AGP Executive Report

AI & Copyright Fight: Authors and publishers are clashing over who owns rights in the $1.5B Anthropic settlement, as the settlement administrator flags competing claims—raising fears that messy records could cut creators out of payouts. Publishing Industry & Policy: Singapore’s ReadSG launches a five-year push to get people reading 15 minutes a day, with tracking and rewards via CrowdTask SG, plus a monthly “Get It Now” Libby release. Book Trade & Retail Rules: DC Comics and Lunar Distribution warn shops not to sell or display Batman Day 2026 items before Sept. 19, or risk losing access to future event shipments. Children’s Books & Inclusion: Kenya’s banned classic Matigari returns as a Kikuyu musical, while a new children’s picture book tackles caste through story and emotion rather than a lecture. Global Reading Trends: China’s literature is drawing growing interest in Russia at the Moscow International Book Fair, with publishers betting on translated titles and pop-culture spillover. Legal/Media Culture: A Penguin Sonia Gandhi memoir deal follows claims of pressure on publishers, as India’s publishing politics stay in the spotlight.

Publishing Politics: Indian Congress leader Sachin Pilot alleged pressure on Penguin to stop publishing Sonia Gandhi’s biography, while HarperCollins India stepped in to release “Belonging” on Nov 10—turning a publisher dispute into a freedom-to-publish flashpoint. Children’s Books & Social Issues: Duckbill’s BLUE uses story and illustration to let kids encounter caste without turning it into a lecture, arguing that art can express what adults avoid explaining. Book Fairs & Community Reading: Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab inaugurated “Kitabon Ka Jahan” at restored Empress Market, and Chelmsford’s Use Your Voice Indie Book Fair branded itself anti-generative-AI to protect human connection in publishing. Rights & Piracy Crackdown: Nigeria’s Copyright Commission seized pirated books worth about N7m in Abuja, targeting unauthorized reproductions. New Releases & Literary Life: “Paper Man: Chasing the Truth in the Mississippi Delta” brings Jim Abbott’s decades of reporting and anti-racism work to bookstores; Robin Morgan, feminist icon and former child star, died at 85. Global Publishing Notes: BookWalker marks 10 years with Kodansha via major manga promos, while a rare Quran manuscript attributed to Imam Ali drew attention at the Baghdad Book Fair.

Publishing & Deals: BookWalker marks 10 years with Kodansha using a Sept. 4–14 global promo: buy volume 1, get volume 2 free on select series, plus catalog-wide 20% Coin Back and bonus digital wallpapers. Children’s Books & Events: Pasadena Conservatory of Music pairs Emmy Kastner’s “All the Ice Cream in the Land” with musical storytime at Vroman’s on Sept. 5. Book Industry Legal/Business: Sparkle Pop (Ad Populum) objects to a Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy settlement plan, escalating disputes and setting a court hearing for Oct. 6. India Publishing Politics: HarperCollins India will publish Sonia Gandhi’s memoir “Belonging” on Nov. 10 after Penguin Random House India withdrew amid a dispute over edits; Congress and BJP trade blame. AI & Publishing: A new lawsuit by the Seattle Times and Newsday targets Microsoft and OpenAI over alleged unauthorized use of journalistic content to train AI. Book Culture on Social: BookTok mid-year buzz highlights 4th Estate’s “Yesteryear,” with controversy fueling discussion. Comics Sales: “Batman #13” tops Wednesday-to-weekend bestseller charts, with DC dominating the top 10.

Publishing Deal Watch: HarperCollins India will publish Sonia Gandhi’s memoir Belonging on Nov. 10 after a Penguin Random House India dispute over reported editorial changes, ending the domestic uncertainty while keeping the international Knopf release on the same date. True Crime & Ethics: Nicole Engelbrecht’s Bare Bones (Jonathan Ball) revisits 10 unsolved South African cases tied to her hit True Crime South Africa podcast, spotlighting the genre’s moral questions. Literary Translation: Bloomsbury Academic releases an English translation of Leib Malach’s 1935 Yiddish play Mississippi, retelling the Scottsboro Affair through “cultural salvage.” Adaptation Market: Venice’s Book Adaptation Rights Market shows studios moving upstream, with screen rights increasingly discussed before publication. AI & Copyright: Microsoft argues Copilot’s book copying in the NYT-linked copyright fight is fair use, while also pushing its newest model into the market. Children’s Media: Andy Lee’s Do Not Watch This Show lands on Amazon Kids+ in the U.S. and Canada, expanding a smash kids’ series built from his picture books.

