My lovely editor at Penguin knows I’m fascinated by “dummies”. These are the completely blank mock-ups that publishers make to see how a book will look and feel if they make it in such-and-such a format or on a certain type of paper. She just sent me these fine specimens.

A Happy New Year to all our students and alumni! We hope you’ll have a wonderful, rewarding, and successful 2025!

This opening post doesn’t convey the characteristic thoughtfulness of the rest, but it’s the start, so I’ll share it with the recommendation that if our @stirlingpublishing.bsky.social students want to follow a writer who always thinks incisively about publishing, @harkaway.bsky.social is that man.

I am excited to share that my research on the morality clause and behaviour beyond the text is now available with Cambridge University Press! It is open access for the next four weeks, read/download here: www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Last week a survey demonstrated that UK children's books were becoming less diverse; today we learn that the same is true of the industry itself. www.thebookseller.com/news/publish...

Penguin's Vintage imprint to launch new deluxe hardback classics that aren't entirely dissimilar to Penguin's Clothbound Classics series. www.thebookseller.com/news/vintage...

And for St. Andrew’s day, an excerpt of a short story I’ve been finishing up this weekend. Apologies to all the non-Scots speakers. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

🔊 Our 7th annual #ReflectingRealities report is out now! This year’s report shows a significant drop in the presence of racially minoritised characters in books published for children in 2023 in the UK.

This isn't a publisher, it's a self-publishing services provider charging authors for those services while delegating the actual work to AI. (I'm delighted to see that @matildabattersby.bsky.social interrogates a lot of the claims made by the company here.) www.thebookseller.com/news/new-pub...

This piece in @the-bookseller.bsky.social by Melina Spanoudi touches on quite a few of the topics I discussed with our @stirlingpublishing.bsky.social in our sessions on academic publishing last week. www.thebookseller.com/features/tra...

Definitely likely to be of interest to our @stirlingpublishing.bsky.social students: a day in the life of Bloomsbury Academic cover designer Gita Kowlessur. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/discover/...

Why is Japanese fiction having a moment? (One of our @stirlingpublishing.bsky.social students wrote a very good dissertation on this very same topic this year.) www.theguardian.com/books/2024/n...

Spotify's entry into the audiobook market last year - and particularly its offering of 15 hours of 'free' audiobooks monthly - is slowly having wider repercussions: Amazon/Audible has waited, watched, and is now essentially mimicking Spotify's approach. www.thebookseller.com/news/amazon-...

Hi! My name is Hannah & I'm a literary agent for commercial fiction. It's Working In Publishing week and my top advice is to think outside the box & to hold the friends you make close! The people of publishing (editors, agents, authors) are the best bit... Even more so than the books!

Also, if you're looking for an entry-level Editorial role in publishing, based in Edinburgh, then boy do we have just the entry-level Editorial role in publishing based in Edinburgh for you! Deadline 28 November, details including salary here: canongate.co.uk/about/jobs/

This weekend! The absolutely wonderful Edinburgh Radical Book Fair, truly a highlight of the book calendar now. Drop by any time to take it in and browse, or go for one of the great events. Featuring @salenagodden.bsky.social, @alycia.bsky.social and more. lighthousebookshop.com/events/radic...

It’s very much work in progress, but here’s a starter pack of people in publishing for our students at @stirlingpublishing.bsky.social. go.bsky.app/UkunZMo

📰✨ Discover publications that amplify disabled voices, share unique perspectives and help foster a community📚 www.thepublishingpost.com/post/spotlig...