus 2025 author ambassador.
The recently announced plan from Veen Bosch & Keuning, the major Dutch publisher bought by Simon & Schuster in May, to use artificial intelligence for English-language translations has prompted pushback from industry organizations.
Despite recent challenges, the Chinese children’s book market, comprised of 370 million children and young adults, remains a big draw for publishers, making CCBF an important stop for companies looking to increase their sales in the country.
In a rapidly evolving publishing landscape, the executive director of the CCC is taking the lead on addressing one of the industry’s most pressing concerns: the use of copyrighted material in artificial intelligence systems.
Alison Tweed, CEO of U.K.–based charity Book Aid International, describes the destruction of libraries in Lebanon, Ukraine, and Iraq and advises on how the book business can help to rebuild them.
The literary agent with Armenia’s First Literary Agency describes the challenges facing the Armenian publishing industry and the necessity to be “persistent, patient, and flexible” in pursuing book deals from a small country.
The English novelist has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her latest, which follows six crew members on a space station as they orbit Earth over the course of a nine-month mission.
Tora Åsling, policy officer at the European and International Booksellers Federation, discusses the recently published RISE Bookselling Study on Consumer Behavior, which revealed book-buying trends, reading habits, and customer needs in 19 markets across the world.
The 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair opened on November 6 and will run through November 17. But the SIBF is only one event in which the Emirate of Sharjah, through the Sharjah Book Authority, has been showcased around the world.
The 11th Sharjah International Library Conference takes place on November 9-10, the first weekend of this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair. The SILC brings together 250 librarians annually from the MENA region and beyond to learn and share the latest trends and issues within global librarianship.
Jraissati, who established the agency in 2004 and has become one of the top literary agents working with Arabic authors, discusses the development of the rights and translation market for books from the Middle East and North Africa.
Daisy Meyrick and Helen Manders, two of CAA’s leading foreign rights agents, discuss current market trends, emerging opportunities, and the evolving nature of their work in an increasingly complex global publishing landscape.
Veteran literary agent Milly Ruggiero, currently foreign rights manager at the Rights Factory, spoke with PW about her new literary agency, Booklé, based in Naples, Italy.
The first Diwan bookshop opened in Cairo 2002, with further branches and other activities added over the years, the most recent of which was Diwan Publishing in 2021. We talked to Layal Al-Rusom and Ahmed Al-Qarmalawi, two of the four founders of Diwan Publishing in Cairo, about their expanding business.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s PublisHer initiative is working to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through partnerships in the international book business and beyond.
With more than 13 million titles in its global print-on-demand catalog and a new Lightning Source facility in Sharjah, John Ingram sees no impediment for growing interest and sales of Arabic content globally.
Across Europe, English-language editions are becoming increasingly popular, which affects the sales of local translated editions. One rights agent warns of “a massively dire state for foreign-language editions in certain markets.”
Nermin Mollaoğlu of the Kalem Agency of Istanbul, Turkey, and Ahmed Bedeir, general manager at Dar El Shorouk in Egypt, have been named the winners of this year's Sharjah Rights Connection Awards.
The Sharjah International Literacy Agency, which launched in 2021, aims to boost regional Arabic publishing, promote Arabic literary and cultural content globally, and more.
After aggressively adding 1,000 titles to its catalog in its first year, the company has emerged as a trailblazer in the Arabic-language audiobook and e-book market, and intends to increase the accessibility of Arabic digital content globally.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority and CEO of Kalimat Group, discusses the trends impacting her publishing company, the industry in the U.A.E., and future of the PublisHer community for women in publishing.
This year, the Sharjah Publishers Conference offered keynote talks and round table workshops on Sunday, November 3, with matchmaking sessions set for Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, introduces this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, which will host participants from 106 countries.
Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority, offers his own welcome to this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, as “we stand at the threshold of a new era in the publishing industry.”
BookTok is playing an increasingly important role in international book sales, according to new data from Nielsen BookData, as its global research points to “strong fiction, declining nonfiction, and slower price increases.”
In August, Interlink Publishing founders Michel and Ruth Moushabeck passed the Northampton, Mass.–based press on to their daughters Hannah, Leyla, and Maha, and son-in-law, Harrison Williams. The Palestinian American–owned press aims to be “a publishing house for the movement.”
The new online bookstore, aimed at readers in mainland China, is run in partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, and offers nearly 1,000 English-language print-on-demand titles.
Croatian publisher Ivan Sršen discusses the surprising success of Sandorf Passage, a U.S. publishing house focused on translations from Eastern Europe.
Chinese children’s literature writer and child psychology expert Bao Dongni, who's written numerous titles in the World Chinese Graded Readers series, spoke towithPW about where she finds inspiration for her fiction and nonfiction, her most memorable reader letters, and why these books are such effective tools for teaching kids Chinese. (Sponsored)
The Ingram Content Group will have a large presence at the 2024 Guadalajara Book Fair as the company seeks to significantly expand its engagement with Spanish-language publishers, retailers, authors, and other professionals.
Production has ramped up significantly over the past year, according to Dosdoce founder Javier Celaya, who will keynote the FIL’s 2024 audiobooks forum.
Spain’s guest of honor program at FIL will feature 150 authors from 60 publishing houses.
The 2024 Guadalajara International Book Fair will feature thousands of events, including an extensive program hosted by this year’s guest of honor nation.
As the Frankfurt Book Fair's professional program wraps up today, fair director Jurgen Boos reported a rise in trade visitors and a pivot to catering to consumers, many drawn by the rise of "new adult" publishing.
Freedom to read is imperiled in a world that is ill at ease with the idea of freedom of thought, of feeling, of difference. No one knows this better than Elif Shafak, the Turkish author of 20 books translated into 50 languages, who spoke at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair's opening press conference.
Ukraine has once again made a powerful statement at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair with its national stand themed “Reclaiming the Voice,” a poignant reflection of the country’s struggle to maintain its cultural identity amid ongoing conflict.
In what has been generally a drama-free event, the focus at this year's fair was on doing deals as the international publishing business settles into a post-pandemic rhythm.
Kim Hyung Joo, head of webtoons at leading digital publishing platform Munpia, discusses the growth of the billion-dollar Korean webcomic business.
The new publishing company combines AI-generated prompts with human creativity and editing, aiming to help authors—particularly busy professionals—transform their ideas into submission-ready manuscripts.
The outgoing IPA president reflects on her two-year tenure and her new project promoting reading in Latin America.
RELX Group remains in the number one slot, with sales at the STM and legal publisher holding relatively even at $6.3 billion, while Japan’s Hitotsubashi Group moved into the seventh spot due to the further integration of two publishers the holding company owns.
MediaScout aims to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation, explained Margaret Hepp Harrison, VP of digital services at Ingram Content Group, who is leading the project. The service made its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Publishing executives are rarely far from the podium at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this year, things looked a bit different: Simon & Schuster was joined onstage by its new owner, Hachette in the U.S. and U.K. was represented by just one CEO, and the former head of Penguin Random House U.S. extolled the virtues of disrupting the publishing model.
AI is a powerful tool, writes 'PW' senior international and bookselling editor Ed Nawotka. But the one thing AI is worst at is exactly the one thing the publishing industry is best at: storytelling.
In January, David Shelley took on a new role for Hachette, as CEO of an English-language management structure that united Hachette U.K. and the Hachette Book Group in the U.S. Ahead of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, 'PW' caught up with Shelley to talk about his expanded role, and to get his take on the state of global publishing.
Set for a September 23, 2025 publication, Follett’s 'Circle of Days' is one of the first big worldwide English-language acquisitions Hachette made under its new structure, and hopes are high the book will be yet another major bestseller for the author.
Ahead of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Scribner preempts Portia Elan’s debut novel, S&S takes English-language rights to Naomi Ishiguro's Japanese folklore–inspired fantasy series, and Inklore signs a 12-book deal with James Tynion IV.
The opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair featured fair director Juergen Boos extolling the inclusive, democratic values of the fair.
'Skin Contact' is the first acquisition in what will be "a close partnership" between Arthur's imprint and Hachette UK's Sceptre, made just before the start of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, U.S. agents will feature works by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Patti Callahan Henry, Rob Franklin, Amy Tan, and many more in a bustling LitAg.
The IPA has elected Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia its next president and Giovanni Hoepli of Italy its next vice president. Guatemala has joined the organization as a full member, and Croatia, the Dominican Republic, and Poland have joined as provisional members.
"Content is everything,” says Zhang Chaoyang, president of Nanjing-based Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG), which is ranked among the top 10 on the Global 50 publishing list since 2019. Zhang’s vision has led to Phoenix creating 26 brands, each differentiated by a unique logo, a distinctive book cover design, and a focus on a specific discipline or theme. (Sponsored)
The International Publishers Association is encouraging publishers to document the actions they are taking to support the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals in advance of this year’s IPA Congress in November.
Slated to go into effect next June, the EAA mandates that a range of products and services, including e-books, e-readers, and e-commerce websites, are accessible to people with disabilities.
Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles series, among other titles, has launched Horned Lark Press, a new Canadian publishing house focused on fantasy and science fiction with an emphasis on anti-authoritarian themes.
The agreement to buy the Melbourne-based independent publisher is Simon & Schuster's second overseas acquisition since it was bought by KKR late last year.
Slated to shutter in December after 59 years in business, ‘BuchMarkt’ will become the second key German trade magazine to close this year following the loss of ‘Buchreport’ in January.
This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met.
September Publishing in the U.K. has been acquired by Duckworth Books for an undisclosed sum, and will operate as an independent imprint under the Duckworth brand.
The 13-strong longlist for this year's Booker Prize has been announced. Among those listed are three debut novelists and several marquee names, including Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, and Richard Powers. Six Americans made this year's list.
The U.K. distributor United Independent Distributors and its subsidiary companies Marston Book Services, Orca Book Services, and Eurospan—all owned by Independent Publishers Group since October 2021—went into administration on July 25.
Independent Publishers Group, which is the U.S. owner of the U.K.–based book distributor, is seeking buyers for the company amid threats of winding up petitions.
Though 142 new bookshops opened in France last year, low margins and a decline in sales volume as a result of inflation may pose huge risks to the country’s bookselling sector.
