This week saw three sets of figures, each of which comes with an interesting tale about the state of book buying. And that has to be worth reporting on.
Romantasy (a portmanteau of, as you would imagine, romance and fantasy) is a relatively new name for a genre that feels as old as storytelling itself but which, like many of the oldest stories, much of the media would have you believe BookTok has made anew.
Amazon is misleading consumers over what it means to buy a digital product. The focus here is specifically on their practice when selling videos, though the “buy vs license” issue is as live when it comes to ebooks.
The Department of Justice last week launched an antitrust lawsuit that claims Apple is using this dominant market position to lock people into its devices and software, stifling competition and innovation.
The Internet Archive and the publishing industry have been at loggerheads for many years. Recently this concretised as the industry took legal action against the Internet Archive’s Open Library for copyright violation.
Last week at London Book Fair, it was inevitable that AI should feature prominently. EU's AI Act received its final approval on the middle day of the Fair.
A new crowdfunded special edition project from the master of the art, Brandon Sanderson has been announced. In a few days his new project has raised nearly $20m.
In the short time since the Selfies launched in 2018, London Book Fair has come to feel like “that time of year.” Forget the Oscars, the awards that celebrate the best indie books in the categories of adult fiction, children’s fiction and autobiography/memoir are the red carpet event that counts.