Publishing News

What a Literary Agent Actually Does for Their 15 Percent

The Report on Book Banning's Effect on Publishing — and What Writers Should Know

Pen America's annual count documented over ten thousand school book bans in the 2023-2024 year, reshaping how publishers and authors handle challenges.

How the National Book Awards Longlists Actually Get Made

Only publishers can enter a book, and last year's fiction longlist alone was picked from 434 submissions.

Why Literary Agents Never Charge to Read Your Manuscript

How Book Prize Judges Read

The 2026 International Booker field ran to 128 submitted novels; the fiction Booker typically tops 150 — the humans who read them have a documented method, and it is not yours.

Taiwan Travelogue Won the International Booker

Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translator Lin King took the £50,000 prize on May 19 — the first Taiwanese win, for an independent press, from a novel disguised as a 1930s travelogue.

Audiobooks Keep Growing While Ebooks Slide

AAP's first-quarter StatShot has digital audio up 15.9 percent and ebooks down 5 — the format story that keeps rewriting authors' rights sheets.

What a Book Publicist Actually Does

An imprint publicist carries twenty or more titles a season and buys none of the coverage — the profession, minus the mythology on both sides.

Pulitzer 2026: Angel Down Takes Fiction

Daniel Kraus's World War I novel — by a writer rooted in horror — wins the fiction Pulitzer, with Jill Lepore, Yiyun Li, and Amanda Vaill among the letters honorees.

Spring's Literary Awards Land in New York

PEN America handed out its 62nd awards on March 31 and the National Book Critics Circle followed on March 26 — a compressed season that already shapes the year's lists.