Ballanco, senior VP and chief information officer at Hachette Book Group, will retire on September 27, with Brendan Goss, currently CIO of Hachette UK, to assume the newly created role of group CIO of HBG and HUK.
Damage to the Factor Druk printing plant, which produced a third of all of Ukraine's books, is causing shipping delays and price hikes. Support for a recovery, which may take six months, is coming from the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, among others.
Stephanie Jackson has been tapped to lead the Life segment, including the recently announced imprint DK Red, at DK Living, the publisher’s adult division, effective November 1.
This year's top stories from abroad include booming English-language book sales across Europe, publishers rallying in support of Palestine, and more.
Mack has announced a new publishing imprint, Important Flowers, run by filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Its first three titles will be released next year.
The brief war of bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah this year destroyed millions of books in Lebanon, disrupting a Lebanese production sector that is critical to the book publishing business in the Middle East.
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and incoming International Publishers Association president Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia described how Russia's attacks on their countries are an augury of worse things to come if Russia’s expansionism is not stopped.
The Guadalajara International Book Fair hosted its first forum dedicated exclusively to audiobooks, reflecting the format's increasing popularity and recent production surge in Spanish-language markets.
Rebellion Developments began life as a video game production studio, but over the past 25 years, it has become a force in the U.K. publishing industry, developing robust businesses around valuable IPs including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.
This year's Guadalajara International Book Fair, which closed on Sunday, was the largest in the event's 38-year history, with a preliminary attendance of 907,300 visitors and participation from 2,769 publishing houses from 64 countries.
As sales of trade books in the U.S. have stalled since the pandemic peak, publishers are taking a harder look at expanding into international markets. How to best break into different territories was the focus of the November webinar “Publishing Now Fall ’24: Strategies for Success in International Markets.” (Sponsored)
Nanjing University professor Zhou Xian's outstanding work on cross-cultural research, 'A Theoretical Journey Across Cultures,' is now available in French. (Sponsored)
Growing global interest in Spanish-language content brought renewed energy to the Guadalajara International Book Fair this year, pushing the number of participating professionals beyond pre-pandemic levels.
The International Publishers Association awarded this year’s Prix Voltaire to Gaza-based publisher Samir Mansour, with a special award given to the late Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who was killed last year in a Russian missile attack.
The annual award, given by Barcelona-based publisher Editorial Anagrama, was shared by two authors this year—Xita Rubert (l.) and Cynthia Rimsky—for only the second time in its history.
Uri Levine, a cofounder of Waze and the author of 'Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution,' argues that unicorn companies and bestselling books have a lot in common.
More than 320 publishing-related tech startups, nearly all of them AI-related, have launched over the past two years. What impact they will have on the book business remains uncertain.
Mvua Press adds to a short, but growing, list of African independent publishers in a market where books, typically priced between $20 and $30, are beyond the means of many to buy.
Research commissioned by the British Council in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe found several successful trade publishers—and significant growth in self-publishing—despite growing costs and widespread piracy.
In honor of Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Norway has launched a new translation award and lecture series. The inaugural prize, worth $45,000, was won by Norwegian-German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, and the first lecturer will be French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.
Consumers listened to an average of 8.8 audiobooks last year in China, where enjoying audiobooks is a communal experience—one that can even include family pets.
One of the biggest foreign rights stories in book publishing this year is the resurgence in popularity of Japanese fiction, whose unique qualities are the result not just of cultural differences but of the distinct structure of the market.
HarperCollins Germany has acquired lifestyle and travel book publisher Gräfe und Unzer, which was founded in 1722. The acquisition will more than double HarperCollins’s operations in Germany.
Più libri più liberi (More Books, More Freedom), scheduled for December 4-8 at Rome's La Nuvola convention center, will showcase independent Italian publishers under the theme "The Measure of the World," a commemoration of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death.
Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina, whose two recently translated works from Harvard University Press examine the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, hopes her writing will serve as both testament and warning.
The Audio Forum at BolognaBookPlus will return next year on April 2 with a roster of industry speakers, and crime novelist Tom Benjamin has been named BolognaBookPlus 2025 author ambassador.
The recently announced plan from Veen Bosch & Keuning, the major Dutch publisher bought by Simon & Schuster in May, to use artificial intelligence for English-language translations has prompted pushback from industry organizations.
Despite recent challenges, the Chinese children’s book market, comprised of 370 million children and young adults, remains a big draw for publishers, making CCBF an important stop for companies looking to increase their sales in the country.
In a rapidly evolving publishing landscape, the executive director of the CCC is taking the lead on addressing one of the industry’s most pressing concerns: the use of copyrighted material in artificial intelligence systems.
Alison Tweed, CEO of U.K.–based charity Book Aid International, describes the destruction of libraries in Lebanon, Ukraine, and Iraq and advises on how the book business can help to rebuild them.
The literary agent with Armenia’s First Literary Agency describes the challenges facing the Armenian publishing industry and the necessity to be “persistent, patient, and flexible” in pursuing book deals from a small country.
The English novelist has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her latest, which follows six crew members on a space station as they orbit Earth over the course of a nine-month mission.
Tora Åsling, policy officer at the European and International Booksellers Federation, discusses the recently published RISE Bookselling Study on Consumer Behavior, which revealed book-buying trends, reading habits, and customer needs in 19 markets across the world.
The 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair opened on November 6 and will run through November 17. But the SIBF is only one event in which the Emirate of Sharjah, through the Sharjah Book Authority, has been showcased around the world.
The 11th Sharjah International Library Conference takes place on November 9-10, the first weekend of this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair. The SILC brings together 250 librarians annually from the MENA region and beyond to learn and share the latest trends and issues within global librarianship.
Jraissati, who established the agency in 2004 and has become one of the top literary agents working with Arabic authors, discusses the development of the rights and translation market for books from the Middle East and North Africa.
Daisy Meyrick and Helen Manders, two of CAA’s leading foreign rights agents, discuss current market trends, emerging opportunities, and the evolving nature of their work in an increasingly complex global publishing landscape.
Veteran literary agent Milly Ruggiero, currently foreign rights manager at the Rights Factory, spoke with PW about her new literary agency, Booklé, based in Naples, Italy.
The first Diwan bookshop opened in Cairo 2002, with further branches and other activities added over the years, the most recent of which was Diwan Publishing in 2021. We talked to Layal Al-Rusom and Ahmed Al-Qarmalawi, two of the four founders of Diwan Publishing in Cairo, about their expanding business.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s PublisHer initiative is working to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through partnerships in the international book business and beyond.
With more than 13 million titles in its global print-on-demand catalog and a new Lightning Source facility in Sharjah, John Ingram sees no impediment for growing interest and sales of Arabic content globally.
Across Europe, English-language editions are becoming increasingly popular, which affects the sales of local translated editions. One rights agent warns of “a massively dire state for foreign-language editions in certain markets.”
Nermin Mollaoğlu of the Kalem Agency of Istanbul, Turkey, and Ahmed Bedeir, general manager at Dar El Shorouk in Egypt, have been named the winners of this year's Sharjah Rights Connection Awards.
The Sharjah International Literacy Agency, which launched in 2021, aims to boost regional Arabic publishing, promote Arabic literary and cultural content globally, and more.
After aggressively adding 1,000 titles to its catalog in its first year, the company has emerged as a trailblazer in the Arabic-language audiobook and e-book market, and intends to increase the accessibility of Arabic digital content globally.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority and CEO of Kalimat Group, discusses the trends impacting her publishing company, the industry in the U.A.E., and future of the PublisHer community for women in publishing.
This year, the Sharjah Publishers Conference offered keynote talks and round table workshops on Sunday, November 3, with matchmaking sessions set for Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, introduces this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, which will host participants from 106 countries.
Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority, offers his own welcome to this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, as “we stand at the threshold of a new era in the publishing industry.”
BookTok is playing an increasingly important role in international book sales, according to new data from Nielsen BookData, as its global research points to “strong fiction, declining nonfiction, and slower price increases.”
In August, Interlink Publishing founders Michel and Ruth Moushabeck passed the Northampton, Mass.–based press on to their daughters Hannah, Leyla, and Maha, and son-in-law, Harrison Williams. The Palestinian American–owned press aims to be “a publishing house for the movement.”
The new online bookstore, aimed at readers in mainland China, is run in partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, and offers nearly 1,000 English-language print-on-demand titles.
Croatian publisher Ivan Sršen discusses the surprising success of Sandorf Passage, a U.S. publishing house focused on translations from Eastern Europe.
Chinese children’s literature writer and child psychology expert Bao Dongni, who's written numerous titles in the World Chinese Graded Readers series, spoke towithPW about where she finds inspiration for her fiction and nonfiction, her most memorable reader letters, and why these books are such effective tools for teaching kids Chinese. (Sponsored)
The Ingram Content Group will have a large presence at the 2024 Guadalajara Book Fair as the company seeks to significantly expand its engagement with Spanish-language publishers, retailers, authors, and other professionals.
Production has ramped up significantly over the past year, according to Dosdoce founder Javier Celaya, who will keynote the FIL’s 2024 audiobooks forum.
Spain’s guest of honor program at FIL will feature 150 authors from 60 publishing houses.
The 2024 Guadalajara International Book Fair will feature thousands of events, including an extensive program hosted by this year’s guest of honor nation.
As the Frankfurt Book Fair's professional program wraps up today, fair director Jurgen Boos reported a rise in trade visitors and a pivot to catering to consumers, many drawn by the rise of "new adult" publishing.
Freedom to read is imperiled in a world that is ill at ease with the idea of freedom of thought, of feeling, of difference. No one knows this better than Elif Shafak, the Turkish author of 20 books translated into 50 languages, who spoke at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair's opening press conference.
Ukraine has once again made a powerful statement at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair with its national stand themed “Reclaiming the Voice,” a poignant reflection of the country’s struggle to maintain its cultural identity amid ongoing conflict.
In what has been generally a drama-free event, the focus at this year's fair was on doing deals as the international publishing business settles into a post-pandemic rhythm.
Kim Hyung Joo, head of webtoons at leading digital publishing platform Munpia, discusses the growth of the billion-dollar Korean webcomic business.
The new publishing company combines AI-generated prompts with human creativity and editing, aiming to help authors—particularly busy professionals—transform their ideas into submission-ready manuscripts.
