In the first meaningfully victory for creators v. LLMs, Anthropic told the court in a filing that it has resolved the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by a class of authors that was due to go to trial in December. An August 28 court hearing was cancelled, with a new hearing scheduled for September 8 and a submission due to the court before that on September 5. The company had warned the Court of Appeals, “the class-certification order places inordinate pressure on Anthropic to settle ...| Publishers Lunch
After five years, Simon & Schuster ceo Jonathan Karp will step down from his leadership position once a replacement is selected, when he will become publisher of a new Simon Six imprint. He suggests in an announcement that this plan has been in mind for some time: “Simon and Schuster is on a great growth trajectory right now, and it has been a privilege to lead the company for the last five years. When KKR acquired Simon & Schuster, I agreed to stay on through the transition, but my north s...| Publishers Lunch
The AAP released their annual StatShot report for 2024 with results from 1,281 publishers. Trade sales totaled $8.927 billion, a 2.2 percent increase from $8.731 in 2023. And domestic trade sales—excluding exports—were a little healthier, rising 3 percent. Religious presses, counted separately, registered sales of $946 million—a 25 percent increase from 2023. (In the AAP’s monthly reports they tabulate religious presses separately; in their annual, they switch and include the data in ...| Publishers Lunch
Family members of Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre told the New York Times that she would not want her recently announced posthumous memoir published “in its current state” and contacted Knopf to ask for revisions. “It’s not that we’re not in support of the book, we’re not in support of certain parts of the book,” Giuffre’s brother Sky Roberts said. “The full story needs to be told.” The memoir, which Knopf announced on Sunday, shares Giuffre’s experience...| Publishers Lunch
This fall, C-SPAN will premiere “America’s Book Club,” a weekly primetime series hosted by David M. Rubenstein. Each episode will feature a live interview with a notable author and be taped at a library or American landmark around the country including the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Enoch Pratt Library, and National Archives. The series is part of the network’s celebration of the country’s semiquincentennial, America250. “Each week, viewers will be in...| Publishers Lunch
This week’s fiction releases include novels by R. F. Kuang and Randy Wayne White, while nonfiction includes new work from Miriam Toews. Also publishing this week is Destroy This House by Amanda Uhle, excerpted in our Buzz Books 2025: Spring/Summer anthology. 10 works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-august-26 8 works of nonfiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-august-26 From Buzz Books https://buzz.publishersmarketplace.c...| Publishers Lunch
The National Endowment for the Arts has canceled its creative writing fellowships for 2026. An email received by applicants states that the creative writing category has been “withdrawn by the Agency.” Previously, grants of up to $50,000 were given to published prose and poetry writers; the deadline for the 2026 season was in March. Mirroring the language used to explain grant terminations in May, the NEA writes, “The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on...| Publishers Lunch
On October 21, Knopf will publish NOBODY’S GIRL: A MEMOIR OF SURVIVING ABUSE AND FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a prominent accuser of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Prince Andrew before her death on April 25, 2025. According to a release, “Giuffre shares intimate, disturbing, and heartbreaking new details about her time with Epstein, Maxwell, and their many well-known friends, including Prince Andrew, about whom she speaks publicly for the first time since the...| Publishers Lunch
Bloomberg reports that Anthropic has upsized their newest funding round — previously aiming to raise up to $5 billion, and now “nearing a deal to raise as much as $10 billion in a new round of funding, according to people familiar with the matter.” This reinforces our observation that investors do not believe the upcoming class action copyright infringement trial brought by Bartz et al represents a “death-knell” situation that would force Anthropic into a massive settlement in order...| Publishers Lunch
Macmillan ceo Jon Yaged was featured in an episode of The CEO Series. He notes that 2024 “was our best year in terms of revenue and profit,” with sales up 18 percent for the year. Their publishing revenues broke down as 65 percent print, 20 percent ebook, and 15 percent audio. (That does not account for healthy distribution revenue.) Along the way we learn that Yaged loves to race vintage Formula Ford cars, which go about 125 miles per hour.| Publishers Lunch
While Anthropic tries to win a reprieve from or postponement of the class action trial on their infringement of up to 7 million books, the business of determining legal eligibility continues apace. Attorneys from both sides are drafting a notice form to be distributed to class members along with a list of works at issue. Class action law firm Edelson and the copyright firm Oppenheim + Zebrak have joined the original plaintiffs’ attorneys, serving as publishers’ coordination counsel, “re...| Publishers Lunch
The Book Industry Study Group hosted a presentation on tariffs yesterday, where Jack Stevens and Kelly Morrison from supply chain management company Woodland Group discussed how to navigate the ever-changing tariff landscape. Books themselves are largely exempt from tariffs since they’re considered educational materials. Compared to other tariff exempt commodities, books and printed materials are a relatively small segment, accounting for $3.4 billion in “value of goods imported”. (Phar...| Publishers Lunch
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