Comic Relief
BookTok, Bibles, and bibliotherapy are among the biggest factors that contributed to a
small but notable increase in book sales in 2024—and could lead to continued gains in the year ahead, according to one BookScan analyst. In this week’s magazine, we
explored the world of
comics retailing and the
hottest titles at comics shops this season. And in other comics news, Joseph Montagne has been
promoted to publisher of Abrams ComicArts. Workers at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn have
ratified a new three-year contract, just one week after New York City Barnes & Noble employees
did the same. We checked in with Scholastic about their ambitious plans for the
rollout of Suzanne Collins’s new Hunger Games novel, and chatted with a group of children’s publishers keen to
turn the tide on middle grade book sales. OpenAI has
declared that the AI race is “over” if training on copyrighted works isn’t fair use, reports
Ars Technica. Flatiron Books will
continue to support and promote Careless People, the tell-all memoir by a former Meta employee, after the tech company demanded it be pulled, according to the
Verge. Pan Macmillan is
suing Russell Brand for £220,000 for failing to write two self-help books in a deal that was scrapped following sexual assault allegations against the author, per the
Times of London. The
Boston Review lays out the
politics and publishing history of the “mad memoir.” And author and sportswriter
John Feinstein has died at 69.

Can Bibliotherapy Drive Book Sales? In a presentation at the London Book Fair, a BookScan analyst said that many of the trends that led to a small sales increase in 2024—including BookTok and Bibles—remain in place in 2025. Also among those factors is the idea of “bibliotherapy,” the use of literature to help people improve their overall health or wellbeing.
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If You Build It, Comics Fans Will ComeIn the 1980s, periodical comics made the leap from convenience store spinner racks to trade paperback collections at bookstore chains. Today, comics and graphic novels can be found wherever books are sold. How’s a smaller specialty shop to compete? These comics shop owners have some thoughts.
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Greenlight Bookstore Ratifies New Union ContractUnion employees at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn have ratified a new contract that guarantees annual pay raises and provides more benefits that are designed to reduce turnover and reward skills developed on the job. The store’s employees unionized in 2021.
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A New Graphic Novel on the Story of Contemporary Art
How did a soup can become a work of art? Or a pickled shark? Or a banana taped to a wall?
Blow Up! answers these questions, following the lives of seminal contemporary artists and telling the stories behind their groundbreaking works. Featured artists include Andy Warhol, Marina Abramović, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Yayoi Kusama, and more.
(Sponsored) more »
Scholastic Harnesses Buzz Around ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’It’s no overstatement to say that Suzanne Collins’s
Sunrise on the Reaping, her latest return to the world of the Hunger Games, is one of the most highly anticipated children’s book releases this year. As the series launches into a new era on March 18, Scholastic has plenty of plans to ensure that the rollout satisfies fans.
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Just Announced: ‘We Fell Apart’ by E. LockhartTen years after the release of her bestseller
We Were Liars, which became a TikTok sensation, E. Lockhart returns to the same universe in her new YA psychological thriller
We Fell Apart, out from Delacorte Press on November 4.
more »
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Picture of the Day
Authors John Green (r.) and Emma Lockhart were honored at the annual Penguin Random House children’s sales conference on March 6 at the Sheraton Hotel in New York City. Both authors spoke about their new projects, Green’s Everything Is Tuberculosis (Crash Course Books) and Lockhart’s newly announced We Fell Apart (Delacorte Press).
Courtesy PRH