For decades, I sat in meetings with all-white teams. The industry needs an independent body to advise on equalityI’m a literary agent and at the height of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests I was sent a list, with accompanying photographs, of the top editors working across the major publishing houses in the UK. When I read it I burst into tears. It showed a sea of almost totally white faces, some of whom had been approaching retirement when I started out as an editorial assistant 20 years earlier. The stagnation in the industry was stark and filled me with despair.Analysis of the industry since then, partly led by pressure from BLM and an open letter from the Black Writers Guild, has only further highlighted this imbalance. Two of the biggest global publishers, Penguin Random House and Hachette, revealed that just 2.7% of their staff – in both cases – are black; and the Guardian reported that you are eight times more likely to see an animal as lead character in a children’s book than a person of colour.Natalie Jerome is a literary agent, deputy chair of Literature Wales, and a former publisher Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-01-01 10:00:46 UTC ]
Now’s your chance to play a small part in literary history by helping to choose the name for the Booker Prize trophy. The elegant statuette, designed in 1969 by children’s book illustrator Jan Pieńkowski, appears to be a fleetingly clad woman holding a large bowl of porter over her head. For... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-15 15:16:54 UTC ]
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Months after a federal court ruling blocked the Penguin Random House deal, the publisher Simon & Schuster is once again up for sale. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-02-14 17:17:54 UTC ]
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Reduced ad spends due to rising inflation and higher interest rates have battered Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerateMedia conglomerate News Corp said on Thursday that it would cut 1,250 jobs after it missed estimates for second-quarter earnings due to weakness in its news and digital real... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-02-09 22:30:39 UTC ]
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The Women’s Prize Trust hopes to make the first award in 2024, after research showed female writers were far less likely than men to be reviewed or win prizes The Women’s prize is to launch a non-fiction award to sit alongside its long-running fiction prize, in response to research that found... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-02-08 08:00:10 UTC ]
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A children’s book from a TikTok star lands at Zonderkidz; Baker Books takes three pastors’ wives “tell-all;” Moody’s guide to military marriage, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-02-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House Audio has acquired Playaway Products, a producer of physical audio players and tablets preloaded with content. Launched in 2005 and based in Solon, Ohio, the company offers 36,000 titles and works with some 40,000 libraries and institutions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-02-02 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The American Library Association has announced the top children’s and young adult books for 2023. This year’s John Newbery Medal for best children’s book went to Amina Luqman-Dawson’s novel “Freewater” about a community of people who escaped slavery. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2023-01-31 16:14:22 UTC ]
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About three weeks after Gina Centrello retired as president and publisher of the Random House Publishing Group, McIntosh announced that she will step down as CEO of Penguin Random House in the very near future. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The 2023 Bologna Ragazzi Awards, which honors illustrated children's books, attracted 2,349 entries from 644 publishers in 59 countries. The post Bologna Children’s Book Fair: 2023 Ragazzi Awards Winners appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-01-30 15:51:20 UTC ]
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No, kids CAN'T get the books being banned at libraries and bookstores, Mr. King. That, plus this week's book censorship news. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-01-27 11:40:00 UTC ]
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Emma Straub—novelist, bookstore-owner, children’s book author, and all-round nice person—was uninvited from reading at Texas elementary schools because of her use of “foul language” on social media. In an email to parents, administrators from the Katy Independent School District (in the Houston... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-19 15:33:15 UTC ]
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“Teller of the Unexpected,” an elegant new biography, sidesteps the ugly side of the children’s book author while capturing his grandiose, tragedy-specked life. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-01-17 20:39:40 UTC ]
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‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’ is a well-known poem by Maya Angelou (1928-2014). It is the title poem from Angelou’s 1993 collection Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, which was marketed as a children’s book although Angelou did not originally conceive the poems as being specifically for children. A brave,... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-01-07 15:00:10 UTC ]
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Children’s book publisher Phyllis Fogelman, a champion of books by Black authors and illustrators and mentor to many in the children’s book industry, died on December 18 at age 89. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-12-22 05:00:00 UTC ]
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As an author whose own books never find their way to supermarket shelves, it’s frustrating work – but it puts food on my family’s tableOnce a rare species, celebrity authored children’s books have become stalwarts of supermarket books aisles. Perfect for a grandparent hunting a last-minute... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-12-16 10:41:27 UTC ]
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IVP will publish an illustrated collection of ‘Prayers for Life;’ Revell signs ‘Back Porch Theology’ podcaster Lisa Harper; WaterBrook lands a debut children’s book author; and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-12-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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What the hell are we doing? All the best things are shutting down and people are out here using computers to make children’s books? Not to get too Jeff Goldblum on you, but just because you build a tool to do something doesn’t make it interesting or worthy. To wit, a product designer named... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-13 15:19:23 UTC ]
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A filmmaker has accused Canadian writer Leah McLaren of sexual assault, saying that Penguin Random House Canada knowingly published a memoir by McLaren that depicts the alleged incident as consensual. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2022-12-09 19:13:28 UTC ]
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The CEO of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade publisher, is stepping down Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2022-12-09 13:58:45 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle has relinquished his position at the head of the publisher, “at his own request and on the best of mutual terms,” just weeks after a federal judge blocked the publisher’s attempt to acquire rival Big Five publisher Simon & Schuster. PRH president and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-12-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
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