Publishing Power Shift: HarperCollins India has stepped in to publish Sonia Gandhi’s memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love, ending the Penguin Random House India impasse, with a Nov. 10, 2026 release date. AI & Reputation: Scott Keever argues reputation management is moving from “what Google shows” to “what AI systems say,” as generative tools compress an executive’s public record into a single answer. Global Animation/Comics: WEBTOON parent Naver Ventures invests in Baobab Studios and teams up on SHINE, a fantasy webcomic plus a print graphic novel via First Second Books. Nonfiction Spotlight: Charlotte Higgins’ Ukrainian Lessons: Art in a Time of War lands on the Baillie Gifford Prize longlist, tying wartime survival to culture and art. Local Writing Community: River Bottom Writers in Lethbridge keeps a free weekly meet-up model to help local authors keep writing. Kids & Libraries: West Bend’s StoryWalk adds Ed Vere’s Waffles & Julius: No Hugs Please! for a month of outdoor reading.

Adelaide Writers’ Week Fallout: Palestinian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, whose 2026 festival appearance was pulled before the event collapsed, has been shortlisted for the 2026 South Australian Literary Awards Fiction prize for Discipline. Children’s Publishing Push: Sri Lanka’s M.D. Gunasena launched Adventure Don & the Sea Turtle Rescue, billed as the country’s first multi-faceted chapter-book series, with digital quizzes, badges, and a planned reading club. Amazon Reading Initiative: Amazon’s UK “You Buy, We Donate” will donate a book for every two purchased in a partner range supporting National Year of Reading 2026 via The Multibank. Workplace Harassment Lawsuit: Comic creator Ed Brubaker and Amazon MGM face a suit over alleged harassment on the set of Criminal. AI & Books: A local rare-book seller and an author discuss how AI is reshaping publishing, including alleged theft by Anthropic. Literary Awards & Memoir: Gloria Steinem’s death at 92 drew fresh attention to her journalism legacy, while a new Jewish, Israeli, Zionist-focused nonprofit press, Canary Publishing, opened submissions. Publishing in Motion: Tokyo DisneySea marked 25 years and will release a Kodansha commemorative book.

AI Copyright Clash: The Trump administration filed a formal brief backing OpenAI in the New York Times copyright case, arguing training large language models on copyrighted works is fair use—shifting the fight toward Congress and licensing tables instead of court wins for creators. Publishing Credibility: A product-leadership argument warns that when content is cheap to generate, readers need transparent editorial processes to know what’s trustworthy. Books & Borders: Ukraine’s “Book Country” festival in Kyiv is postponed to spring 2027 for security reasons, with organizers promising a bigger lineup. Literary Releases: CommaPress’ translated anthology “The Book of Bratislava” offers a mosaic of stories across decades, while Kristin Kagawa Bedford’s historical novel “Where the Bamboo Bends” recovers early Japanese immigrant diaries from Texas. Poetry & Place: A new ranch-and-farm collection, “This Cowboyin’ Thing,” turns decades on the prairie into verse. Reading Culture: Commentary on “the end of reading” argues Americans are losing the ability to tackle long, complex books—raising alarms for schools and publishers.

AI Copyright Clash: The Trump DOJ has sided with OpenAI in the New York Times fair-use fight, arguing that training large language models on copyrighted text doesn’t violate copyright and that the public benefits outweigh competitive harm—prompting sharp pushback from the NYT. Publishing Under Pressure: Turkey’s courts ordered the seizure of all copies of jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu’s forthcoming book, banning nationwide distribution and targeting even in-production copies. Books in Conflict Zones: Kyiv’s “Book Country. Mysterious” festival has been postponed until spring due to security concerns, with organizers promising a bigger comeback. Global Book Trade: Pakistan’s National Pavilion opened at the Southern China Book Fair in Guangzhou, spotlighting cultural ties and thousands of titles. Korean Literature Goes to New York: A traveling Korean book fair is set for Sept. 2–3 in NYC, pairing 15 Korean publishers with 40 U.S. companies for rights talks. Local Reading Culture: Milwaukee’s Melon Books is carving out a home for alternative comics, zines, poetry, and indie publishers, while North Adams launches a free Northern Berkshire Author and Book Festival featuring 50+ writers. Book-to-Screen Buzz: Prime Video set Maxton Hall Season 3 for Dec. 9, adapting Mona Kasten’s “Save Us” as the series finale.

