Thursday 29 October 2026. 15 stories from across the book trade, about 5 minutes to read. Every link is free to read.
The short version
Market Developments: Anthropic’s first settlement payments to authors are now due in the week of 23 November
Deals & Acquisitions: Jason Reynolds will publish his first novel for adults, Father, Father, in 2027
People News: Louise Penny says her boycott of US book tours stands, even though it costs her sales
Events: Thélyson Orélien is cut from the Renaudot’s final selection in its centenary year
Industry Buzz: 69% of French people say AI-written text is not real literature
The lead
Anthropic’s first settlement payments to authors are now due in the week of 23 November
A court filing on 23 October says notices of agreed author-publisher splits will go out by 13 November, with the first distribution from the $1.5 billion Bartz settlement, which covers 482,460 books, following in the week of 23 November rather than by 15 November as planned. Money for titles whose rights are still disputed will be held back until those disputes are settled, reports Clément Solym for ActuaLitté.
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Market Developments
In a four-page letter to the court, Kim Pawlak of the Textbook & Academic Authors Association says academic books fall outside the default 50-50 author-publisher split and that some publishers are reportedly seeking 85% to 95%. She adds that few authors know a special master, Theodore K. Cheng, has been appointed to resolve such disputes, reports ChatGPT Is Eating the World.
HarperCollins will close its Buffalo warehouse and move its books to Indiana
The publisher will shut the New York State site in early 2028 and consolidate stock at a 1.6 million square foot centre in Brownsburg, Indiana, with books starting to move in summer 2027. HarperCollins says the new site can ship more than 300 million books a year to more than 100 countries, reports Nicolas Gary for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)
Readwise launches an ebook store to take on Kindle and Goodreads
Readwise Books, in invite-only beta for now, combines an ebook store and reader with Goodreads-style shelves, reviews and automatic tracking of reading sessions, which its founders call “Strava for reading”. Co-founders Tristan Homsi and Daniel Doyon spent years negotiating deals with all five major US publishers, reports David Pierce for The Verge.
Read at The Verge (US)
Comics now make up one in ten print books sold in Italy, after sales rose 14.9%
Italian comics sales reached €68.3 million in the first nine months of 2026, up from €59.5 million, on 7.1 million copies, according to NielsenIQ BookData figures presented by the Italian Publishers Association at Lucca Comics & Games. The book market as a whole grew 3.2%, reports Nicolas Gary for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)
Love Your Bookshop Day lifted Australian book sales by 12.2%
Australians spent A$26.9 million on more than 1.33 million print books in the week of 10 October, and 121,828 different ISBNs sold, almost 12,000 more than a year earlier, according to the Australian Booksellers Association. New Zealand sales rose 5.6% in value over the same week, and Toronto bookseller Ben McNally has won this year’s Ivy Award, Shelf Awareness reports.
Sarah J. Maas’s merchandise boom divides fans after her licensing moved to IMG
Since Maas moved her licensing from Writers House to WME’s IMG in June 2025, brands from Target to underwear maker Knix have launched ACOTAR products, while several small Etsy makers say their licences were left to expire. Bloomsbury says it is “not involved”, and the series has sold more than 10.5 million trade paperbacks, reports Sam Spratford for Publishers Weekly.
Deals & Acquisitions
Jason Reynolds will publish his first novel for adults, Father, Father, in 2027
Scribner will publish the novel on 1 June 2027. It follows two estranged brothers, Jesus and Second, on a road trip from Maryland to Iowa after their father’s death, and Reynolds told the AP that “the adults are front and center” in this story, reports Michael Schaub for Kirkus Reviews.
Hulu is developing Sarah MacLean’s These Summer Storms as a series
Erin Foster, creator of Nobody Wants This, and her sister Sara Foster are developing the adaptation of MacLean’s novel, in which a dead patriarch sets his heirs a series of challenges to inherit his estate. Melanie Marnich, who has written for Big Love and Apples Never Fall, will write it, reports Michael Schaub for Kirkus Reviews.
Apateon Press launches a free republishing programme for out-of-print books
Authors who have their rights back, or who self-published a title, can apply to have Apateon produce a new edition for sale on Amazon with no fees. Authors receive a 15% royalty on gross sales at Amazon’s retail price, reports Jim Milliot for Publishers Weekly.
People News
Louise Penny says her boycott of US book tours stands, even though it costs her sales
Speaking as Miss Wolcott’s Ghost, the 21st Armand Gamache novel, comes out from Minotaur, the Canadian author says her decision “is not an easy one”, that she has had pushback and that not touring affects sales, but she will not return yet, reports Geoff Koch for Publishers Weekly.
Cem Akaş, editorial director of Turkey’s Can Yayınları, has died at 58
The novelist, translator and editor had led the house, which publishes Camus, Sartre and García Márquez in Turkish, since 2018, and died nine days after his 19-year-old son. Tributes came from İthaki, İletişim and the Turkish Publishers Association, reports Hocine Bouhadjera for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)
Events
Thélyson Orélien is cut from the Renaudot’s final selection in its centenary year
Six novels and four essays remain, and Patrice Jean’s Stay Free returns after being dropped on 7 October. Orélien’s novel had already left the Goncourt race over plagiarism and AI allegations, which he denies, while Jean-Paul Enthoven’s essay stays in despite plagiarism claims. The winners will be named on 3 November, reports Hocine Bouhadjera for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)
Anne Godard wins the Prix Décembre for Nous aussi
Her third novel, published by Actes Sud, portrays an upper-class Catholic family in Paris through a collective “on” narrator. She beat Daria Marx and Lucie Rico in an all-female final three, reports Hocine Bouhadjera for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)
Industry Buzz
69% of French people say AI-written text is not real literature
In an Ipsos bva survey of 1,000 people aged 18 to 75 for engineering school CESI, 92% want any use of AI in writing a book to be shown on its cover and 64% doubt AI-assisted work can match a book written by a human. But 55% accept AI if a human remains the main author, reports Nicolas Gary for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)