The 2025 PW Salary and Jobs Report, an annual survey of publishing professionals conducted by Publishers Weekly, offers a snapshot of the demographics, job satisfaction, salary, and feelings about artificial intelligence among those working in publishing. Among the findings from the 726 respondents: 76 percent identified as white, down from 80 percent last year; most are generally happy with their chosen profession, median pay rose rose $5,000 last year, to $80,000; and 63 percent said their companies use AI. “But the more familiar people become with the technology, the less they seem to like it.”

Oxford University Press has revealed its Word of the Year, USA Today reports. The term “rage bait,” or online content that is intentionally meant to elicit anger, has tripled in usage over the last year.

For the New Yorker, Brady Brickner-Wood looks at the curious trend of “performative reading,” or treating a book like an accessory and reading in public while most others scroll on their phones and retreat under noise-cancelling headphones. “This way of perceiving social reality—and particularly a person’s reading life—may seem inane, even deranged. But performative reading has firmly implanted itself into the popular imagination, becoming a meme for a generation of people who, by all accounts, aren’t reading a whole lot of books.”

Publishers Weekly has released its 2025 Salary & Job Report. Based on 726 responses from publishing professionals, this year’s report suggests increasing diversity in the field. “This year, 76% of survey respondents identified as white, down from 80% in 2024. The decline was driven by growing diversity among respondents who have been in publishing for six years or less. This year, only 61% of that group was white, down from 64% in 2024.” However, responses from survey participants suggest anxiety about the permanence of this change: “67% of respondents believe that current pushback against DEI initiatives will have negative repercussions for publishing’s diversity efforts.”

The novelist Daniel Woodrell, celebrated for prose “as rugged and elemental as the igneous rock of the Ozark Mountains,” has died, the New York Times reports. Best known for his 2006 novel Winter’s Bone, “he was an artist admired by close observers of contemporary fiction as a master storyteller of rural America.”

The Prison and Justice Writing Program at PEN America has launched the Incarcerated Writers Bureau, a digital resource to help make professional and creative opportunities more accessible to writers in U.S. prisons. “The website features information for publishers, literary agents, and  journalists seeking to work with incarcerated writers, a searchable roster of featured writers, and a database for publishers and media platforms to submit opportunities for writers working from prison.”

Pepe Montero has been named the new executive director of literary arts center Hugo House, Capitol Hill Seattle reports. The announcement comes nearly two years after Diane Delgado resigned from the position after less than a year on the job. Delgado was Hugo House’s first permanent executive director since Tree Swenson resigned in February 2021.

Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, has hired a new CEO, according to Portland Business Journal. David Maquera takes over from Patrick Bassett who stepped down in September after five years in the position. “The leadership change comes two months after Powell’s laid off employees and secured a $4.5M capital infusion.”

More travelers are drawing inspiration for their trips from their favorite stories and books, USA Today reports. According to the global travel search engine Skyscanner, “55 percent of travelers have booked their trips based on literature, with 14 percent of them wanting to go on a writing or reading retreat and 33 percent hoping to visit a destination mentioned in a book.”

In an essay for the New York Times Magazine, Carlo Rotella, who teaches English courses at Boston College, writes about how some humanities teachers have approached their work using “more purposeful approaches to writing and reading, less reliance on technology and a renewed focus on face-to-face community.” According to Rotella, an English class that resists AI has three main elements: “pen-and-paper and oral testing; teaching the process of writing rather than just assigning papers; and greater emphasis on what happens in the classroom.”

James Patterson and Bookshop.org have partnered to launch a new literary award called the James Patterson and Bookshop.org Prize, Shelf Awareness reports. A grand prize of $15,000 will go to a debut author chosen by independent booksellers; a runner-up will receive $10,000. Full-length debut books originally written in English and first published in the U.S. between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025, are eligible for the prize. “Indie booksellers from qualifying bookstores will be able to nominate titles and vote for the longlist, shortlist, and final winners. Nominations will open on January 5, 2026, with the 10-book longlist scheduled to be announced on February 9. The five-book shortlist will be announced on March 16, and the winner on April 6.”

Kelly Jensen of Book Riot examines U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell’s ruling in favor of twenty-one state attorneys general who sued Donald Trump over the dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and several other small federal agencies. “This permanent injunction means that the Trump administration cannot do further harm to the IMLS.”

The latest episode of the New York Times Book Review podcast, hosted by MJ Franklin, looks at the year’s big book awards and what they “might tell us about the state of literature in 2025.”

A new partnership between the Black List and Blackstone Publishing called the Blackstone Publishing Novel Initiative aims to identify an unpublished manuscript to enter into a $25,000 publishing deal. “The Black List will assist Blackstone Publishing in identifying a shortlist of outstanding manuscripts through a submission period on blcklst.com from November 20, 2025 until June 9, 2026.” In order to be eligible, however, writers are requited to pay at least $180 in fees.

Chris Hewitt of the Minnesota Star Tribune writes about the practice and process of asking fellow authors for prepublication praise, or blurbs. “The idea behind blurbs is that if a beloved writer likes a book (assuming they have read it), maybe you will, too. But that’s not a universal belief.”

Catapult Books has acquired Portland, Oregon–based Hawthorne Books, Publishers Weekly reports. “Under the agreement, Catapult has acquired Hawthorne’s catalog of about 50 titles and the Hawthorne trademark.” Founded in 2001 by Rhonda Hughes, Hawthorne becomes Catapult’s fourth imprint alongside Counterpoint Press and Soft Skull Press. “Hughes will stay on as contributing editor for Hawthorne Books and report to group editorial director Dan Smetanka. The first new titles acquired by Hughes are expected to be released in fall 2026.”

A Missouri state law that “criminalized public and private school teachers and librarians for providing students books with what the state considered ‘sexually explicit material,’” has been overturned by a Missouri Circuit Court, Katy Hershberger of Publishers Lunch reports. Under the law, which was enacted in 2022, hundreds of books were removed from school libraries. “School staff members who were in violation could be fined $2,000 or jailed for up to a year.”

“More than half of published novelists in the UK believe artificial intelligence could eventually replace their work entirely, according to a new report from the University of Cambridge,” the Guardian reports. The study, conducted for the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, surveyed 258 published novelists and 74 publishing professionals. “Just over half (51 percent) of novelists said that AI is likely to end up entirely replacing their work.”

Elizabeth A. Harris of the New York Times takes a look at the award-winning books from last night’s National Book Award ceremony.

The 76th National Book Awards winners were announced this evening at the 2025 ceremony. David Bowles presented the award in Young People’s Literature to Daniel Nayeri, author of The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story; Stesha Brandon presented the award in Translated Literature to Gabriela Cabezón Cámara and translator Robin Myers for We Are Green and Trembling; Terrance Hayes presented the award in Poetry to Patricia Smith, author of The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems; Raj Patel presented the award in Nonfiction to Omar El Akkad, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This; and Rumaan Alam presented the award in Fiction to Rabih Alameddine, author of The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother). Roxane Gay and George Saunders received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community and the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, respectively.