Book Trade & Events: Bookfest Chisinau opens in Moldova with five days of launches, meetings, and cultural programming at Mediacor Center (Sept. 2–6), backed by leaders from Moldova and Romania. Education & Writing Programs: Pasadena nonprofit Light Bringer Project kicks off its free Omega Sci-Fi writing workshops for L.A. County high schools, feeding into Tomorrow Prize and Green Feather Award competitions. Censorship & School Reading Lists: A protest in Ahmedabad targets an Anand Niketan School book club after parents’ protests reportedly led to removing Anne Frank’s Diary and Malala’s I Am Malala. Publishing Industry Moves: Faber promotes Ama Badu to senior commissioning editor, while Bloomsbury plans a dyslexia-friendly edition of Stephen Graham and Orly Klein’s Letters to Our Sons alongside its trade release. AI & Academic Publishing: A new study warns that AI-rewritten scholarly prose is increasingly slipping past detectors, then shaping what “normal” academic style looks like. Ukraine Cultural Funding: Kyiv launches “1,000 Springs,” a state-backed push to fund Ukrainian-language cultural content during wartime. Literary Memorials: “The Unfinished” launches a memorial archive website for 289 literature workers killed by Russia.

Publishing Under Pressure: India’s Sonia Gandhi memoir “Belonging” remains at the center of a PRHI/Penguin India fallout, with reports of publisher demands for cuts and politicians trading blame as the deal collapses. Ukraine Book Supply Hit by Strikes: Vivat says a Russian strike destroyed 35,500 books worth about $370,000, while Ababahalamaha reports it found a new warehouse and plans to resume shipping after losses from the same wave. Library Digital Access: Piedmont Regional Library System launched Comics Plus, giving cardholders unlimited, simultaneous reading of comics, graphic novels, manga, and children’s titles. Fantasy & Genre Buzz: Brandon Sanderson fans get fresh reading picks, while a local debut fantasy, “Morfran Dark Lord Reformed,” leans into a humorous villain-turned-goat-farmer premise. AI & Copyright Clash: Sony and Warner sued Anthropic over alleged unauthorized use of copyrighted music to train Claude, adding to the AI training-and-piracy fight. Comics Industry Calendar: New York Comic Con 2026 revealed its professional programming lineup, expanding industry panels across publishing, film/TV, education, and more. Literary Memorial Project: “The Unfinished” launched a beta memorial site cataloging 289 book-world figures killed by Russia, with profiles and plans to expand through fall 2026.

Digital Manga Boom: MangaPlaza (NTT Solmare) has topped 1 million members, expanding its officially licensed catalog of 170,000+ chapters from Kodansha, KADOKAWA and SHUEISHA. AI Publishing Infrastructure: HERAA.ai launched “Living Book Platforms,” turning nonfiction into AI-powered subscription experiences in about 30 days, while Google rolled out “Expert Intelligence” in Gemini Notebook using 100,000+ publisher e-books users already own. Big Publishing Business News: Eaton Press opened applications for a multi-author Q1 2027 book on human-centered AI adoption. Literary Awards: AUC Press named the 2026 Naguib Mahfouz Medal shortlist (winner Dec. 11). Controversy in Memoirs: The Sonia Gandhi memoir “Belonging” remains in turmoil as Penguin India’s deal collapses amid disputes over requested cuts/changes. Books & Culture: Unwritten launched a memorial archive for 289 literature workers killed by Russia; and Athenaeum Publishing discussed translating Chinese classics to build a cultural bridge for Dutch readers. New Releases: Middle-grade novel “Far From the Ocean’s Edge” debuts; and AR Rahman announced his autobiography “Rahman: A Renaissance.”

AI Copyright Clash: Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell sued Anthropic in California, alleging Claude was trained by illegally copying Beatles, Taylor Swift, and Michael Jackson songs, seeking up to $150,000 per work. Book Industry Under Fire: A reported Amazon warehouse process in Las Vegas allegedly scans books page-by-page for AI training, then destroys them, raising fresh questions about consent and handling of print content. Ukraine’s Publishing Crisis: Russian strikes reportedly destroyed major textbook and schoolbook production, including a Kyiv plant tied to 1.3 million books, threatening supplies for the new term. Sonia Gandhi Memoir Row: Penguin Random House India lawyers flagged “several chapters” for changes and deletions over references to Modi, RSS, and communal-riot material; the dispute escalated as the deal reportedly fell through. Rights & Royalties: Inukami! illustrator Kanna Wakatsuki says WiZH released an unauthorized digital “complete edition” with similar cover art and removed credits, and plans to sue for copyright infringement. Publishing & Tech Tools: Google’s Gemini Notebook can now analyze Google Play books, adding new “expert intelligence” features for readers. Comics & New Releases: Image’s Tales of Wonder #1 debuts Sept. 2, while BOOM! Studios’ Power Rangers retcons Kimberly’s classic story in issue #3.