The outgoing IPA president reflects on her two-year tenure and her new project promoting reading in Latin America.
RELX Group remains in the number one slot, with sales at the STM and legal publisher holding relatively even at $6.3 billion, while Japan’s Hitotsubashi Group moved into the seventh spot due to the further integration of two publishers the holding company owns.
MediaScout aims to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation, explained Margaret Hepp Harrison, VP of digital services at Ingram Content Group, who is leading the project. The service made its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Publishing executives are rarely far from the podium at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this year, things looked a bit different: Simon & Schuster was joined onstage by its new owner, Hachette in the U.S. and U.K. was represented by just one CEO, and the former head of Penguin Random House U.S. extolled the virtues of disrupting the publishing model.
AI is a powerful tool, writes 'PW' senior international and bookselling editor Ed Nawotka. But the one thing AI is worst at is exactly the one thing the publishing industry is best at: storytelling.
In January, David Shelley took on a new role for Hachette, as CEO of an English-language management structure that united Hachette U.K. and the Hachette Book Group in the U.S. Ahead of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, 'PW' caught up with Shelley to talk about his expanded role, and to get his take on the state of global publishing.
Set for a September 23, 2025 publication, Follett’s 'Circle of Days' is one of the first big worldwide English-language acquisitions Hachette made under its new structure, and hopes are high the book will be yet another major bestseller for the author.
Ahead of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Scribner preempts Portia Elan’s debut novel, S&S takes English-language rights to Naomi Ishiguro's Japanese folklore–inspired fantasy series, and Inklore signs a 12-book deal with James Tynion IV.
The opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair featured fair director Juergen Boos extolling the inclusive, democratic values of the fair.
'Skin Contact' is the first acquisition in what will be "a close partnership" between Arthur's imprint and Hachette UK's Sceptre, made just before the start of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, U.S. agents will feature works by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Patti Callahan Henry, Rob Franklin, Amy Tan, and many more in a bustling LitAg.
The IPA has elected Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia its next president and Giovanni Hoepli of Italy its next vice president. Guatemala has joined the organization as a full member, and Croatia, the Dominican Republic, and Poland have joined as provisional members.
"Content is everything,” says Zhang Chaoyang, president of Nanjing-based Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG), which is ranked among the top 10 on the Global 50 publishing list since 2019. Zhang’s vision has led to Phoenix creating 26 brands, each differentiated by a unique logo, a distinctive book cover design, and a focus on a specific discipline or theme. (Sponsored)
The International Publishers Association is encouraging publishers to document the actions they are taking to support the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals in advance of this year’s IPA Congress in November.
Slated to go into effect next June, the EAA mandates that a range of products and services, including e-books, e-readers, and e-commerce websites, are accessible to people with disabilities.
Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles series, among other titles, has launched Horned Lark Press, a new Canadian publishing house focused on fantasy and science fiction with an emphasis on anti-authoritarian themes.
The agreement to buy the Melbourne-based independent publisher is Simon & Schuster's second overseas acquisition since it was bought by KKR late last year.
Slated to shutter in December after 59 years in business, ‘BuchMarkt’ will become the second key German trade magazine to close this year following the loss of ‘Buchreport’ in January.
This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met.
September Publishing in the U.K. has been acquired by Duckworth Books for an undisclosed sum, and will operate as an independent imprint under the Duckworth brand.
The 13-strong longlist for this year's Booker Prize has been announced. Among those listed are three debut novelists and several marquee names, including Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, and Richard Powers. Six Americans made this year's list.
The U.K. distributor United Independent Distributors and its subsidiary companies Marston Book Services, Orca Book Services, and Eurospan—all owned by Independent Publishers Group since October 2021—went into administration on July 25.
Independent Publishers Group, which is the U.S. owner of the U.K.–based book distributor, is seeking buyers for the company amid threats of winding up petitions.
Though 142 new bookshops opened in France last year, low margins and a decline in sales volume as a result of inflation may pose huge risks to the country’s bookselling sector.
Ballanco, senior VP and chief information officer at Hachette Book Group, will retire on September 27, with Brendan Goss, currently CIO of Hachette UK, to assume the newly created role of group CIO of HBG and HUK.
Damage to the Factor Druk printing plant, which produced a third of all of Ukraine's books, is causing shipping delays and price hikes. Support for a recovery, which may take six months, is coming from the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, among others.
Stephanie Jackson has been tapped to lead the Life segment, including the recently announced imprint DK Red, at DK Living, the publisher’s adult division, effective November 1.
This year's top stories from abroad include booming English-language book sales across Europe, publishers rallying in support of Palestine, and more.
Mack has announced a new publishing imprint, Important Flowers, run by filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Its first three titles will be released next year.
The brief war of bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah this year destroyed millions of books in Lebanon, disrupting a Lebanese production sector that is critical to the book publishing business in the Middle East.
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and incoming International Publishers Association president Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia described how Russia's attacks on their countries are an augury of worse things to come if Russia’s expansionism is not stopped.
The Guadalajara International Book Fair hosted its first forum dedicated exclusively to audiobooks, reflecting the format's increasing popularity and recent production surge in Spanish-language markets.
Rebellion Developments began life as a video game production studio, but over the past 25 years, it has become a force in the U.K. publishing industry, developing robust businesses around valuable IPs including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.
This year's Guadalajara International Book Fair, which closed on Sunday, was the largest in the event's 38-year history, with a preliminary attendance of 907,300 visitors and participation from 2,769 publishing houses from 64 countries.
As sales of trade books in the U.S. have stalled since the pandemic peak, publishers are taking a harder look at expanding into international markets. How to best break into different territories was the focus of the November webinar “Publishing Now Fall ’24: Strategies for Success in International Markets.” (Sponsored)
Nanjing University professor Zhou Xian's outstanding work on cross-cultural research, 'A Theoretical Journey Across Cultures,' is now available in French. (Sponsored)
Growing global interest in Spanish-language content brought renewed energy to the Guadalajara International Book Fair this year, pushing the number of participating professionals beyond pre-pandemic levels.
The International Publishers Association awarded this year’s Prix Voltaire to Gaza-based publisher Samir Mansour, with a special award given to the late Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who was killed last year in a Russian missile attack.
The annual award, given by Barcelona-based publisher Editorial Anagrama, was shared by two authors this year—Xita Rubert (l.) and Cynthia Rimsky—for only the second time in its history.
Uri Levine, a cofounder of Waze and the author of 'Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution,' argues that unicorn companies and bestselling books have a lot in common.
More than 320 publishing-related tech startups, nearly all of them AI-related, have launched over the past two years. What impact they will have on the book business remains uncertain.
Mvua Press adds to a short, but growing, list of African independent publishers in a market where books, typically priced between $20 and $30, are beyond the means of many to buy.
Research commissioned by the British Council in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe found several successful trade publishers—and significant growth in self-publishing—despite growing costs and widespread piracy.
In honor of Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Norway has launched a new translation award and lecture series. The inaugural prize, worth $45,000, was won by Norwegian-German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, and the first lecturer will be French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.
Consumers listened to an average of 8.8 audiobooks last year in China, where enjoying audiobooks is a communal experience—one that can even include family pets.
One of the biggest foreign rights stories in book publishing this year is the resurgence in popularity of Japanese fiction, whose unique qualities are the result not just of cultural differences but of the distinct structure of the market.
HarperCollins Germany has acquired lifestyle and travel book publisher Gräfe und Unzer, which was founded in 1722. The acquisition will more than double HarperCollins’s operations in Germany.
Più libri più liberi (More Books, More Freedom), scheduled for December 4-8 at Rome's La Nuvola convention center, will showcase independent Italian publishers under the theme "The Measure of the World," a commemoration of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death.
Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina, whose two recently translated works from Harvard University Press examine the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, hopes her writing will serve as both testament and warning.
The Audio Forum at BolognaBookPlus will return next year on April 2 with a roster of industry speakers, and crime novelist Tom Benjamin has been named BolognaBookPlus 2025 author ambassador.
The recently announced plan from Veen Bosch & Keuning, the major Dutch publisher bought by Simon & Schuster in May, to use artificial intelligence for English-language translations has prompted pushback from industry organizations.
Despite recent challenges, the Chinese children’s book market, comprised of 370 million children and young adults, remains a big draw for publishers, making CCBF an important stop for companies looking to increase their sales in the country.
In a rapidly evolving publishing landscape, the executive director of the CCC is taking the lead on addressing one of the industry’s most pressing concerns: the use of copyrighted material in artificial intelligence systems.
Alison Tweed, CEO of U.K.–based charity Book Aid International, describes the destruction of libraries in Lebanon, Ukraine, and Iraq and advises on how the book business can help to rebuild them.
The literary agent with Armenia’s First Literary Agency describes the challenges facing the Armenian publishing industry and the necessity to be “persistent, patient, and flexible” in pursuing book deals from a small country.
The English novelist has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her latest, which follows six crew members on a space station as they orbit Earth over the course of a nine-month mission.
Tora Åsling, policy officer at the European and International Booksellers Federation, discusses the recently published RISE Bookselling Study on Consumer Behavior, which revealed book-buying trends, reading habits, and customer needs in 19 markets across the world.
The 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair opened on November 6 and will run through November 17. But the SIBF is only one event in which the Emirate of Sharjah, through the Sharjah Book Authority, has been showcased around the world.
The 11th Sharjah International Library Conference takes place on November 9-10, the first weekend of this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair. The SILC brings together 250 librarians annually from the MENA region and beyond to learn and share the latest trends and issues within global librarianship.
Jraissati, who established the agency in 2004 and has become one of the top literary agents working with Arabic authors, discusses the development of the rights and translation market for books from the Middle East and North Africa.
Daisy Meyrick and Helen Manders, two of CAA’s leading foreign rights agents, discuss current market trends, emerging opportunities, and the evolving nature of their work in an increasingly complex global publishing landscape.
Veteran literary agent Milly Ruggiero, currently foreign rights manager at the Rights Factory, spoke with PW about her new literary agency, Booklé, based in Naples, Italy.
The first Diwan bookshop opened in Cairo 2002, with further branches and other activities added over the years, the most recent of which was Diwan Publishing in 2021. We talked to Layal Al-Rusom and Ahmed Al-Qarmalawi, two of the four founders of Diwan Publishing in Cairo, about their expanding business.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s PublisHer initiative is working to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through partnerships in the international book business and beyond.
