Money Talks

Shuttered library wholesaler Baker & Taylor has unexpectedly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reporting that it is unable to pay back the hundreds of millions of dollars it cumulatively owes to more than 1,000 creditors, including numerous publishers and libraries. Beanstack, the reading motivation platform used in schools and libraries, has acquired Comics Plus, the digital platform for comics, graphic novels, and picture books. A judge has ruled that Tracy Wolff’s bestselling YA fantasy series Crave was similar to a manuscript by author Lynne Freeman “only in the ways that all young adult romantasy fiction novels are,” falling short of the plagiarism charges against it. Merriam-Webster and parent company Encyclopedia Britannica have filed suit against OpenAI for unlawfully training ChatGPT on their content, per the Independent. For Jacobin, Alanna Schubach argues that publishers have lost sight of the real needs and interests of young readers as YA books become increasingly popular with adults. The New Yorker’s Katy Waldman digs into journalist Mark Oppenheimer’s new biography of Judy Blume. UNESCO has named Medellín its 2027 World Book Capital, citing the explosion of bookstores in Colombia’s second-largest city. And Peruvian novelist Alfredo Bryce has died at 87.