Canada Reads, An Amazon Law Suit, and Too Much FanFic: This Week in Book News

Happy Friday, everyone! 2021 is off to quite the start, isn’t it? We are still excited for the new year however, and have been spending a lot of time this week planning how to make 2021 another great year for KWL and our wonderful authors.

Before we get into the news for the week, we want to give a HUGE congratulations to the winner of our 2020 Indie cover contest, Ceux qui ne renonçaient pas by Luca Tahtieazym. Hosting this contest was an absolute blast, so be sure to check out the winning covers and let us know what other contests you’d like to see here on the KWL blog! And if you have any other topics you want us to cover this year, please let us know in the comments. We want to make sure the information we’re providing is content you want to see.

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Book sales in 2021 are already off to a great start.

Self-Improvement Boom Sets Book Sales Off on Fast Start in 2021

More than 17.1 million print units were sold in the week ended January 9, 2021 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan, marking the first time in the history of the service that units topped the 17 million mark in the first week in January.

A lawsuit has been filed against Amazon, accusing them of price fixing the eBook market.

Amazon Hit with E-book Price Fixing Suit

The law firm that successfully sued Apple and five major publishers for colluding to fix e-book prices in 2011 has filed a class action suit against Amazon, accusing the company of colluding with the Big Five publishers to eliminate price competition from the e-book market.

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People are reading so much fanfiction, Archive of Our Own’s servers can’t handle it.

People Are Reading So Much Fanfiction It’s Crashing the Biggest Fanfic Website

It seemed that fans of one fic in specific were laughing hardest, and taking the blame for tanking the site. The fic “Heat Wave,” which is about two real life Minecraft content creators, was updated at almost the exact moment that the site went down, leading people to believe that eager fans accidentally made the site go down in their rush to read the new chapter.

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As we prepare to usher in the new administration, the next wave of political memoirs for the post-Trump era are upon us.

There Will Be Books: James Comey Sequel Signals New Wave Of Memoirs In Post-Trump Era

The collapse of President Trump’s administration in its final fortnight will surely downgrade his already damaged standing in history. It may also make all previously published books about his one-term presidency seem truncated. The horror of seeing extreme Trump backers barging past U.S.

CBC has revealed the contenders for the 2021 edition of Canada Reads.

Meet the Canada Reads 2021 contenders | CBC Books

What is the one book all of Canada should read? It’s time for Canada Reads 2021. The year 2020 was a year like no other. As we start 2021 and look forward to the 20th edition of Canada Reads , we are reminded that books can be a safe place to go when times are tough.

After the debut of its Netflix adaptation, the price for copies of Bridgerton are soaring. But the author doesn’t want her readers to pay that much for her books.

‘Bridgerton’s’ author doesn’t want you to pay $800 for her books

After the Christmas Day release of “Bridgerton” on Netflix, demand for the books behind the series has skyrocketed – and so has their cost, with paperbacks out of stock, as first reported by People.com, and original hardcovers on sale for up to $800.

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Sally Rooney has announced she’ll be releasing her third book this fall.

‘Normal People’ author Sally Rooney to publish new novel this fall

On Tuesday, publishers Farrar, Straus and Giroux announced a new novel from the best-selling author to be released this fall. Beautiful World, Where Are You is the Irish author’s third book – she previously penned Conversations With Friends , published in 2017 and Normal People in 2018.

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If we learned anything in 2020, it’s that nothing is set in stone (except our collective desire to bake when put in a lockdown). So while these calendars are definitely not a guarantee, Literary Hub and the Guardian have released their literary calendars for 2021.

Your 2021 Literary Events Calendar

So far, aside from certain results in Georgia, 2021 hasn’t proven itself to be much better than 2020, at least where our collective psyches are concerned. The pandemic is raging, businesses are struggling, and oh right, the president has incited mob violence in the Capitol, with the promise of more.

2021 in books: what to look forward to this year

Sat 2 Jan 2021 04.00 EST Last modified on Tue 9 Mar 2021 05.20 EST 4 Winners of five Costa category awards announced. 8 The Father released – Florian Zeller directs an adaptation of his own play, starring Anthony Hopkins. 11 TS Eliot prize for poetry.

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And finally, two interesting pieces I really enjoyed this week:

The first, an article by an English teacher on using 1984 in her classroom and how the far-right are clinging to the title (in maybe not the most accurate of ways).

Please Stop Comparing Things to “1984” – Electric Literature

If you enjoy reading Electric Literature, join our mailing list! We’ll send you the best of EL each week, and you’ll be the first to know about upcoming submissions periods and virtual events. George Orwell’s is one of those ubiquitous books that you know about just from existing in the world.

And second, Wikipedia is celebrating it’s 20^th anniversary this week. This in-depth look at the history of the website is fascinating (although it’s quite long so set aside some time to enjoy!).

https://onezero.medium.com/an-oral-history-of-wikipedia-the-webs-encyclopedia-1672eea57d2

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

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Staff Recommendation
Steph, Publisher Operations Specialist

“Living off the high of binging Bridgerton, I found this anthology and couldn’t put it down. Five incredible stories of Duke’s falling in love from some of the most talented romance writers. If you are looking for a romance fix while waiting for Season 2 of Bridgerton, you won’t be disappointed with this book.”

https://www.kobo.com/ebook/duke-i-d-like-to-f