With more than 13 million titles in its global print-on-demand catalog and a new Lightning Source facility in Sharjah, John Ingram sees no impediment for growing interest and sales of Arabic content globally.
Across Europe, English-language editions are becoming increasingly popular, which affects the sales of local translated editions. One rights agent warns of “a massively dire state for foreign-language editions in certain markets.”
Nermin Mollaoğlu of the Kalem Agency of Istanbul, Turkey, and Ahmed Bedeir, general manager at Dar El Shorouk in Egypt, have been named the winners of this year's Sharjah Rights Connection Awards.
The Sharjah International Literacy Agency, which launched in 2021, aims to boost regional Arabic publishing, promote Arabic literary and cultural content globally, and more.
After aggressively adding 1,000 titles to its catalog in its first year, the company has emerged as a trailblazer in the Arabic-language audiobook and e-book market, and intends to increase the accessibility of Arabic digital content globally.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority and CEO of Kalimat Group, discusses the trends impacting her publishing company, the industry in the U.A.E., and future of the PublisHer community for women in publishing.
This year, the Sharjah Publishers Conference offered keynote talks and round table workshops on Sunday, November 3, with matchmaking sessions set for Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, introduces this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, which will host participants from 106 countries.
Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority, offers his own welcome to this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, as “we stand at the threshold of a new era in the publishing industry.”
BookTok is playing an increasingly important role in international book sales, according to new data from Nielsen BookData, as its global research points to “strong fiction, declining nonfiction, and slower price increases.”
In August, Interlink Publishing founders Michel and Ruth Moushabeck passed the Northampton, Mass.–based press on to their daughters Hannah, Leyla, and Maha, and son-in-law, Harrison Williams. The Palestinian American–owned press aims to be “a publishing house for the movement.”
The new online bookstore, aimed at readers in mainland China, is run in partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, and offers nearly 1,000 English-language print-on-demand titles.
Croatian publisher Ivan Sršen discusses the surprising success of Sandorf Passage, a U.S. publishing house focused on translations from Eastern Europe.
Chinese children’s literature writer and child psychology expert Bao Dongni, who's written numerous titles in the World Chinese Graded Readers series, spoke towithPW about where she finds inspiration for her fiction and nonfiction, her most memorable reader letters, and why these books are such effective tools for teaching kids Chinese. (Sponsored)
The Ingram Content Group will have a large presence at the 2024 Guadalajara Book Fair as the company seeks to significantly expand its engagement with Spanish-language publishers, retailers, authors, and other professionals.
Production has ramped up significantly over the past year, according to Dosdoce founder Javier Celaya, who will keynote the FIL’s 2024 audiobooks forum.
Spain’s guest of honor program at FIL will feature 150 authors from 60 publishing houses.
The 2024 Guadalajara International Book Fair will feature thousands of events, including an extensive program hosted by this year’s guest of honor nation.
As the Frankfurt Book Fair's professional program wraps up today, fair director Jurgen Boos reported a rise in trade visitors and a pivot to catering to consumers, many drawn by the rise of "new adult" publishing.
Freedom to read is imperiled in a world that is ill at ease with the idea of freedom of thought, of feeling, of difference. No one knows this better than Elif Shafak, the Turkish author of 20 books translated into 50 languages, who spoke at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair's opening press conference.
Ukraine has once again made a powerful statement at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair with its national stand themed “Reclaiming the Voice,” a poignant reflection of the country’s struggle to maintain its cultural identity amid ongoing conflict.
In what has been generally a drama-free event, the focus at this year's fair was on doing deals as the international publishing business settles into a post-pandemic rhythm.
Kim Hyung Joo, head of webtoons at leading digital publishing platform Munpia, discusses the growth of the billion-dollar Korean webcomic business.
The new publishing company combines AI-generated prompts with human creativity and editing, aiming to help authors—particularly busy professionals—transform their ideas into submission-ready manuscripts.
The outgoing IPA president reflects on her two-year tenure and her new project promoting reading in Latin America.
RELX Group remains in the number one slot, with sales at the STM and legal publisher holding relatively even at $6.3 billion, while Japan’s Hitotsubashi Group moved into the seventh spot due to the further integration of two publishers the holding company owns.
MediaScout aims to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation, explained Margaret Hepp Harrison, VP of digital services at Ingram Content Group, who is leading the project. The service made its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Publishing executives are rarely far from the podium at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this year, things looked a bit different: Simon & Schuster was joined onstage by its new owner, Hachette in the U.S. and U.K. was represented by just one CEO, and the former head of Penguin Random House U.S. extolled the virtues of disrupting the publishing model.
AI is a powerful tool, writes 'PW' senior international and bookselling editor Ed Nawotka. But the one thing AI is worst at is exactly the one thing the publishing industry is best at: storytelling.
In January, David Shelley took on a new role for Hachette, as CEO of an English-language management structure that united Hachette U.K. and the Hachette Book Group in the U.S. Ahead of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, 'PW' caught up with Shelley to talk about his expanded role, and to get his take on the state of global publishing.
Set for a September 23, 2025 publication, Follett’s 'Circle of Days' is one of the first big worldwide English-language acquisitions Hachette made under its new structure, and hopes are high the book will be yet another major bestseller for the author.
Ahead of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Scribner preempts Portia Elan’s debut novel, S&S takes English-language rights to Naomi Ishiguro's Japanese folklore–inspired fantasy series, and Inklore signs a 12-book deal with James Tynion IV.
The opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair featured fair director Juergen Boos extolling the inclusive, democratic values of the fair.
'Skin Contact' is the first acquisition in what will be "a close partnership" between Arthur's imprint and Hachette UK's Sceptre, made just before the start of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, U.S. agents will feature works by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Patti Callahan Henry, Rob Franklin, Amy Tan, and many more in a bustling LitAg.
The IPA has elected Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia its next president and Giovanni Hoepli of Italy its next vice president. Guatemala has joined the organization as a full member, and Croatia, the Dominican Republic, and Poland have joined as provisional members.
"Content is everything,” says Zhang Chaoyang, president of Nanjing-based Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG), which is ranked among the top 10 on the Global 50 publishing list since 2019. Zhang’s vision has led to Phoenix creating 26 brands, each differentiated by a unique logo, a distinctive book cover design, and a focus on a specific discipline or theme. (Sponsored)
The International Publishers Association is encouraging publishers to document the actions they are taking to support the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals in advance of this year’s IPA Congress in November.
Slated to go into effect next June, the EAA mandates that a range of products and services, including e-books, e-readers, and e-commerce websites, are accessible to people with disabilities.
Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles series, among other titles, has launched Horned Lark Press, a new Canadian publishing house focused on fantasy and science fiction with an emphasis on anti-authoritarian themes.
The agreement to buy the Melbourne-based independent publisher is Simon & Schuster's second overseas acquisition since it was bought by KKR late last year.
Slated to shutter in December after 59 years in business, ‘BuchMarkt’ will become the second key German trade magazine to close this year following the loss of ‘Buchreport’ in January.
This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met.
September Publishing in the U.K. has been acquired by Duckworth Books for an undisclosed sum, and will operate as an independent imprint under the Duckworth brand.
The 13-strong longlist for this year's Booker Prize has been announced. Among those listed are three debut novelists and several marquee names, including Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, and Richard Powers. Six Americans made this year's list.
The U.K. distributor United Independent Distributors and its subsidiary companies Marston Book Services, Orca Book Services, and Eurospan—all owned by Independent Publishers Group since October 2021—went into administration on July 25.
Independent Publishers Group, which is the U.S. owner of the U.K.–based book distributor, is seeking buyers for the company amid threats of winding up petitions.
Though 142 new bookshops opened in France last year, low margins and a decline in sales volume as a result of inflation may pose huge risks to the country’s bookselling sector.
Ballanco, senior VP and chief information officer at Hachette Book Group, will retire on September 27, with Brendan Goss, currently CIO of Hachette UK, to assume the newly created role of group CIO of HBG and HUK.
Damage to the Factor Druk printing plant, which produced a third of all of Ukraine's books, is causing shipping delays and price hikes. Support for a recovery, which may take six months, is coming from the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, among others.
Stephanie Jackson has been tapped to lead the Life segment, including the recently announced imprint DK Red, at DK Living, the publisher’s adult division, effective November 1.
This year's top stories from abroad include booming English-language book sales across Europe, publishers rallying in support of Palestine, and more.
Mack has announced a new publishing imprint, Important Flowers, run by filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Its first three titles will be released next year.
The brief war of bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah this year destroyed millions of books in Lebanon, disrupting a Lebanese production sector that is critical to the book publishing business in the Middle East.
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and incoming International Publishers Association president Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia described how Russia's attacks on their countries are an augury of worse things to come if Russia’s expansionism is not stopped.
The Guadalajara International Book Fair hosted its first forum dedicated exclusively to audiobooks, reflecting the format's increasing popularity and recent production surge in Spanish-language markets.
Rebellion Developments began life as a video game production studio, but over the past 25 years, it has become a force in the U.K. publishing industry, developing robust businesses around valuable IPs including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.
This year's Guadalajara International Book Fair, which closed on Sunday, was the largest in the event's 38-year history, with a preliminary attendance of 907,300 visitors and participation from 2,769 publishing houses from 64 countries.
As sales of trade books in the U.S. have stalled since the pandemic peak, publishers are taking a harder look at expanding into international markets. How to best break into different territories was the focus of the November webinar “Publishing Now Fall ’24: Strategies for Success in International Markets.” (Sponsored)
Nanjing University professor Zhou Xian's outstanding work on cross-cultural research, 'A Theoretical Journey Across Cultures,' is now available in French. (Sponsored)
Growing global interest in Spanish-language content brought renewed energy to the Guadalajara International Book Fair this year, pushing the number of participating professionals beyond pre-pandemic levels.
The International Publishers Association awarded this year’s Prix Voltaire to Gaza-based publisher Samir Mansour, with a special award given to the late Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who was killed last year in a Russian missile attack.
The annual award, given by Barcelona-based publisher Editorial Anagrama, was shared by two authors this year—Xita Rubert (l.) and Cynthia Rimsky—for only the second time in its history.
