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Waiting For the Paperback? Good Luck.

2 months 1 week ago
U.S. publishers are increasingly abandoning paperback editions of nonfiction books, eliminating a traditional second chance for authors to reach readers with lower-priced versions of their work. New adult nonfiction paperback titles plummeted 42% between 2019 and 2024 [non-paywalled source] to under 40,000, while hardcover titles fell just 9% during the same period, according to Bowker Books in Print. "It's profoundly demoralizing that a book that might have taken four years to write and was published with such promise is done after five months," Dan Conaway, a senior literary agent with Writers House, told WSJ. The shift reflects changing consumer habits, the rise of digital formats, and market realities where Amazon sometimes prices hardcovers below paperbacks. Barnes & Noble now promotes just one nonfiction paperback monthly.

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IBM likes Hashicorp, finally puts a $6.4B ring on it

2 months 1 week ago
Monopoly watchdogs forever hold their peace, unlike developers still unhappy about Terraform license switch

IBM has finally completed the $6.4 billion takeover of Hashicorp days after Britain's competition regulator gave the corporate marriage its seal of approval.…

Paul Kunert