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Opinion from The Bookseller and other columnists. To pitch a comment piece email Molly Flatt.

Editor's Letter

Let the tills ring out for the trade

It is almost Christmas, and in our Yuletide tale we in the book trade remain champions of the chance encounter, experts in hope and inspiration and purveyors of cheer.

READ LETTER IN FULL

Strong sellers, personal favourites and American poets

by Tim Relf

A wry and revealing monthly round-up of news from the poetry-publishing sector.

Indies aren't just for Christmas

by Kirsty Woods

Publishing must make more of indie bookshops, year round.

Not just a gentle niche

by Lesley Kara

Publishing isn’t taking the power of older women seriously.

Editor‘s Letter

Let the tills ring out for the trade

It is almost Christmas, and in our Yuletide tale we in the book trade remain champions of the chance encounter, experts in hope and inspiration and purveyors of cheer.

READ LETTER IN FULL

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An open letter: upholding human creativity in the age of AI

by Sara Lloyd

Clementine Collett’s report, ’The impact of Generative AI on the novel’, demands a response.

The glory and the growing pains

by Gemma Cairney

Authentic, evolving creative careers rarely fit into social media bios.

We don't need to redefine literacy

by Kate Bugos

Watching TikTok, fun as it may be, is not reading.

Fair play

by Jamie Byng

Why we’re doing things differently for LBF next year.

The job market just voted on AI

by Nadim Sadek

Artificial intelligence and creativity belong together.

Remembering Sophie Kinsella

by Araminta Whitley & Marina de Pass

Madeleine Wickham, widely known as Sophie Kinsella, was a once-in-a-lifetime author and friend.

Are influencers harming the book industry?

by Jannat Ahmed

The overvaluation of influencers in commercial publishing has real impacts.

Instilling a hunger for language

by Oisín McGann

Children’s Books Ireland’s Everyone a Reader programme holds powerful lessons for the National Year of Reading.

Yes, you can still launch an indie press…

by Aaron Kent

…and you can even do it without connections or cash.

The empathy loop

by Imogen Bond

Reading doesn’t just boost empathy – boosting empathy creates better readers.

News for emerging authors: November

by Maame Blue

A hand-picked digest of news stories from the past month that emerging writers should know about.

StoryFeast is proving its value as a publishing industry showcase

by Eva Wong Nava

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Overwhelm must not get in the way of change

Dec 5, 2025by Philip Jones

Leadership was under the spotlight at the FutureBook Conference held this week in London, with the first keynote speaker Elke Edwards urging us to gain an insight into our leadership abilities at a time of overwhelm.

“Against this backdrop, I wrote and I wrote”

Dec 3, 2025by Penny Pepper

A look at the fight for the disability narrative in fiction.

Listen up, audio storytelling has arrived

Nov 28, 2025by Philip Jones

This week, The Bookseller made audio centre stage by running The British Audio Awards AKA The Speakies, and the collective response was overwhelmingly positive.

Change needs community

Nov 21, 2025by Dylan Calder

Manchester’s Future-Proofing Equality in Children’s Publishing conference called for courage and collaboration.

Redefining reading recognises new readers

Nov 21, 2025by Philip Jones

This week, the National Literacy Trust published a paper on how young people “read” today, suggesting that by broadening the definition of reading we might see a different picture emerge of their habits.

The Pornographic Delicatessen triumphs in the tightest race in Diagram Prize history

Nov 21, 2025by Horace Bent

A look at Montréal’s erotic art scene becomes the second Canadian book to win the annual odd-title crown.

One DEI role is not enough

Nov 19, 2025by Beth Cox

To future-proof publishing, we must bake in inclusion at much greater depth.

Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book

Nov 18, 2025by Lucy Mercer

Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.

We pay leaders to lead, not take a back seat

Nov 14, 2025by Philip Jones

When meaty issues come our way, we should not deny them because real change requires courage and persistence – we should expect leaders to lean into this, not sit idly by as others do the work and pay the cost.

Books continue to make their mark

Nov 7, 2025by Philip Jones

The “book”, of course, has been written off more times than I can remember, but as the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre reminded us, "don’t stop reading".