Uri Levine, a cofounder of Waze and the author of 'Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution,' argues that unicorn companies and bestselling books have a lot in common.
More than 320 publishing-related tech startups, nearly all of them AI-related, have launched over the past two years. What impact they will have on the book business remains uncertain.
Mvua Press adds to a short, but growing, list of African independent publishers in a market where books, typically priced between $20 and $30, are beyond the means of many to buy.
Research commissioned by the British Council in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe found several successful trade publishers—and significant growth in self-publishing—despite growing costs and widespread piracy.
In honor of Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Norway has launched a new translation award and lecture series. The inaugural prize, worth $45,000, was won by Norwegian-German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, and the first lecturer will be French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.
Consumers listened to an average of 8.8 audiobooks last year in China, where enjoying audiobooks is a communal experience—one that can even include family pets.
One of the biggest foreign rights stories in book publishing this year is the resurgence in popularity of Japanese fiction, whose unique qualities are the result not just of cultural differences but of the distinct structure of the market.
HarperCollins Germany has acquired lifestyle and travel book publisher Gräfe und Unzer, which was founded in 1722. The acquisition will more than double HarperCollins’s operations in Germany.
Più libri più liberi (More Books, More Freedom), scheduled for December 4-8 at Rome's La Nuvola convention center, will showcase independent Italian publishers under the theme "The Measure of the World," a commemoration of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death.
Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina, whose two recently translated works from Harvard University Press examine the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, hopes her writing will serve as both testament and warning.
The Audio Forum at BolognaBookPlus will return next year on April 2 with a roster of industry speakers, and crime novelist Tom Benjamin has been named BolognaBookPlus 2025 author ambassador.
The recently announced plan from Veen Bosch & Keuning, the major Dutch publisher bought by Simon & Schuster in May, to use artificial intelligence for English-language translations has prompted pushback from industry organizations.
Despite recent challenges, the Chinese children’s book market, comprised of 370 million children and young adults, remains a big draw for publishers, making CCBF an important stop for companies looking to increase their sales in the country.
In a rapidly evolving publishing landscape, the executive director of the CCC is taking the lead on addressing one of the industry’s most pressing concerns: the use of copyrighted material in artificial intelligence systems.
Alison Tweed, CEO of U.K.–based charity Book Aid International, describes the destruction of libraries in Lebanon, Ukraine, and Iraq and advises on how the book business can help to rebuild them.
The literary agent with Armenia’s First Literary Agency describes the challenges facing the Armenian publishing industry and the necessity to be “persistent, patient, and flexible” in pursuing book deals from a small country.
The English novelist has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her latest, which follows six crew members on a space station as they orbit Earth over the course of a nine-month mission.
Tora Åsling, policy officer at the European and International Booksellers Federation, discusses the recently published RISE Bookselling Study on Consumer Behavior, which revealed book-buying trends, reading habits, and customer needs in 19 markets across the world.
The 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair opened on November 6 and will run through November 17. But the SIBF is only one event in which the Emirate of Sharjah, through the Sharjah Book Authority, has been showcased around the world.
The 11th Sharjah International Library Conference takes place on November 9-10, the first weekend of this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair. The SILC brings together 250 librarians annually from the MENA region and beyond to learn and share the latest trends and issues within global librarianship.
Jraissati, who established the agency in 2004 and has become one of the top literary agents working with Arabic authors, discusses the development of the rights and translation market for books from the Middle East and North Africa.
Daisy Meyrick and Helen Manders, two of CAA’s leading foreign rights agents, discuss current market trends, emerging opportunities, and the evolving nature of their work in an increasingly complex global publishing landscape.
Veteran literary agent Milly Ruggiero, currently foreign rights manager at the Rights Factory, spoke with PW about her new literary agency, Booklé, based in Naples, Italy.
The first Diwan bookshop opened in Cairo 2002, with further branches and other activities added over the years, the most recent of which was Diwan Publishing in 2021. We talked to Layal Al-Rusom and Ahmed Al-Qarmalawi, two of the four founders of Diwan Publishing in Cairo, about their expanding business.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s PublisHer initiative is working to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through partnerships in the international book business and beyond.
With more than 13 million titles in its global print-on-demand catalog and a new Lightning Source facility in Sharjah, John Ingram sees no impediment for growing interest and sales of Arabic content globally.
Across Europe, English-language editions are becoming increasingly popular, which affects the sales of local translated editions. One rights agent warns of “a massively dire state for foreign-language editions in certain markets.”
Nermin Mollaoğlu of the Kalem Agency of Istanbul, Turkey, and Ahmed Bedeir, general manager at Dar El Shorouk in Egypt, have been named the winners of this year's Sharjah Rights Connection Awards.
The Sharjah International Literacy Agency, which launched in 2021, aims to boost regional Arabic publishing, promote Arabic literary and cultural content globally, and more.
After aggressively adding 1,000 titles to its catalog in its first year, the company has emerged as a trailblazer in the Arabic-language audiobook and e-book market, and intends to increase the accessibility of Arabic digital content globally.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority and CEO of Kalimat Group, discusses the trends impacting her publishing company, the industry in the U.A.E., and future of the PublisHer community for women in publishing.
This year, the Sharjah Publishers Conference offered keynote talks and round table workshops on Sunday, November 3, with matchmaking sessions set for Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, introduces this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, which will host participants from 106 countries.
Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority, offers his own welcome to this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, as “we stand at the threshold of a new era in the publishing industry.”
BookTok is playing an increasingly important role in international book sales, according to new data from Nielsen BookData, as its global research points to “strong fiction, declining nonfiction, and slower price increases.”
In August, Interlink Publishing founders Michel and Ruth Moushabeck passed the Northampton, Mass.–based press on to their daughters Hannah, Leyla, and Maha, and son-in-law, Harrison Williams. The Palestinian American–owned press aims to be “a publishing house for the movement.”
The new online bookstore, aimed at readers in mainland China, is run in partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, and offers nearly 1,000 English-language print-on-demand titles.
Croatian publisher Ivan Sršen discusses the surprising success of Sandorf Passage, a U.S. publishing house focused on translations from Eastern Europe.
Chinese children’s literature writer and child psychology expert Bao Dongni, who's written numerous titles in the World Chinese Graded Readers series, spoke towithPW about where she finds inspiration for her fiction and nonfiction, her most memorable reader letters, and why these books are such effective tools for teaching kids Chinese. (Sponsored)
The Ingram Content Group will have a large presence at the 2024 Guadalajara Book Fair as the company seeks to significantly expand its engagement with Spanish-language publishers, retailers, authors, and other professionals.
Production has ramped up significantly over the past year, according to Dosdoce founder Javier Celaya, who will keynote the FIL’s 2024 audiobooks forum.
Spain’s guest of honor program at FIL will feature 150 authors from 60 publishing houses.
The 2024 Guadalajara International Book Fair will feature thousands of events, including an extensive program hosted by this year’s guest of honor nation.
As the Frankfurt Book Fair's professional program wraps up today, fair director Jurgen Boos reported a rise in trade visitors and a pivot to catering to consumers, many drawn by the rise of "new adult" publishing.
Freedom to read is imperiled in a world that is ill at ease with the idea of freedom of thought, of feeling, of difference. No one knows this better than Elif Shafak, the Turkish author of 20 books translated into 50 languages, who spoke at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair's opening press conference.
Ukraine has once again made a powerful statement at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair with its national stand themed “Reclaiming the Voice,” a poignant reflection of the country’s struggle to maintain its cultural identity amid ongoing conflict.
In what has been generally a drama-free event, the focus at this year's fair was on doing deals as the international publishing business settles into a post-pandemic rhythm.
Kim Hyung Joo, head of webtoons at leading digital publishing platform Munpia, discusses the growth of the billion-dollar Korean webcomic business.
The new publishing company combines AI-generated prompts with human creativity and editing, aiming to help authors—particularly busy professionals—transform their ideas into submission-ready manuscripts.
The outgoing IPA president reflects on her two-year tenure and her new project promoting reading in Latin America.
RELX Group remains in the number one slot, with sales at the STM and legal publisher holding relatively even at $6.3 billion, while Japan’s Hitotsubashi Group moved into the seventh spot due to the further integration of two publishers the holding company owns.
MediaScout aims to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation, explained Margaret Hepp Harrison, VP of digital services at Ingram Content Group, who is leading the project. The service made its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Publishing executives are rarely far from the podium at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this year, things looked a bit different: Simon & Schuster was joined onstage by its new owner, Hachette in the U.S. and U.K. was represented by just one CEO, and the former head of Penguin Random House U.S. extolled the virtues of disrupting the publishing model.
AI is a powerful tool, writes 'PW' senior international and bookselling editor Ed Nawotka. But the one thing AI is worst at is exactly the one thing the publishing industry is best at: storytelling.
In January, David Shelley took on a new role for Hachette, as CEO of an English-language management structure that united Hachette U.K. and the Hachette Book Group in the U.S. Ahead of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, 'PW' caught up with Shelley to talk about his expanded role, and to get his take on the state of global publishing.
Set for a September 23, 2025 publication, Follett’s 'Circle of Days' is one of the first big worldwide English-language acquisitions Hachette made under its new structure, and hopes are high the book will be yet another major bestseller for the author.
Ahead of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Scribner preempts Portia Elan’s debut novel, S&S takes English-language rights to Naomi Ishiguro's Japanese folklore–inspired fantasy series, and Inklore signs a 12-book deal with James Tynion IV.
The opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair featured fair director Juergen Boos extolling the inclusive, democratic values of the fair.
'Skin Contact' is the first acquisition in what will be "a close partnership" between Arthur's imprint and Hachette UK's Sceptre, made just before the start of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, U.S. agents will feature works by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Patti Callahan Henry, Rob Franklin, Amy Tan, and many more in a bustling LitAg.
The IPA has elected Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia its next president and Giovanni Hoepli of Italy its next vice president. Guatemala has joined the organization as a full member, and Croatia, the Dominican Republic, and Poland have joined as provisional members.
"Content is everything,” says Zhang Chaoyang, president of Nanjing-based Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG), which is ranked among the top 10 on the Global 50 publishing list since 2019. Zhang’s vision has led to Phoenix creating 26 brands, each differentiated by a unique logo, a distinctive book cover design, and a focus on a specific discipline or theme. (Sponsored)
The International Publishers Association is encouraging publishers to document the actions they are taking to support the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals in advance of this year’s IPA Congress in November.
