Publishers Weekly

A selection of the top books publishers are excited about for spring 2025.

Among the week's headlines: it was a busy Banned Books Week in court with developments in two major book banning cases; an anti–book banning resolution is reintroduced in Congress; Delaware libraries grapple with a ransomware attack; and the Carnegie Corporation gives $4 million to New York City libraries.

The press had been slated for closure after officials voted to eliminate its annual funding, but WSU’s provost and interim dean of libraries opted to reverse course.

Helped by the acquisition of 9 Story Media, sales rose 4% at Scholastic in the quarter ended August 31, 2024, and the publisher cut its operating loss.

Most recently brand editor at the publisher’s LoveLove imprint, Atanassova will lead the full editorial team at the fast-growing manga publisher, overseeing acquisitions and production as it continues to expand its editorial purview.

The Association of American Publishers has awarded the Belarusian-language house, publishing in effective exile from Poland, with its annual honor recognizing "courage and fortitude" in defense of the freedom of expression.

The feminist bookstore, founded in 1979, has been named the Great Lakes Bookstore of the Year by the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association. It is the inaugural recipient of the award.

Following an August 9 ruling by the Eighth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, a coalition of publishers, authors, and advocates has filed a new complaint seeking to strike down the sweeping book ban provision in Iowa’s controversial law, SF 496.

The inaugural Asian American Bookcon, to be held on September 27, will bring together three dozen authors for a day of presentations, signings, and a party.

Publishers for Palestine, a coalition of more than 500 publishers in 50 countries, issued an open letter demanding that organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair, slated for October 16-20, "refuse collaboration with complicit Israel book publishers."

With sales to U.K. bookstores shut off by the bankruptcy of its U.K. distributor Marston, the radical U.K./U.S. publisher has turned to Kickstarter to raise $134,000 to support its fall publishing program. It has raised close to $100,000 in the first 24 hours of the campaign.

IPG will showcase Spanish-language books in a virtual presentation targeting buyers and booksellers, covering best practices for selling Spanish-language titles. The event will also feature IPG-distributed Spanish-language publishers' top frontlist picks for spring 2025.

At an appeal hearing this week, lawyers for the rural Texas county told the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that it should strike down a three-decade-old precedent and hand politicians near total authority over what books can go on—or be banned from—public library shelves.

Sole Otero’s new graphic novel is a multigenerational saga of female disenfranchisement and despair.

The inaugural Aspen Literary Festival, slated for September 2025, will feature more than 40 authors in a multi-day celebration of books.

Aielli was most recently VP and publishing director of the now-dissolved Hachette Books imprint and has been on the AWP board since 2020.

About 125 friends and colleagues gathered at the Iris restaurant in Manhattan on September 19 to wish Stuart Applebaum, one of publishing’s preeminent publicists and dean of the industry’s corporate communications director ranks, both a happy birthday and good luck after he steps away from Penguin Random House at the end of the month.

ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 414 challenges to censor library materials in the first eight months of the year, down from 695 during the same period in 2023, with ALA reps suggesting that advocacy efforts, including lawsuits in several states, are beginning to yield positive results.

In the 2023-2024 school year, state legislation was "particularly critical in accelerating book bans," the report states, "making it easier to remove books from schools without due process, or in some cases, without any formal process whatsoever.”