Category Publishing

Auto Added by WPeMatico

Hachette pulls horror novel Shy Girl after suspected AI use

The publisher has cancelled the US release of Shy Girl by Mia Ballard and withdrawn the UK edition after weeks of online speculation about the novel’s origins

Hachette Book Group has withdrawn a horror novel after allegations circulated online that its author relied heavily on artificial intelligence. The book is to be discontinued in the UK after being published in November 2025, and its US launch date has been cancelled.

The book, Shy Girl by Mia Ballard, had been scheduled for release in the US this spring under Hachette’s Orbit imprint. However, the publisher confirmed it had halted publication after an internal review. The title has also been removed from online retailers including Amazon, and will no longer be distributed in the UK.

Continue reading...

London book fair roundup: Idris Elba’s thriller deal, the rise of romcom, and fights against censorship

The actor led the starry book deals, while publishers assessed whether US-style bans are spreading to the UK

The annual London book fair wrapped on Thursday, marking the end of three days that saw 33,000 people connected to the book industry – agents, publishers, authors, among others – gather at Olympia to make deals and discuss the state of the publishing world, and its future. Here’s our roundup of the biggest deals, trends and takeaways from the fair.

The starriest book deal of the week was a new thriller series co-authored by Idris Elba, featuring an MI6 field operative who gets deployed to Mauritius to investigate an attempted murder. Elsewhere, rights were scooped for Alex Ferguson’s first autobiography in 13 years, broadcaster Mishal Husain’s debut children’s book, and the story of designer Paul Smith’s life.

Continue reading...

Quiz books surge in sales to their best year ever, while nonfiction takes a slide

The success of TV spinoffs such as The 1% Club Quiz Book shows a growing market for puzzles as readers crave escape from the news cycle and endless doom-scrolling

While watching University Challenge or Only Connect, the impulse to shout out the answers comes down to a simple “human urge”, says publisher Richard Green.

That compulsion to “know useless trivia or show off knowledge” has been noticed by the publishing industry, which has met the desire by coming up with a range of products that resulted in quiz and trivia books having a bumper year in 2025, the best since records began in 1998.

Continue reading...

Quiz books are the answer to falling non-fiction sales, data shows

2025 was the best year for quiz book sales since records began in 1998; while Bibles also proved popular

If the question is which genre bucked the prevailing trend in publishing to record a remarkable rise in readership last year, the answer is clear: quiz books.

Spending on the titles increased by nearly a quarter in 2025, data from NielsenIQ BookData suggests. It was the best year for quiz books since records began in 1998, according to the company, which manages the ISBN and SAN agencies for the UK and Ireland.

Continue reading...

‘Gruffalo Granny is coming to stay’: new story to be released in September

Macmillan announces latest instalment of popular Julia Donaldson tale featuring illustrations by Axel Scheffler

The Gruffalo family is to expand after the publisher of the popular children’s stories announced a long-awaited third book about the beloved monster.

The new tale, Gruffalo Granny, will be published on 10 September, Macmillan announced.

Continue reading...

Marwan Barghouti, ‘Palestine’s Mandela’, to publish book from prison

Unbroken: In Pursuit of Freedom for Palestine is a collection of writings by the Palestinian political leader, who has been held in Israeli prisons since 2002

A collection of writings by the imprisoned Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti will be published in November, bringing together prison letters, interviews, personal material and documents from the last three decades of Barghouti’s political life and incarceration.

As deadly attacks on Gaza continue despite a nominal ceasefire, the 66-year-old is seen by many as the best hope for a leader of any future Palestinian state.

Continue reading...

Heated Rivalry books sell out amid Australian fans’ infatuation with gay ice hockey TV show

Wild success of television series drives huge demand for Game Changers novels, with Australian booksellers reporting significant customer orders

A seventh book in Rachel Reid’s gay romance series that inspired the TV drama Heated Rivalry will be out later this year but Australian fans are still struggling to get their hands on a physical copy of any of the preceding six books.

Unrivalled, the next instalment in the Canadian author’s Game Changers series, will be released internationally on 29 September, the publisher HarperCollins announced on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Not just love, actually: why romance fiction is booming

From Emily Henry to Rebecca Yarros and Alison Espach’s The Wedding People – romance has dominated the book charts this year. So why is it still dismissed by critics?

People buy lipstick when the world is falling apart. This genuine economic theory, known as the “lipstick index”, was first noted by Leonard Lauder (son of the more famous Estée). When the world seems very bleak – in the weeks and months after the twin towers fell, for instance, or after the 2008 financial crash – and spending generally goes down, lipstick sales trend strongly upwards.

The psychological truth at the heart of this equation is real: when people have less than they need, they spend more on small, beautiful things. It’s easy, maybe, to dismiss this in the way most feminine-coded things are dismissed: frivolous, wasteful, foolish. But that would be a mistake. A single treasure, bright and gorgeous, is like a talisman; a candle in the night. It is possible, with your small candle, to make your way in the darkness. One delight, against all this. The world crumbles, and lipstick sales go up.

Continue reading...

Ncuti Gatwa leads star winners at first Speakies awards for audio storytelling

The actor won best performance for BBC drama Gatsby in Harlem at the inaugural British Audio awards, while Nicola Coughlan’s narration of Juno Dawson’s Queen B clinched best sci-fi audiobook

Audiobooks narrated by Ncuti Gatwa, Nicola Coughlan and David Tennant were among those recognised at the inaugural British Audio awards, the “Speakies”.

Gatwa’s performance in the lead role of Gatsby in Harlem helped it emerge as one of Monday evening’s biggest winners: it took three major prizes including audio of the year. The reimagining of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby also won best audio drama adaptation, while Gatwa took home the best performance award for what organisers described as his “remarkable poise and flair” in capturing Gatsby’s character.

Continue reading...