Book News

Russia’s digital book market grew 18.5% in 2025, outpacing print growth of 12%, signaling a clear shift toward digital consumption in at least one major market.

Rakuten Kobo rejected 45% of self-publishing submissions last year after a surge in AI-generated books, showing how aggressively platforms are responding to low-quality or machine-generated content.

Dutch publishers and supply-chain company CB launched Bookpact.ai to give rights holders more control over how AI companies use books, reflecting a broader industry push to control AI access to copyrighted works.

Finnish libraries set a fourth consecutive annual borrowing record for children’s books, with more than 40 million loans in 2025, underscoring how library usage remains a major reading channel.

A joint review of Russian reading habits found that 51% of Russian-language social media users still prefer print, even as digital use grows, suggesting print remains culturally sticky.

U.S. book sales were nearly flat in early 2026, with total industry sales up 0.9% and trade sales up just 0.2%, indicating a cautious, low-growth environment in the core U.S. market.