Branching Out

In the wake of Diamond Comic Distributor’s messy bankruptcy, Independent Publishers Group has begun aggressively investing in its own comic distribution channels, snapping up nine graphic novel publishers for its growing roster. On the heels of a strong year, audiobook platform Libro.fm is launching an annual subscription plan intended to compete with Amazon’s Audible. November results from AAP’s StatShot program show a 1.9% increase in book sales, thanks to strong showings in the religion and children’s and YA categories. Lily King’s Heart the Lover and John U. Bacon’s The Gales of November were among last week’s top-selling titles from independent presses at indie bookstores, according to the Independent Publishers Caucus’s new indie-focused bestseller lists. Authors including Jonathan Franzen, Roxane Gay, Jodi Picoult, and George Saunders have joined a coalition of actors and musicians pushing tech companies to protect human-created works from being used to train AI, per the Hollywood Reporter. A Texas school district canceled a visit by children’s author Chris Barton after parents complained about a line in his book on the history of glitter mentioning LGBTQ+ people, reports the San Antonio Current. A new survey of women who read romance found that more than half report feeling empowered in their own sex lives by “spicy” books, though some wish literary intimacy was more realistic, via the New York Post. And Asymptote explores how Scandinavia became a stronghold of autofiction.