April 26, 2026

Double Agents

Last week, the literary agencies of Brian DeFiore and Stuart Krichevsky teamed up to form a joint firm under the banner of DeFiore and Company. Judith Curr, HarperOne Group’s president and publisher, will retire at the end of May after eight years at HarperCollins. Meanwhile, the payout from Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement with authors, who sued the tech firm for copyright infringement last year, will amount to about $3,000 per work. The Authors Guild spoke out against publishing pros’ adoption of AI, in light of reports that agents and editors have been using ChatGPT to evaluate manuscripts. Plus, Alvina Ling launched her own imprint within the Little, Brown BFYR group, and Trustbridge Partners acquired Literati.

On April 20, PEN America hosted ‘The Inside Scoop,’ a panel about publishing with the Big Five, at P&T Knitwear in lower Manhattan. Moderated by NYU writing professor Susan Shapiro (standing), the panel featured (from l.) author Eamon Dolan, senior agent Johanna V. Castillo, author Clarence A. Haynes, Random House editors Emi Ikkunda and Deborah Garrison, and author Kevin Nguyễn.
(Courtesy PEN America)

DeFiore, Krichevsky Join Forces

The two literary agencies have teamed up to form DeFiore and Company. “The goal is to create an even more supportive, nimble and powerful framework for all of us to serve our clients,” Brian DeFiore said in a statement. more

Judith Curr to Retire from HarperCollins

After eight years at the company, where she was president and publisher of the HarperOne Group, Curr will retire on May 29, HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray wrote in a memo to employees. Curr’s successor has not yet been announced. more

Anthropic Settlement Hearing Comes into Focus

Ahead of the May 14 fairness hearing for the copyright infringement case’s $1.5 billion payout, the Authors Guild crunched the numbers while the Authors Alliance highlighted some of the objections. more

Authors Guild Addresses Publishers’ AI Use

The Guild has proposed that the industry implement an AI consent clause in author contracts following reports that some publishing professionals have been using consumer-facing LLMs to evaluate and edit manuscripts. more

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