Tuesday 27 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: Sarah J. Maas's first A Court of Thorns and Roses novel in five years goes on sale today
Deals & Acquisitions: Swiss bookseller Orell Füssli Thalia buys Winterthur stationer Schoch, founded in 1882
People News: Bob Woodward's memoir names the secret sources behind Watergate and The Brethren
Events: Beth Lew-Williams wins the $75,000 Cundill History Prize for John Doe Chinaman
Industry Buzz: Maryland judge upholds the return of Mike Curato's Flamer to Harford County school libraries
The lead
Sarah J. Maas's first A Court of Thorns and Roses novel in five years goes on sale today
A Court of Splintered Harmony, the sixth book in the series, went on sale at 00:01 GMT on Tuesday, with fans gathering at midnight parties in bookshops and booking days off work to read it. The ACOTAR hashtag has been used 2.1 million times on TikTok, and the seventh book, A Court of Forgotten Melody, follows on 12 January, reports Rachael Lewis for BBC News.
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Market Developments
Bloomsbury's Nigel Newton: we do not want our books written by AI
The Bloomsbury executive chairman says the publisher values AI for research but opposes AI-written books, and does not think the industry will inevitably have to accept them, though he admits AI use is becoming very hard to detect and editors are its early warning system. More than 14,000 Bloomsbury titles are in the $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement, about $3,000 a title split between author and publisher, reports Anil Kapoor for Business Matters.
In case C-840/24, referred by Germany's Federal Court of Justice over VG Wort's funding of a science promotion fund, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled on 22 October that collecting societies may deduct money for social, cultural and educational services, but only for the benefit of rights holders. Undistributable sums, however, can go to actions for a wider public. The ruling is narrower than the Advocate General's opinion and matters to every collecting society in Europe, reports Antoine Oury for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)
Austin's First Light Books will open a second store in a former church in 2027
The Hyde Park bookshop, which opened in a converted post office in 2023 and hosts more than 300 events a year, will turn the former St. Luke United Methodist Church in Clarksville into a bookstore and cafe serving coffee, beer and wine, opening in autumn 2027. Owners Taylor and Robin Bruce's plan was the only proposal to preserve the building, reports Shelf Awareness.
Amazon's new Kindle firmware fixes the Kindle Clip and brings Kindle+ branding to devices
Firmware 5.20.1.0.2 is rolling out to current e-readers, Scribe models and some older Kindles. It makes page turns from the Kindle Clip and other Bluetooth remotes count as activity, so the screen no longer locks mid-read, and replaces Kindle Unlimited branding with Kindle+. Amazon has not yet published the change log, reports Michael Kozlowski for Good e-Reader.
Read at Good e-Reader (Canada)
Deals & Acquisitions
Swiss bookseller Orell Füssli Thalia buys Winterthur stationer Schoch, founded in 1882
The shop in Winterthur's old town keeps its name, address and ten staff after four generations of family ownership, and owner Karin Schoch will stay on until February 2027. The deal was announced on 23 October; no price was disclosed, reports Clément Solym for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)
Titane director Julia Ducournau will film Adèle Yon's bestseller Mon vrai nom est Elisabeth
Yon's 2025 debut for éditions du Sous-sol, an investigation into her great-grandmother's 17 years in a psychiatric hospital and her lobotomy, has sold close to 240,000 copies according to Edistat and been translated into 21 languages. Yon chose Ducournau from several interested directors but will not work on the script, reports Hocine Bouhadjera for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)
People News
Bob Woodward's memoir names the secret sources behind Watergate and The Brethren
Secrets: A Reporter's Memoir, a 592-page book Simon & Schuster publishes on 24 November, names Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Eagleburger as sources for Nixon's last days and the five Supreme Court justices who spoke to him for The Brethren. Most of those named are dead; Woodward says some gave permission, reports Jim Mishler for Newsmax, following the Washington Post's report on an advance copy.
Read at Yahoo News (US)
Tetsuya Chiba, creator of the boxing manga Ashita no Joe, has died at 87
Chiba died in a Tokyo hospital on 22 October. Ashita no Joe, serialised from 1968 to 1973, inspired two TV anime, two films and the Megalobox series, and got its first official English edition in 2024. He chaired the Japan Cartoonists Association and in 2024 became the first manga artist to receive the Order of Culture, reports Anime News Network.
Read at Anime News Network (Japan)
René Belletto, Prix Femina winner for L'Enfer, has died at 81
The Lyon-born author of noir and fantastic fiction died on Sunday, his publisher P.O.L said. L'Enfer won both the Prix Femina and the Prix du Livre Inter in 1986, and P.O.L published 22 of his books, reports Hocine Bouhadjera for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)
Events
Beth Lew-Williams wins the $75,000 Cundill History Prize for John Doe Chinaman
Her book, published by Belknap/Harvard University Press, traces the laws that targeted Chinese people in the American West in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and had already won the Bancroft Prize. Jury chair Emily Greenwood called it dazzlingly innovative, reports Michael Schaub for Kirkus Reviews.
Liu Zhenyun wins the Hua Zong World Chinese Literature Award
The bestselling Chinese novelist, translated into more than 30 languages, received the biennial prize from Malaysia's World Chinese Media Group in Kuala Lumpur on 24 October. He appears in London on 29 October to discuss his latest novel, The Last Laugh, and at the Sharjah International Book Fair on 6 November, reports Andrew Albanese for Publishing Perspectives.
Clive Barker and Joyce Carol Oates get World Fantasy life achievement awards; M.R. Carey wins best novel
Carey's Once Was Willem (Orbit) took the novel award at the World Fantasy Convention in Oakland, with Eden Royce's Psychopomp & Circumstance (Tordotcom) winning long fiction and Thomas Ha's Uncertain Sons and Other Stories (Undertow) best collection, reports Shelf Awareness.
Industry Buzz
Maryland judge upholds the return of Mike Curato's Flamer to Harford County school libraries
Harford County's school board removed the graphic novel against the advice of its own review committee, and the state board of education overturned that decision. Judge Yolanda Curtin has now sided with the state board. Flamer, published by Henry Holt in 2020, was on the ALA's most banned books lists in 2022, 2023 and 2024, reports Michael Schaub for Kirkus Reviews.
Vancouver's 30-year Poetry in Transit programme loses its transit funding
TransLink is pulling its support, so the 2026-27 season, which marks the programme's 30th anniversary with ten British Columbia poets, may be the last on Vancouver buses and trains, says Asna Shaikh of Books BC. Writers and publishers are campaigning to save it, reports Clément Solym for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)