US presidents appear on coins and currency, from pennies to fifties. And when they leave office, presidents often become coin collectors too. This week, Penguin Random House announced that Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama have signed deals for memoirs, with the former President’s volume due in fall 2018. While the Obamas represent the […]

Several recent posts on the well-respected Scholarly Kitchen blog ruminated on the definition of “Open Access” in journal publishing – as in, “What do we mean by Open? And, “What do we mean by Access? After 15 years of OA publishing, the author noted, consensus around the basics of OA remains lacking. What we can […]

A 55-year-long trade embargo still stands, but as US-Cuban relations have warmed in recent years, American businesses have moved into position to seize the day should the ban ever become history. Earlier this month, the second US Publishing Mission to Cuba visited the annual Havana Book Fair to continue developing relationships with potential trading partners […]

So far in 2017, the biggest book of the year is one that hasn’t yet been published. The political memoir “Dangerous” crashed into a wall on Monday when Simon & Schuster announced it was pulling away from its deal with the Breitbart firebrand Milo Yiannopolous. If you’re a fan, you may think free speech took […]

In a keynote interview with author Kevin Smokler at last weekend’s PubWest 2017 Conference, critic Ron Charles offers an insider’s tour of one of the last remaining newspaper book sections in the U.S. As editor of the Washington Post Book World, Ron Charles is responsible for an entire ecosystem of book reviewing, which now spans […]

Whether physical or virtual, a library is the nursery of democracy and its shelves are the embodiment of free expression. In the Age of Trump, many librarians take their jobs more seriously than ever. Immediately after the November 2016 U.S. election, reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer, the American Library Association faced a revolt […]

With the information world long since moved online, today’s librarians may worry more about broadband than bookshelves. The shift to digital in our nation’s libraries means close attention to private Internet service providers as well as public regulators from groups like the American Libraries Association. This week, ALA criticized FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s move to […]

A week after author Roxane Guy pulled her next book from Simon & Schuster over its decision to publish right-wing firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos, Hillary Clinton has signed with the same publisher for a book of personal essays reflecting on favorite quotations. The Clinton announcement came a day before demonstrators on the UC Berkeley campus blocked […]

As the name suggests, the Book Industry Study Group has ambitions to be a home base for publishing professionals to share information. After 40 years, though, the BISG community is expecting the organization to do much more. Appointed executive director at BISG in September 2016, Brian O’Leary presented the board in November with a three-year […]

A book contract with a leading publisher, together with a six-figure advance, are the cherished dreams of many authors. But when the author is a controversial figure like Milo Yiannapoulos, others say they feel like they’re in a nightmare. A Breitbart News contributor who calls himself a “free speech evangelist,” Yiannopoulos is author of Dangerous, […]