Slated to go into effect next June, the EAA mandates that a range of products and services, including e-books, e-readers, and e-commerce websites, are accessible to people with disabilities.
Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles series, among other titles, has launched Horned Lark Press, a new Canadian publishing house focused on fantasy and science fiction with an emphasis on anti-authoritarian themes.
The agreement to buy the Melbourne-based independent publisher is Simon & Schuster's second overseas acquisition since it was bought by KKR late last year.
Slated to shutter in December after 59 years in business, ‘BuchMarkt’ will become the second key German trade magazine to close this year following the loss of ‘Buchreport’ in January.
This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met.
September Publishing in the U.K. has been acquired by Duckworth Books for an undisclosed sum, and will operate as an independent imprint under the Duckworth brand.
The 13-strong longlist for this year's Booker Prize has been announced. Among those listed are three debut novelists and several marquee names, including Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, and Richard Powers. Six Americans made this year's list.
The U.K. distributor United Independent Distributors and its subsidiary companies Marston Book Services, Orca Book Services, and Eurospan—all owned by Independent Publishers Group since October 2021—went into administration on July 25.
Independent Publishers Group, which is the U.S. owner of the U.K.–based book distributor, is seeking buyers for the company amid threats of winding up petitions.
Though 142 new bookshops opened in France last year, low margins and a decline in sales volume as a result of inflation may pose huge risks to the country’s bookselling sector.
Ballanco, senior VP and chief information officer at Hachette Book Group, will retire on September 27, with Brendan Goss, currently CIO of Hachette UK, to assume the newly created role of group CIO of HBG and HUK.
Damage to the Factor Druk printing plant, which produced a third of all of Ukraine's books, is causing shipping delays and price hikes. Support for a recovery, which may take six months, is coming from the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, among others.
Stephanie Jackson has been tapped to lead the Life segment, including the recently announced imprint DK Red, at DK Living, the publisher’s adult division, effective November 1.
This year's top stories from abroad include booming English-language book sales across Europe, publishers rallying in support of Palestine, and more.
Mack has announced a new publishing imprint, Important Flowers, run by filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Its first three titles will be released next year.
The brief war of bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah this year destroyed millions of books in Lebanon, disrupting a Lebanese production sector that is critical to the book publishing business in the Middle East.
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and incoming International Publishers Association president Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia described how Russia's attacks on their countries are an augury of worse things to come if Russia’s expansionism is not stopped.
The Guadalajara International Book Fair hosted its first forum dedicated exclusively to audiobooks, reflecting the format's increasing popularity and recent production surge in Spanish-language markets.
Rebellion Developments began life as a video game production studio, but over the past 25 years, it has become a force in the U.K. publishing industry, developing robust businesses around valuable IPs including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.
This year's Guadalajara International Book Fair, which closed on Sunday, was the largest in the event's 38-year history, with a preliminary attendance of 907,300 visitors and participation from 2,769 publishing houses from 64 countries.
As sales of trade books in the U.S. have stalled since the pandemic peak, publishers are taking a harder look at expanding into international markets. How to best break into different territories was the focus of the November webinar “Publishing Now Fall ’24: Strategies for Success in International Markets.” (Sponsored)
Nanjing University professor Zhou Xian's outstanding work on cross-cultural research, 'A Theoretical Journey Across Cultures,' is now available in French. (Sponsored)
Growing global interest in Spanish-language content brought renewed energy to the Guadalajara International Book Fair this year, pushing the number of participating professionals beyond pre-pandemic levels.
The International Publishers Association awarded this year’s Prix Voltaire to Gaza-based publisher Samir Mansour, with a special award given to the late Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who was killed last year in a Russian missile attack.
The annual award, given by Barcelona-based publisher Editorial Anagrama, was shared by two authors this year—Xita Rubert (l.) and Cynthia Rimsky—for only the second time in its history.
Uri Levine, a cofounder of Waze and the author of 'Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution,' argues that unicorn companies and bestselling books have a lot in common.
More than 320 publishing-related tech startups, nearly all of them AI-related, have launched over the past two years. What impact they will have on the book business remains uncertain.
Mvua Press adds to a short, but growing, list of African independent publishers in a market where books, typically priced between $20 and $30, are beyond the means of many to buy.
Research commissioned by the British Council in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe found several successful trade publishers—and significant growth in self-publishing—despite growing costs and widespread piracy.
In honor of Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Norway has launched a new translation award and lecture series. The inaugural prize, worth $45,000, was won by Norwegian-German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, and the first lecturer will be French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.
Consumers listened to an average of 8.8 audiobooks last year in China, where enjoying audiobooks is a communal experience—one that can even include family pets.
One of the biggest foreign rights stories in book publishing this year is the resurgence in popularity of Japanese fiction, whose unique qualities are the result not just of cultural differences but of the distinct structure of the market.
HarperCollins Germany has acquired lifestyle and travel book publisher Gräfe und Unzer, which was founded in 1722. The acquisition will more than double HarperCollins’s operations in Germany.
Più libri più liberi (More Books, More Freedom), scheduled for December 4-8 at Rome's La Nuvola convention center, will showcase independent Italian publishers under the theme "The Measure of the World," a commemoration of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death.
Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina, whose two recently translated works from Harvard University Press examine the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, hopes her writing will serve as both testament and warning.
The Audio Forum at BolognaBookPlus will return next year on April 2 with a roster of industry speakers, and crime novelist Tom Benjamin has been named BolognaBookPlus 2025 author ambassador.
The recently announced plan from Veen Bosch & Keuning, the major Dutch publisher bought by Simon & Schuster in May, to use artificial intelligence for English-language translations has prompted pushback from industry organizations.
Despite recent challenges, the Chinese children’s book market, comprised of 370 million children and young adults, remains a big draw for publishers, making CCBF an important stop for companies looking to increase their sales in the country.
In a rapidly evolving publishing landscape, the executive director of the CCC is taking the lead on addressing one of the industry’s most pressing concerns: the use of copyrighted material in artificial intelligence systems.
Alison Tweed, CEO of U.K.–based charity Book Aid International, describes the destruction of libraries in Lebanon, Ukraine, and Iraq and advises on how the book business can help to rebuild them.
The literary agent with Armenia’s First Literary Agency describes the challenges facing the Armenian publishing industry and the necessity to be “persistent, patient, and flexible” in pursuing book deals from a small country.
The English novelist has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her latest, which follows six crew members on a space station as they orbit Earth over the course of a nine-month mission.
Tora Åsling, policy officer at the European and International Booksellers Federation, discusses the recently published RISE Bookselling Study on Consumer Behavior, which revealed book-buying trends, reading habits, and customer needs in 19 markets across the world.
The 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair opened on November 6 and will run through November 17. But the SIBF is only one event in which the Emirate of Sharjah, through the Sharjah Book Authority, has been showcased around the world.
The 11th Sharjah International Library Conference takes place on November 9-10, the first weekend of this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair. The SILC brings together 250 librarians annually from the MENA region and beyond to learn and share the latest trends and issues within global librarianship.
Jraissati, who established the agency in 2004 and has become one of the top literary agents working with Arabic authors, discusses the development of the rights and translation market for books from the Middle East and North Africa.
Daisy Meyrick and Helen Manders, two of CAA’s leading foreign rights agents, discuss current market trends, emerging opportunities, and the evolving nature of their work in an increasingly complex global publishing landscape.
Veteran literary agent Milly Ruggiero, currently foreign rights manager at the Rights Factory, spoke with PW about her new literary agency, Booklé, based in Naples, Italy.
The first Diwan bookshop opened in Cairo 2002, with further branches and other activities added over the years, the most recent of which was Diwan Publishing in 2021. We talked to Layal Al-Rusom and Ahmed Al-Qarmalawi, two of the four founders of Diwan Publishing in Cairo, about their expanding business.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s PublisHer initiative is working to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through partnerships in the international book business and beyond.
With more than 13 million titles in its global print-on-demand catalog and a new Lightning Source facility in Sharjah, John Ingram sees no impediment for growing interest and sales of Arabic content globally.
Across Europe, English-language editions are becoming increasingly popular, which affects the sales of local translated editions. One rights agent warns of “a massively dire state for foreign-language editions in certain markets.”
Nermin Mollaoğlu of the Kalem Agency of Istanbul, Turkey, and Ahmed Bedeir, general manager at Dar El Shorouk in Egypt, have been named the winners of this year's Sharjah Rights Connection Awards.
The Sharjah International Literacy Agency, which launched in 2021, aims to boost regional Arabic publishing, promote Arabic literary and cultural content globally, and more.
After aggressively adding 1,000 titles to its catalog in its first year, the company has emerged as a trailblazer in the Arabic-language audiobook and e-book market, and intends to increase the accessibility of Arabic digital content globally.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority and CEO of Kalimat Group, discusses the trends impacting her publishing company, the industry in the U.A.E., and future of the PublisHer community for women in publishing.
This year, the Sharjah Publishers Conference offered keynote talks and round table workshops on Sunday, November 3, with matchmaking sessions set for Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, introduces this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, which will host participants from 106 countries.
Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority, offers his own welcome to this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, as “we stand at the threshold of a new era in the publishing industry.”
BookTok is playing an increasingly important role in international book sales, according to new data from Nielsen BookData, as its global research points to “strong fiction, declining nonfiction, and slower price increases.”
In August, Interlink Publishing founders Michel and Ruth Moushabeck passed the Northampton, Mass.–based press on to their daughters Hannah, Leyla, and Maha, and son-in-law, Harrison Williams. The Palestinian American–owned press aims to be “a publishing house for the movement.”
The new online bookstore, aimed at readers in mainland China, is run in partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, and offers nearly 1,000 English-language print-on-demand titles.
Croatian publisher Ivan Sršen discusses the surprising success of Sandorf Passage, a U.S. publishing house focused on translations from Eastern Europe.
Chinese children’s literature writer and child psychology expert Bao Dongni, who's written numerous titles in the World Chinese Graded Readers series, spoke towithPW about where she finds inspiration for her fiction and nonfiction, her most memorable reader letters, and why these books are such effective tools for teaching kids Chinese. (Sponsored)
The Ingram Content Group will have a large presence at the 2024 Guadalajara Book Fair as the company seeks to significantly expand its engagement with Spanish-language publishers, retailers, authors, and other professionals.
