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Industry Spotlight #1

Let's start with hello...

Hi! Welcome to our first Industry Spotlight (and first ever post on here), we are Derby Uni's Publishing Society. The committee is made up of three parts, myself (Rosie) the president for 2024/25, Adam (secretary) and who will be authoring the rest of these Industry Spotlights, and Rebecca (treasurer) who has the busiest schedule known to man. 

You'll get to know us a bit better in the future, but for now here's this week's book news:


Continued entwinement with AI


You’re probably sick of hearing it by now; AI continues to be gradually incorporated into industries, with publishing particularly in the spotlight. So far, AI seems to be making the biggest impact in academic publishing, with three such publishers: Wiley, Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press all announcing partnerships with AI companies.

One of the biggest questions surrounding AI is that of ethics, with authors worrying about their work being misused, or outright replaced by AI. The current solution appears to be an ‘opt-in’ system, with authors for these publishing houses being able to choose if they want the use of AI in their work. It remains to be seen whether this is enough, but it will come as a relief to those particularly worried about AI encroachment.

 

Spellow Lane Library is bouncing back

Among the widespread destruction across the UK due to the far-right riots, one particularly shocking instance was the torching of Spellow Lane Library in Liverpool. Not only was this a centre for learning, but it also housed a food bank and was a centre for serving disadvantaged communities in the area.

In the aftermath of the violent disorder, the country has rallied in support of the library, with nearly £200,000 crowdfunded to help in its rehabilitation and the replacement of lost books, and hundreds of authors donating backlist copies of their books.

After weeks of news that can only be described as depressing, this story feels very uplifting and just goes to show that for every act of violence, there is an act of unity to push back against it.


Hachette UK’s first exclusive horror imprint.

Hachette bookgroup
Orbit UK has announced the launch of Run For It, an imprint that will focus solely on the horror genre. Orbit’s current horror authors will now be published under this imprint, and it will hopefully attract more as it makes a name for itself, with its inaugural titles scheduled for Summer 2025.

Sometimes news like this makes you realise how many sections the larger publishing houses get broken up into. Run For It will be an imprint of Orbit, while Orbit itself is an imprint of Little Brown Book Group, and Little Brown is an imprint of Hachette. That makes Run For it an imprint of an imprint of an imprint. Crazy!

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