Every font you see — on your computer screen, a street sign, a T-shirt, or your car’s dashboard — has been crafted by a designer. With 4.5k independent artists selling on MyFonts today, many struggle to attract customers and to make a living in an oversaturated market. - The Hustle
Last March, Amazon stated that it was dropping all of its print and Kindle magazine and newspaper subscriptions. Since that announcement, independent publishers have been scrambling to figure out how to make up for the loss in income. - The Verge
"Vintage/Anchor publisher Suzanne Herz will leave Penguin Random House in December. Anchor Books will gradually be phased out, starting with its hardcover program next January, with its 16,000-strong paperback backlist slated to move over to Vintage over time." - Publishers Weekly
Over the course of the last generation, the Internet has changed our common reading experience; now, as a teacher of creative nonfiction at the Bennington Writing Seminars, I’m seeing first-hand how this new world of reading has transformed the instinctual writing voices of my students. - LitHub
"This summer, the state libraries in Montana, Missouri and Texas and the local library in Midland, Texas, announced they're leaving the ALA, with possibly more to come. Right-wing lawmakers in at least nine other states — Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming — demand similar action." - AP
Corpus linguistics is a branch of linguistics which uses computers to explore the use of words in huge collections of language. It can spot nuances that might be overlooked by linguists working manually, or large patterns that a lifetime of studying may not reveal. - The Conversation
For critics, Books3 isn’t a boon to society—instead, it’s emblematic of everything wrong with generative AI, a glaring example of how both the rights and preferences of artists are disregarded and disrespected by the AI industry’s main players, and something that straight-up shouldn’t exist. - Wired
On 15 August, prominent writers criticised the way their reviews had been quoted on the back cover of the paperback edition of Peterson’s book, published by Penguin Random House. - The Guardian
"Simon & Schuster was the only one of the country's four largest trade publishers to show an improved profit margin in the first half of 2023 compared to last year. While industry sales were generally flat, companies cited higher costs as the major reason profit margins shrank." - Publishers Weekly
"During a brief online status conference on August 31, federal judge Alan D. Albright said he will issue a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of HB 900, Texas's controversial new book rating law. The highly anticipated decision comes ... just a day before the law was set to take effect." - Publishers Weekly
“ use terms like ‘woke’ and we shouldn’t be taking on issues that are divisive and we can ill afford to lose any readers and stop it, stop it, stop it." - Washington Post
"But a recent dust-up over whether his books are appropriate for teens feels more personal, and like an escalation of a growing movement to ban and restrict access to books." And it's more painful to him because it's his beloved home state, Indiana. - The New York Times
"Many publishers have scaled back on national author tours, … (so there's) a different kind of thinking about store programming: bookstores are scheduling earlier, focusing on local and regional authors rather than national tours, and being more creative when it comes to both author events and authorless programming." - Publishers Weekly
On the surface, Goodreads seems to have mission clarity. It bills itself as “the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations” and frames its function as one of community making. In practice, Goodreads is great for many things, but none of them includes what it’s ostensibly “for.” - The Walrus