Ukraine Book Industry Under Fire: Russian strikes have destroyed more than 10 million books this summer, including 8 million in Kharkiv and 60,000 in Kyiv-area warehouse hits, with officials calling it an effort to erase Ukrainian culture. Nova Poshta Fallout: After attacks on Nova Poshta terminals and a robotic fulfillment center, the carrier is shifting to a decentralized model using branches as local warehouses and says it will fully compensate publishers and stores for losses. Publisher-Politics Clash: Penguin Random House India denied “external pressure” in its Sonia Gandhi memoir row, saying talks over Belonging: A Journey of Love hit an impasse over “a particular issue,” while the book is still set for global release via Alfred A. Knopf. Royal Books & Public Memory: Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer marked the 29th anniversary with half-mast tributes and is set to publish Swan Song: Diana, My Sister in September. Publishing Integrity Watch: NYU Press pulled C. W. Howell’s Designer Science after a quote-fabrication controversy, with Retraction Watch calling the publisher’s action justified. Reading Culture Push: Ghana’s tourism minister urged stakeholders to make reading fashionable at the 23rd Ghana International Book Fair. Tech & Search: Google updated its EU spam policy to avoid antitrust trouble, including changes to how “parasite SEO” enforcement works in the EEA. Comics Universe: Marvel’s Midnight Universe plan is tied to a creator call between Dan Buckley and Jonathan Hickman, with retailer order cutoff looming.

AI & Copyright Clash: Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music sued Anthropic over alleged illegal downloading and torrenting of copyrighted works to train Claude, escalating a broader AI training fight that already includes book-piracy claims. Publishing Under Pressure: Hong Kong’s independent bookstore Have a Nice Stay shut after a police raid tied to the national security law, a sign of how dissent-focused shelves are shrinking. Big-Company Publishing Politics: In India, Penguin Random House India is accused of “editorial capitulation” in the Sonia Gandhi memoir row after reports it stepped away from publishing “Belonging,” with politicians arguing about who pressured changes. Book Culture & Community: El Dorado Hills Library announced an Author Showcase panel for Sept. 29 spotlighting local writers and the path from manuscript to agents and publishers. New Releases & Reading Picks: Andrew Klavan’s mystery “Find Me Nowhere” gets a strong spotlight, while a Reuters feature highlights how readers are still hunting for banned perspectives. Royal Books Watch: Charles Spencer’s Diana memoir “Swan Song” is set for Sept. 22 as the 29th anniversary approaches.

Sonia Gandhi Memoir Row: Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala called Penguin Random House India’s reported withdrawal from publishing Sonia Gandhi’s memoir “editorial capitulation,” warning that political pressure can’t be allowed to reshape what gets printed. Publisher-Author Tensions: Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel alleged the government wants the book blocked over claims it could “affect” the BJP, while Penguin India disputes being the publisher in India—keeping the fight focused on who controlled the manuscript. Hong Kong Book Trade Under Pressure: Reuters reports crowds lining up to say goodbye to independent Hong Kong bookstore Have a Nice Stay as it shuts after a police raid over alleged seditious books and years of shrinking space for dissent. Music Publishing vs AI: Sony Music and Warner Chappell sued Anthropic, accusing it of large-scale copyright theft to train Claude, naming pirate music archives and seeking major damages. Global Publishing Access: Bloomsbury is translating 32 works by Marathi social reformer Annabhau Sathe into English for worldwide readers, including novels on anti-colonial struggle and exploitation. Literary Culture & Translation: Ashoka University’s translation conference tackled whether AI can replace translators, arguing formula fiction is easy while context and craft still need humans. Royal Books & Timing: Charles Spencer’s memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is set for Sept. 22, arriving just weeks after Harry and Meghan’s return to the UK and close to Diana’s 29th anniversary.

Publishing Policy Clash: India’s Sonia Gandhi memoir Belonging has become a full-blown publishing fight: Penguin Random House India says it is “not the publisher” in India and insists it stayed “willing and keen,” while Congress and BJP leaders trade accusations over alleged editorial demands tied to references to Modi, RSS, and China. Press Freedom Under Pressure: Kerala CM V.D. Satheesan and Congress figures argue the dispute signals intimidation and censorship, while BJP questions whether the book is truly a memoir or fiction. Ukraine Publishing Hit: Russian strikes damaged Nova Poshta depots and burned warehouses tied to dozens of Ukrainian publishers and retailers, with officials warning the book supply chain is taking a direct hit. Translation & AI Debate: A translation conference in New Delhi pushed back on the idea that AI can replace human translators, arguing formula fiction is easier than context-rich work. Ghana Reading Culture Push: Ghana’s book fair opened with calls for national action on piracy, high production costs, and weak distribution—framing books as core to education and development. Music IP Lawsuit: Sony and Warner Music sued Anthropic, alleging large-scale intellectual property theft.