This is one of my favorite times of year as a reporter in the book world—and even more so as a literary civvy, someone who just loves books, whether writing or reading them. Yes, of course, I mean SelfPubCon (for which there is still time to sign up!). But I also mean the announcement of the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature—our highest-profile and highest-paying moment in the media sun.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
To remind regular readers of this column, one of the reasons I love the hubbub around the Nobel award is its unique single judging criterion: that it rewards an author who has moved literature “in an ideal direction.” What the chosen author has done to achieve this is always expressed in a single sentence, which is the ultimate act of editorial concision and information compression. This year’s prize was awarded to László Krasznahorkai “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.” You can watch the announcement here.
End of an Era for Baker & Taylor
Occasionally, I report on a story that has me flicking back through the archives because I could have sworn I had covered the same news years earlier. This week, that story is the announcement that Baker & Taylor is preparing to wind up its business. Baker & Taylor is one of the big players in book distribution, and I think my previous coverage relates to the shuttering of that side of its operations in the UK, leaving the market in the hands of Ingram and Gardners.
What It Means for the Industry
Baker & Taylor’s main US operation had been scheduled to be bought and taken over by ReaderLink. That deal fell through the day it should have been completed—September 26. This week, the company announced that it would cease operations, after nearly 200 years, in early 2026. It remains to be seen what the wider implications are for people’s ability to get books where they would like them to be, but it never feels like a good thing to lose a major part of the infrastructure we rely on.
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