Publishing Industry News: Oct. 4-11, 2019

Curious about what’s happening in the world of books and publishing? Catch up on the biggest acquisitions, news, adaptations and more here!

• Brenda Jones and Krishan Trotman have signed a four-book deal with Plume that will profile four prominent female Democrats. The series – Queens of Resistance – will cover Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters. It’s set to be released in the summer of 2020 in time for the Democratic National Convention.

• Freeform, the Disney-owned TV channel, has optioned Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo for a series adaptation.

• James Daunt, Barnes and Noble’s new CEO, is looking to make some changes to the popular bookstore chain. He’ll start with the booksellers, giving them more freedom to create stores that match what their customer base wants and updating their merchandising.

• Penguin Young Readers’ Kokila imprint will publish the 14th Dalai Lama’s first picture book, The Seed of Compassion. Slated for March 2020, it will feature stories of his childhood and lessons he’s learned while studying to be a monk.

• Krista Marino of Delacorte has purchased the second novel from Rory Power, author of Wilder Girls. The new book, Burn Our Bodies Down, follows Margot as she tries to get closer to her secretive mother. After discovering the name of her hometown (Phalene), she thinks she’s found the key to unlocking her mother’s secrets, but if Margot is not careful, she could end up buried in the cornfields along with the secrets of Phalene.

• The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association will dissolve at the end of 2019 – despite membership growth in 2018 – and merge with the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association.

• Although they did not get a preliminary injunction as they had hoped, the seven publishers – represented by attorney Dale Cendali – who filed a lawsuit against the Audible Captions program feel good after their first hearing. One of Cendali’s most poignant remarks was the fact that the poor quality of the program would cause reputational harm to authors and their publishers, who would be connected with a “shoddy” program. A trial will be held by the end of the year.

• Spyglass Media has already optioned Stephen King’s newly published novel, The Institute, for a limited series.

• In a survey of 1,502 American adults conducted from Jan. 8 to Feb. 7 this year, the Pew Research Center found that 20 percent of adults had listened to an audiobook during the 12 months prior to the survey period. In 2011, only 11 percent of adults said they had listened to an audiobook.

• The Children’s Book Council has announced the winners of its Diversity Outstanding Achievement Awards. Winners include Andrea Davis Pinkney; Namrata Tripathi; The Brown Bookshelf, a collective of 10 black authors and illustrators; and Just Us Books, founded by Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson. 

• The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act has been working its way through Congress. CASE would create an administrative tribunal within the U.S. Copyright Office to handle small copyright-infringement cases, providing a streamlined, less formal, less expensive and more efficient process than federal court.