Production has ramped up significantly over the past year, according to Dosdoce founder Javier Celaya, who will keynote the FIL’s 2024 audiobooks forum.
Spain’s guest of honor program at FIL will feature 150 authors from 60 publishing houses.
The 2024 Guadalajara International Book Fair will feature thousands of events, including an extensive program hosted by this year’s guest of honor nation.
As the Frankfurt Book Fair's professional program wraps up today, fair director Jurgen Boos reported a rise in trade visitors and a pivot to catering to consumers, many drawn by the rise of "new adult" publishing.
Freedom to read is imperiled in a world that is ill at ease with the idea of freedom of thought, of feeling, of difference. No one knows this better than Elif Shafak, the Turkish author of 20 books translated into 50 languages, who spoke at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair's opening press conference.
Ukraine has once again made a powerful statement at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair with its national stand themed “Reclaiming the Voice,” a poignant reflection of the country’s struggle to maintain its cultural identity amid ongoing conflict.
In what has been generally a drama-free event, the focus at this year's fair was on doing deals as the international publishing business settles into a post-pandemic rhythm.
Kim Hyung Joo, head of webtoons at leading digital publishing platform Munpia, discusses the growth of the billion-dollar Korean webcomic business.
The new publishing company combines AI-generated prompts with human creativity and editing, aiming to help authors—particularly busy professionals—transform their ideas into submission-ready manuscripts.
The outgoing IPA president reflects on her two-year tenure and her new project promoting reading in Latin America.
RELX Group remains in the number one slot, with sales at the STM and legal publisher holding relatively even at $6.3 billion, while Japan’s Hitotsubashi Group moved into the seventh spot due to the further integration of two publishers the holding company owns.
MediaScout aims to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation, explained Margaret Hepp Harrison, VP of digital services at Ingram Content Group, who is leading the project. The service made its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Publishing executives are rarely far from the podium at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this year, things looked a bit different: Simon & Schuster was joined onstage by its new owner, Hachette in the U.S. and U.K. was represented by just one CEO, and the former head of Penguin Random House U.S. extolled the virtues of disrupting the publishing model.
AI is a powerful tool, writes 'PW' senior international and bookselling editor Ed Nawotka. But the one thing AI is worst at is exactly the one thing the publishing industry is best at: storytelling.
In January, David Shelley took on a new role for Hachette, as CEO of an English-language management structure that united Hachette U.K. and the Hachette Book Group in the U.S. Ahead of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, 'PW' caught up with Shelley to talk about his expanded role, and to get his take on the state of global publishing.
Set for a September 23, 2025 publication, Follett’s 'Circle of Days' is one of the first big worldwide English-language acquisitions Hachette made under its new structure, and hopes are high the book will be yet another major bestseller for the author.
Ahead of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Scribner preempts Portia Elan’s debut novel, S&S takes English-language rights to Naomi Ishiguro's Japanese folklore–inspired fantasy series, and Inklore signs a 12-book deal with James Tynion IV.
The opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair featured fair director Juergen Boos extolling the inclusive, democratic values of the fair.
'Skin Contact' is the first acquisition in what will be "a close partnership" between Arthur's imprint and Hachette UK's Sceptre, made just before the start of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, U.S. agents will feature works by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Patti Callahan Henry, Rob Franklin, Amy Tan, and many more in a bustling LitAg.
The IPA has elected Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia its next president and Giovanni Hoepli of Italy its next vice president. Guatemala has joined the organization as a full member, and Croatia, the Dominican Republic, and Poland have joined as provisional members.
"Content is everything,” says Zhang Chaoyang, president of Nanjing-based Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG), which is ranked among the top 10 on the Global 50 publishing list since 2019. Zhang’s vision has led to Phoenix creating 26 brands, each differentiated by a unique logo, a distinctive book cover design, and a focus on a specific discipline or theme. (Sponsored)
The International Publishers Association is encouraging publishers to document the actions they are taking to support the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals in advance of this year’s IPA Congress in November.
Slated to go into effect next June, the EAA mandates that a range of products and services, including e-books, e-readers, and e-commerce websites, are accessible to people with disabilities.
Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles series, among other titles, has launched Horned Lark Press, a new Canadian publishing house focused on fantasy and science fiction with an emphasis on anti-authoritarian themes.
The agreement to buy the Melbourne-based independent publisher is Simon & Schuster's second overseas acquisition since it was bought by KKR late last year.
Slated to shutter in December after 59 years in business, ‘BuchMarkt’ will become the second key German trade magazine to close this year following the loss of ‘Buchreport’ in January.
This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met.
September Publishing in the U.K. has been acquired by Duckworth Books for an undisclosed sum, and will operate as an independent imprint under the Duckworth brand.
The 13-strong longlist for this year's Booker Prize has been announced. Among those listed are three debut novelists and several marquee names, including Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, and Richard Powers. Six Americans made this year's list.
The U.K. distributor United Independent Distributors and its subsidiary companies Marston Book Services, Orca Book Services, and Eurospan—all owned by Independent Publishers Group since October 2021—went into administration on July 25.
Independent Publishers Group, which is the U.S. owner of the U.K.–based book distributor, is seeking buyers for the company amid threats of winding up petitions.
Though 142 new bookshops opened in France last year, low margins and a decline in sales volume as a result of inflation may pose huge risks to the country’s bookselling sector.
Ballanco, senior VP and chief information officer at Hachette Book Group, will retire on September 27, with Brendan Goss, currently CIO of Hachette UK, to assume the newly created role of group CIO of HBG and HUK.
Damage to the Factor Druk printing plant, which produced a third of all of Ukraine's books, is causing shipping delays and price hikes. Support for a recovery, which may take six months, is coming from the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, among others.
Stephanie Jackson has been tapped to lead the Life segment, including the recently announced imprint DK Red, at DK Living, the publisher’s adult division, effective November 1.
This year's top stories from abroad include booming English-language book sales across Europe, publishers rallying in support of Palestine, and more.
Mack has announced a new publishing imprint, Important Flowers, run by filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Its first three titles will be released next year.
The brief war of bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah this year destroyed millions of books in Lebanon, disrupting a Lebanese production sector that is critical to the book publishing business in the Middle East.
Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and incoming International Publishers Association president Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia described how Russia's attacks on their countries are an augury of worse things to come if Russia’s expansionism is not stopped.
The Guadalajara International Book Fair hosted its first forum dedicated exclusively to audiobooks, reflecting the format's increasing popularity and recent production surge in Spanish-language markets.
Rebellion Developments began life as a video game production studio, but over the past 25 years, it has become a force in the U.K. publishing industry, developing robust businesses around valuable IPs including Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.
This year's Guadalajara International Book Fair, which closed on Sunday, was the largest in the event's 38-year history, with a preliminary attendance of 907,300 visitors and participation from 2,769 publishing houses from 64 countries.
As sales of trade books in the U.S. have stalled since the pandemic peak, publishers are taking a harder look at expanding into international markets. How to best break into different territories was the focus of the November webinar “Publishing Now Fall ’24: Strategies for Success in International Markets.” (Sponsored)
Nanjing University professor Zhou Xian's outstanding work on cross-cultural research, 'A Theoretical Journey Across Cultures,' is now available in French. (Sponsored)
Growing global interest in Spanish-language content brought renewed energy to the Guadalajara International Book Fair this year, pushing the number of participating professionals beyond pre-pandemic levels.
The International Publishers Association awarded this year’s Prix Voltaire to Gaza-based publisher Samir Mansour, with a special award given to the late Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who was killed last year in a Russian missile attack.
The annual award, given by Barcelona-based publisher Editorial Anagrama, was shared by two authors this year—Xita Rubert (l.) and Cynthia Rimsky—for only the second time in its history.
Uri Levine, a cofounder of Waze and the author of 'Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution,' argues that unicorn companies and bestselling books have a lot in common.
More than 320 publishing-related tech startups, nearly all of them AI-related, have launched over the past two years. What impact they will have on the book business remains uncertain.
Mvua Press adds to a short, but growing, list of African independent publishers in a market where books, typically priced between $20 and $30, are beyond the means of many to buy.
Research commissioned by the British Council in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe found several successful trade publishers—and significant growth in self-publishing—despite growing costs and widespread piracy.
In honor of Nobel laureate Jon Fosse, Norway has launched a new translation award and lecture series. The inaugural prize, worth $45,000, was won by Norwegian-German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, and the first lecturer will be French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion.
Consumers listened to an average of 8.8 audiobooks last year in China, where enjoying audiobooks is a communal experience—one that can even include family pets.
One of the biggest foreign rights stories in book publishing this year is the resurgence in popularity of Japanese fiction, whose unique qualities are the result not just of cultural differences but of the distinct structure of the market.
HarperCollins Germany has acquired lifestyle and travel book publisher Gräfe und Unzer, which was founded in 1722. The acquisition will more than double HarperCollins’s operations in Germany.
Più libri più liberi (More Books, More Freedom), scheduled for December 4-8 at Rome's La Nuvola convention center, will showcase independent Italian publishers under the theme "The Measure of the World," a commemoration of the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death.
Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina, whose two recently translated works from Harvard University Press examine the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, hopes her writing will serve as both testament and warning.
The Audio Forum at BolognaBookPlus will return next year on April 2 with a roster of industry speakers, and crime novelist Tom Benjamin has been named BolognaBookPlus 2025 author ambassador.
The recently announced plan from Veen Bosch & Keuning, the major Dutch publisher bought by Simon & Schuster in May, to use artificial intelligence for English-language translations has prompted pushback from industry organizations.
Despite recent challenges, the Chinese children’s book market, comprised of 370 million children and young adults, remains a big draw for publishers, making CCBF an important stop for companies looking to increase their sales in the country.
In a rapidly evolving publishing landscape, the executive director of the CCC is taking the lead on addressing one of the industry’s most pressing concerns: the use of copyrighted material in artificial intelligence systems.
Alison Tweed, CEO of U.K.–based charity Book Aid International, describes the destruction of libraries in Lebanon, Ukraine, and Iraq and advises on how the book business can help to rebuild them.
