Wednesday 21 October 2026. 15 stories from across the book trade, about 4 minutes to read. Every link is free to read.
The short version
Market Developments: Judge orders Meta to name everyone who approved downloading pirated books for AI training
Deals & Acquisitions: Doubleday sets a 1.5 million first printing for John Grisham's next legal thriller, The Verdicts
People News: Gabriella Mongelli joins William Morrow as executive editor
Events: CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa names its 2026 shortlist
Industry Buzz: Liz Truss's Bank Job book is mocked online before it is even out
The lead
Judge orders Meta to name everyone who approved downloading pirated books for AI training
Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson rejected Meta's argument that its shadow-library downloads were informal team decisions with no one in charge: it must now identify every person who approved obtaining LibGen and Anna's Archive data, and who decided how to torrent and seed it. The order covers the Kadrey authors' class action and Entrepreneur Media's suit, and could reach managers and executives, reports Ashley Belanger for Ars Technica, following TorrentFreak.
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Market Developments
Kyobo turns down a 100,000-book order from an unnamed data company as Korea's AI copyright fight grows
Korea's largest bookstore chain refused an overseas buyer that wanted one copy of every book and would only say the end customer was a data company. The Korean Publishers Association now plans to survey bookstores, secondhand dealers and distributors for bulk-buying attempts and will press for stronger copyright law, writes Song Seung-hyun in The Korea Herald.
Read at The Korea Herald (Korea)
Penguin Random House brings back two-day holiday shipping for indie bookstores, no minimum order
Now in its 15th year, PRH's holiday transit programme runs from October 26 to January 11, 2027, covering frontlist and backlist print titles from Crown, Knopf Doubleday, Penguin, Random House, the children's groups, PRH Audio and DK, with orders accepted in any quantity, reports Claire Kirch for Publishers Weekly.
Audible bets big on a full-cast 'Dracula' with Jonathan Bailey, Ella Purnell and Maggie Gyllenhaal
Audible's biggest production to date, directed by Mary Lambert from a Robyn Ahern script, uses Dolby Atmos sound and a 75-voice choral score by Ilan Eshkeri, with French and other language versions starring different casts. Audible's Aurelie de Troyer calls it cinema for the ears, writes Whitney Friedlander for Publishers Weekly.
Italy: comics sales in independent bookshops up 36% thanks to the libraries bonus
In the first half of 2026, comics, manga and graphic novel sales in Italian independent bookshops grew by a third in value to 4 million euros, driven by the government's bonus biblioteche, Il Libraio reports. The Italian Publishers Association (AIE) will present nine-month figures at Lucca Comics & Games on October 28.
Read at Il Libraio (Italy)
France: a Senate bill would make copiers prove serious doubt before challenging a work's originality
Senator Sylvie Robert's bill would rewrite Article L112-1 of the Intellectual Property Code so that defendants in counterfeiting cases must first establish serious doubt about originality, ending systematic challenges that force authors to prove it from scratch. Antoine Oury reports for ActuaLitté.
Read at ActuaLitté (France)
Deals & Acquisitions
Doubleday sets a 1.5 million first printing for John Grisham's next legal thriller, The Verdicts
Suzanne Herz acquired US rights from David Gernert at the Gernert Company for an October 2027 release. The novel brings back Simon Latch, the attorney from Grisham's 2025 book The Widow, now juggling multiple cases, Publishers Weekly reports.
Crown Books for Young Readers signs two YA 'K-novels' led by Kat Cho and Ellen Oh
Phoebe Yeh will edit two standalone novels celebrating Korean culture, starting with Lost in K-Dramas and followed by a K-pop story, due spring and fall 2028. Marietta Zacker and Beth Phelan of Gallt & Zacker brokered world rights, reports Iyana Jones for Publishers Weekly.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden heads back to the screen with Black Beauty director Ashley Avis
Avis will write and direct a new film of Joanne Greenberg's 1964 novel about a teenager with schizophrenia, first filmed in 1977, writes Michael Schaub for Kirkus Reviews, following Deadline.
People News
Gabriella Mongelli joins William Morrow as executive editor
Mongelli moves from Little, Brown, where she published Emily Adrian's Seduction Theory, to focus on commercial women's and book club fiction, reporting to Jessica Williams. She previously worked at Park Row and Putnam, Publishers Weekly reports.
LA Times science editor Elijah Wolfson becomes a literary agent at MMQA
After two decades at Newsweek, Quartz, TIME and the Los Angeles Times, Wolfson joins Massie McQuilkin & Altman to represent nonfiction on climate, health, science and history, plus fiction about social dynamics and technology, Publishers Weekly reports.
Events
CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa names its 2026 shortlist
Five titles made the shortlist for the Afreximbank-backed prize, which rewards the publisher of the best African book and this year opened to Caribbean publishers. The winner takes US$20,000 at CANEX Weekend in Lagos, November 5 to 8, reports James Murua for Writing Africa.
Read at Writing Africa (Africa)
France launches the Prix Pascal, a literary prize for manuscripts co-written with AI
The prize, backed by anonymous organisers and a five-member jury yet to be named, will judge unpublished, anonymously submitted works of 10,000 to 50,000 words that tackle an ecological, social or ethical challenge. Submissions open November 2 and results are due in early December. The prize arrives a month after the Thélyson Orélien AI controversy, writes Bruno Texier for Archimag.
Read at Archimag (France)
Industry Buzz
Liz Truss's Bank Job book is mocked online before it is even out
The former prime minister's 100-page 'short book' blames the Bank of England for her 2022 downfall, and its Reservoir Dogs-style cover drew instant parodies. It lands days before Andy Burnham's first Budget, reports Kate Nicholson for HuffPost UK.
Read at HuffPost UK (UK)
Lit Hub is building a new books site covering every category, from romance to personal finance
Literary Hub is hiring a senior editor for a high-volume vertical launching in spring 2027 that will review the full range of each year's books, with daily, weekly and seasonal features drawing on critics, booksellers, librarians and readers.
Read at Literary Hub (US)