Screen Time

Canadian e-reader company Rakuten Kobo has returned to the U.S. retail space for the first time since 2024 as the company continues to grow into a formidable challenger to Amazon’s Kindle. With the 25th anniversary of Ian McEwan’s Atonement next month, Knopf is undertaking the first major reissue of the British author’s oeuvre in years in an effort to promote his work among U.S. readers. And the sprayed edges trend has spread to middle grade novels, with children’s publishers increasingly investing in “premium” design features for their titles. In other news, Rachel Cusk will make her debut as an audiobook narrator with the upcoming audio edition of her novel Life of M. HBO will adapt Courtney Maum’s novel Alan Opts Out as a half-hour comedy series, per Deadline. Bloomberg thoroughly maps out the romantasy industrial complex. Following Toni Adeyemi’s disavowal of the film adaptation of her YA novel Children of Blood and Bone, Vanity Fair investigates what went wrong behind the scenes. In the U.K., more than 10,000 people have signed a petition, backed by the Society of Authors, demanding legislation requiring AI firms to disclose their training data, reports the Bookseller. And on Substack, author Catherine Lacey weighs in on the book business.