Publishers Lunch Automat
- The Pandemic Is Not an Excuse For a Tech Multi-Millionaire to Exploit Writers
- Libro.FM is Hiring 10 Booksellers For A One-Month Gig
- Bill Buford's Forthcoming DIRT Is As Good As, Or Better than, HEAT; This Advance Excerpt Is A Trip to Lyon
- Storytel Issues Annual Report; Aims to Grow Subscriber Base 36 Percent in 2020 to 1.5 Million
- After Big Layoffs, Paradigm Sued for Breach of Contract
Publishers Weekly
Publishing Perspectives
- India’s National Book Trust To Produce ‘Corona Studies Series’
- Germany’s Hatje Cantz Posts Online Show; New York’s MoMA Offers Teaching Tools
- Bookwire Cites Growth in Spanish-Language Audiobooks, Ebooks
- Coronavirus: UNESCO #LearningNeverStops Signs IPA to New Coalition
- Garzanti’s New Book for Bergamo: ‘Creativity Does Not Stop by Decree’
Book Business
- Fundraiser for booksellers affected by Covid-19 reaps over £100k in two weeks
- Nelle Andrew joins the Rachel Mills Literary agency
- Goldsboro Books announces 2020 Glass Bell Award longlist
- Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency brings in 'mentorship' programme for authors
- Avon's Wickington buys Marchant debut in first acquisition
Publishers Lunch (paid)
UK’s The Bookseller (paid)
Canada’s Quill & Quire (paid)
- No common playbook for Canadian publishers as publication dates abruptly shift
- FOLD releases schedule and opens registration to its digital fest
- Canadian publishers announce postponed publication dates
- Book distributors work to deliver stock to customers during COVID-19
- Glad Day Bookshop’s Emergency Survival Fund has topped $150,000 for LGBTQ2S+ community
Australia’s Books and Publishing (paid)
Financial Support for Writers
- Poets & Writers maintains a list of financial resources (grants, funds, and more)
- PEN America offers the Writers’ Emergency Fund to all types of writers. You don’t have to be a member to apply.
- Kickstarter has a running list of artist resources
- The Society of Authors (UK) has an Authors’ Emergency Fund
- The National Endowment for the Arts will distribute $75 million in relief to arts organizations
- The Writers’ Trust of Canada and The Writers’ Union of Canada have launched a relief fund
- Substack is offering no-strings-attached grants to writers who use its newsletter service
- Publishers Weekly is keeping a list of special offers and discounts of all kinds to help readers, booksellers, publishers, and authors
How to Support Bookstores and Authors
- Shop for digital audiobooks at Libro.fm (running a 2 for 1 deal) or print books at Bookshop.org
- The independent booksellers of New York City have created a Bookshop storefront with recommendations.
- Scribd is offering free access to ebooks and digital audio for 30 days
- Kindle Unlimited is available for free for two months to new subscribers
- Apple is giving free ebooks and audiobooks to people in the US—just launch the Apple Books app
Resources for Educating and Entertaining Your Kids at Home
- SCBWI offers a digital directory of remote learning resources
- Audible offers a collection of children’s stories for free
- Publishers Weekly maintains a running list of free materials for children during the crisis
- Publishers Lunch also has a similar list of free digital book access for students from a variety of resources
- Scholastic offers free Learn at Home materials
- EPIC! materials are free to students by teacher invitation
Take Advantage of Your Library
- OverDrive is helping libraries identify low-cost and no-cost digital materials for circulation to library patrons
- ProQuest has partnered with 100 publishers to support libraries in making ebook holdings available to patrons at no extra charge
Virtual Book Events
- VirtualCon, hosted by Penguin Random House
- The Big List of Children’s Book Authors Doing Online Read Alouds and Activities
- LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel
- Quarantine Book Club
- The Everywhere Book Festival
- A Mighty Blaze: a social media initiative for authors whose tours have been canceled
- Stay at Home! Festival: an online literary festival that brings attention to books through April 11
- BookBound 2020: a literary festival to be held on YouTube from April 27 to May 3
Other Resources
- The American Booksellers Association has collected coronavirus resources for booksellers
- The American Publishers Association has collected information about publisher response
Poets & Writers News
- Roxane Gay Reflects on the Pandemic, Libro.fm Seeks to Hire Booksellers, and More
- #SaveIndieBookstores Campaign, International Booker Prize Shortlist, and More
- National Book Awards Judges, Best Translated Book Awards Longlists, and More