The literary agent with Armenia’s First Literary Agency describes the challenges facing the Armenian publishing industry and the necessity to be “persistent, patient, and flexible” in pursuing book deals from a small country.
The English novelist has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her latest, which follows six crew members on a space station as they orbit Earth over the course of a nine-month mission.
Tora Åsling, policy officer at the European and International Booksellers Federation, discusses the recently published RISE Bookselling Study on Consumer Behavior, which revealed book-buying trends, reading habits, and customer needs in 19 markets across the world.
The 43rd Sharjah International Book Fair opened on November 6 and will run through November 17. But the SIBF is only one event in which the Emirate of Sharjah, through the Sharjah Book Authority, has been showcased around the world.
The 11th Sharjah International Library Conference takes place on November 9-10, the first weekend of this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair. The SILC brings together 250 librarians annually from the MENA region and beyond to learn and share the latest trends and issues within global librarianship.
Jraissati, who established the agency in 2004 and has become one of the top literary agents working with Arabic authors, discusses the development of the rights and translation market for books from the Middle East and North Africa.
Daisy Meyrick and Helen Manders, two of CAA’s leading foreign rights agents, discuss current market trends, emerging opportunities, and the evolving nature of their work in an increasingly complex global publishing landscape.
Veteran literary agent Milly Ruggiero, currently foreign rights manager at the Rights Factory, spoke with PW about her new literary agency, Booklé, based in Naples, Italy.
The first Diwan bookshop opened in Cairo 2002, with further branches and other activities added over the years, the most recent of which was Diwan Publishing in 2021. We talked to Layal Al-Rusom and Ahmed Al-Qarmalawi, two of the four founders of Diwan Publishing in Cairo, about their expanding business.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s PublisHer initiative is working to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through partnerships in the international book business and beyond.
With more than 13 million titles in its global print-on-demand catalog and a new Lightning Source facility in Sharjah, John Ingram sees no impediment for growing interest and sales of Arabic content globally.
Across Europe, English-language editions are becoming increasingly popular, which affects the sales of local translated editions. One rights agent warns of “a massively dire state for foreign-language editions in certain markets.”
Nermin Mollaoğlu of the Kalem Agency of Istanbul, Turkey, and Ahmed Bedeir, general manager at Dar El Shorouk in Egypt, have been named the winners of this year's Sharjah Rights Connection Awards.
The Sharjah International Literacy Agency, which launched in 2021, aims to boost regional Arabic publishing, promote Arabic literary and cultural content globally, and more.
After aggressively adding 1,000 titles to its catalog in its first year, the company has emerged as a trailblazer in the Arabic-language audiobook and e-book market, and intends to increase the accessibility of Arabic digital content globally.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority and CEO of Kalimat Group, discusses the trends impacting her publishing company, the industry in the U.A.E., and future of the PublisHer community for women in publishing.
This year, the Sharjah Publishers Conference offered keynote talks and round table workshops on Sunday, November 3, with matchmaking sessions set for Monday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 5.
Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, introduces this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, which will host participants from 106 countries.
Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority, offers his own welcome to this year’s Sharjah International Book Fair, as “we stand at the threshold of a new era in the publishing industry.”
BookTok is playing an increasingly important role in international book sales, according to new data from Nielsen BookData, as its global research points to “strong fiction, declining nonfiction, and slower price increases.”
In August, Interlink Publishing founders Michel and Ruth Moushabeck passed the Northampton, Mass.–based press on to their daughters Hannah, Leyla, and Maha, and son-in-law, Harrison Williams. The Palestinian American–owned press aims to be “a publishing house for the movement.”
The new online bookstore, aimed at readers in mainland China, is run in partnership with the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, and offers nearly 1,000 English-language print-on-demand titles.
Croatian publisher Ivan Sršen discusses the surprising success of Sandorf Passage, a U.S. publishing house focused on translations from Eastern Europe.
Chinese children’s literature writer and child psychology expert Bao Dongni, who's written numerous titles in the World Chinese Graded Readers series, spoke towithPW about where she finds inspiration for her fiction and nonfiction, her most memorable reader letters, and why these books are such effective tools for teaching kids Chinese. (Sponsored)
The Ingram Content Group will have a large presence at the 2024 Guadalajara Book Fair as the company seeks to significantly expand its engagement with Spanish-language publishers, retailers, authors, and other professionals.
Production has ramped up significantly over the past year, according to Dosdoce founder Javier Celaya, who will keynote the FIL’s 2024 audiobooks forum.
Spain’s guest of honor program at FIL will feature 150 authors from 60 publishing houses.
The 2024 Guadalajara International Book Fair will feature thousands of events, including an extensive program hosted by this year’s guest of honor nation.
As the Frankfurt Book Fair's professional program wraps up today, fair director Jurgen Boos reported a rise in trade visitors and a pivot to catering to consumers, many drawn by the rise of "new adult" publishing.
Freedom to read is imperiled in a world that is ill at ease with the idea of freedom of thought, of feeling, of difference. No one knows this better than Elif Shafak, the Turkish author of 20 books translated into 50 languages, who spoke at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair's opening press conference.
Ukraine has once again made a powerful statement at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair with its national stand themed “Reclaiming the Voice,” a poignant reflection of the country’s struggle to maintain its cultural identity amid ongoing conflict.
In what has been generally a drama-free event, the focus at this year's fair was on doing deals as the international publishing business settles into a post-pandemic rhythm.
Kim Hyung Joo, head of webtoons at leading digital publishing platform Munpia, discusses the growth of the billion-dollar Korean webcomic business.
The new publishing company combines AI-generated prompts with human creativity and editing, aiming to help authors—particularly busy professionals—transform their ideas into submission-ready manuscripts.
The outgoing IPA president reflects on her two-year tenure and her new project promoting reading in Latin America.
RELX Group remains in the number one slot, with sales at the STM and legal publisher holding relatively even at $6.3 billion, while Japan’s Hitotsubashi Group moved into the seventh spot due to the further integration of two publishers the holding company owns.
MediaScout aims to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation, explained Margaret Hepp Harrison, VP of digital services at Ingram Content Group, who is leading the project. The service made its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Publishing executives are rarely far from the podium at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but this year, things looked a bit different: Simon & Schuster was joined onstage by its new owner, Hachette in the U.S. and U.K. was represented by just one CEO, and the former head of Penguin Random House U.S. extolled the virtues of disrupting the publishing model.
AI is a powerful tool, writes 'PW' senior international and bookselling editor Ed Nawotka. But the one thing AI is worst at is exactly the one thing the publishing industry is best at: storytelling.
In January, David Shelley took on a new role for Hachette, as CEO of an English-language management structure that united Hachette U.K. and the Hachette Book Group in the U.S. Ahead of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, 'PW' caught up with Shelley to talk about his expanded role, and to get his take on the state of global publishing.
Set for a September 23, 2025 publication, Follett’s 'Circle of Days' is one of the first big worldwide English-language acquisitions Hachette made under its new structure, and hopes are high the book will be yet another major bestseller for the author.
Ahead of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, Scribner preempts Portia Elan’s debut novel, S&S takes English-language rights to Naomi Ishiguro's Japanese folklore–inspired fantasy series, and Inklore signs a 12-book deal with James Tynion IV.
The opening press conference of the Frankfurt Book Fair featured fair director Juergen Boos extolling the inclusive, democratic values of the fair.
'Skin Contact' is the first acquisition in what will be "a close partnership" between Arthur's imprint and Hachette UK's Sceptre, made just before the start of the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, U.S. agents will feature works by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, Patti Callahan Henry, Rob Franklin, Amy Tan, and many more in a bustling LitAg.
The IPA has elected Gvantsa Jobava of Georgia its next president and Giovanni Hoepli of Italy its next vice president. Guatemala has joined the organization as a full member, and Croatia, the Dominican Republic, and Poland have joined as provisional members.
"Content is everything,” says Zhang Chaoyang, president of Nanjing-based Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG), which is ranked among the top 10 on the Global 50 publishing list since 2019. Zhang’s vision has led to Phoenix creating 26 brands, each differentiated by a unique logo, a distinctive book cover design, and a focus on a specific discipline or theme. (Sponsored)
The International Publishers Association is encouraging publishers to document the actions they are taking to support the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals in advance of this year’s IPA Congress in November.
Slated to go into effect next June, the EAA mandates that a range of products and services, including e-books, e-readers, and e-commerce websites, are accessible to people with disabilities.
Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles series, among other titles, has launched Horned Lark Press, a new Canadian publishing house focused on fantasy and science fiction with an emphasis on anti-authoritarian themes.
The agreement to buy the Melbourne-based independent publisher is Simon & Schuster's second overseas acquisition since it was bought by KKR late last year.
Slated to shutter in December after 59 years in business, ‘BuchMarkt’ will become the second key German trade magazine to close this year following the loss of ‘Buchreport’ in January.
This year's World Science Fiction Convention, held in Scotland's largest city August 8–12, hoped to put a year and change of controversy in the rearview mirror. To publishers’ minds, those hopes were met.
September Publishing in the U.K. has been acquired by Duckworth Books for an undisclosed sum, and will operate as an independent imprint under the Duckworth brand.
The 13-strong longlist for this year's Booker Prize has been announced. Among those listed are three debut novelists and several marquee names, including Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, and Richard Powers. Six Americans made this year's list.
The U.K. distributor United Independent Distributors and its subsidiary companies Marston Book Services, Orca Book Services, and Eurospan—all owned by Independent Publishers Group since October 2021—went into administration on July 25.
Independent Publishers Group, which is the U.S. owner of the U.K.–based book distributor, is seeking buyers for the company amid threats of winding up petitions.
Though 142 new bookshops opened in France last year, low margins and a decline in sales volume as a result of inflation may pose huge risks to the country’s bookselling sector.
Ballanco, senior VP and chief information officer at Hachette Book Group, will retire on September 27, with Brendan Goss, currently CIO of Hachette UK, to assume the newly created role of group CIO of HBG and HUK.
Damage to the Factor Druk printing plant, which produced a third of all of Ukraine's books, is causing shipping delays and price hikes. Support for a recovery, which may take six months, is coming from the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, among others.
Stephanie Jackson has been tapped to lead the Life segment, including the recently announced imprint DK Red, at DK Living, the publisher’s adult division, effective November 1.
PW NEWS