- Literary Organizations in the Age of Coronavirus, CARES Act Outcomes, and More
- The Internet Archive Controversy, 2020 Walt Whitman Award, and More
Writer Beware
- Copyright Violation Redux: The Internet Archive's National Emergency Library
- Space Kadet: The Twisted Tale of a Sad, Sad Internet Troll
- From the Philippines, Not With Love: A Plague of Publishing and Marketing Scams
- Authors' Concern Grows Over Late Royalty Payments at Dreamspinner Press
- Writer Beware in the Time of Coronavirus
Janet Reid, Literary Agent
The Passive Voice
Alliance of Independent Authors
- How to Survive Your First Year as a Full-Time Author
- Interview with Jules Horne, Breaking Down Barriers Between Print and Audio: Inspirational Indie Authors Podcast
- How To Do Successful Book Launches, With Sacha Black and Adam Croft: Self-Publishing Fiction & Nonfiction Podcast
- Self-publishing News: 2020 Selfies Winners
- The Ultimate Guide to Getting Book Reviews
The New Publishing Standard
- Iran sees 4-fold increase in ebook and audiobook downloads during coronavirus lockdown
- Zimbabwe International Book Fair prepares for July launch but Zim publishers face a game-changing transition amid lockdown
- Data Guy’s Bookstat reigns in its guesses on Hachette titles, but still hundreds out either way
- UK books wholesale Gardners restarts online delivery as coronavirus kills 2 Brits every minute. A printed book is not an essential commodity worth risking lives for
- Word Audio Publishing International (WAPI) partners with StreetLib
The Digital Reader
Teleread: Ebooks, Publishing, Libraries, Tech
- The Internet Archive’s ‘National Emergency Library’ expands on Open Library’s copyright violations
- Coronavirus ebook news roundup
- Library ebook use, paper book sales up despite library, bookstore closures for corona lockdown
- Librarians, publishers, performers use fair use to liven up virus isolation
- Book distributor Ingram continues to operate during coronavirus shutdowns…but should it?
Good E-Reader
Idea Logical | Mike Shatzkin
Personanondata | Michael Cairns
The Future of Publishing | Thad McIlroy
American Booksellers Association
American Library Association
New York Times | Books
NPR | Books
- 'Godshot' Author Explains How Fiction Helps Us Face Real-World Adversity
- Need An Escape? Try 'Unorthodox,' 'Baghdad Central' And 'Abigail'
- Facing The Coronavirus Crisis, Musicians Take To Teaching Online
- 'She Wrote Her Own Rules': Kerry Washington's 'Little Fires' Role Reminds Her Of Mom
- Short Attention Span Theater: A Quick Look At Quibi's Launch Titles
The Guardian | Books (US)
LitHub
The Guardian | Books (UK)
- Our new lockdown game: judging famous people by their bookshelves
- Tips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?
- My favourite book as a kid: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss
- Reading group: what book should we read to cheer us up in April?
- Tips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?
What’s New in Publishing
Editor & Publisher
- Launching This Summer, The 19th Wants to Level the Playing Field
- Austin American-Statesman Launches Streaming News Radio Station Featuring Jeff Ward
- Racial Equity in Journalism Fund Awards $2.3 Million to News Organizations Led By and For Communities of Color
- Racial Equity in Journalism Fund Awards $2.3 Million to News Organizations Led By and For Communities of Color
- Layoffs Hit Alden Newspapers in Denver, Boston and Beyond
Folio
- Folio: Calls For Entries in Annual Eddie and Ozzie Awards; Entries Due May 15
- Digital Edition Providers See Opportunity in Print Disruption Amid Covid-19
- 4 Shout-Outs to Publishers Doing Their Part During the COVID-19 Outbreak | April 3
- In a Moment of Uncertainty, TIME Is Certain of Its 97-Year Mission
- Resources for Freelance Journalists During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Mediagazer
- Readly has seen users' magazine reading habits shift under lockdown with readership of the categories comics, kids, home, and gardening rising sharply in the US (Adam Rowe/Forbes)
- News orgs' removal of paywalls for pandemic coverage is noble, but makes no sense, and the industry seems to think public service can't coexist with revenue (Poynter)
- Hollywood is working from home to meet streaming demand as animation, which can be done remotely, is seeing a boom in the number of shows greenlit to series (Janko Roettgers/Protocol)
- News orgs applying for federal coronavirus relief loans to stem the decline in local journalism will require a new set of ethics regarding government assistance (Poynter)
- Sources: AMI exec Dylan Howard, who was embroiled in scandals involving Weinstein and Trump, is out, after his March 31 contract was not renewed (Variety)