The Roundup: Five of the Biggest Publishing Stories of May 2025

Welcome to Five On Fridays, my weekly straight-no-chaser newsletter where I help demystify the publishing industry for new writers and early-career authors. Let’s jump right in.

New Imprints & New Voices

HarperCollins UK and HQ launched Juniper, a new literary fiction imprint aiming to publish eight to twelve novels annually starting in spring 2026. Meanwhile, Luvvie Ajayi Jones, author and co-host of the Jesus and Jollof podcast revealed her upcoming children's book, Little Troublemaker Defends Her Name, set to release in spring 2025. The story follows a young girl navigating challenges related to her name, and emphasizes themes of identity and self-love.

Big, BIG Deals

William Morrow acquired an upcoming thriller from James Patterson and YouTube content creator MrBeast. The thriller centers around a high-stakes global competition in which 100 contestants attempt to survive while trying to win a billion dollars. Confession: I never watched Squid Games, but is this Squid Game x Hunger Games? I couldn’t find anything on what the advance was, but since Forbes estimates MrBeast’s net worth at $500 million and James Patterson prints money in his sleep, I’m guessing seven figures at least.

AI, James Frey

I think I wrote about AI in last month’s wrap-up, but I think we’re squarely at the part of the publishing timeline where AI is now daily news. I’m cheating a little with this one since it took place this week, but AI was top of mind at the fifth annual U.S. Book Show held in New York on June 3. Discussions on the topic covered copyright issues, marketing, audiobooks, and translations. And a 2023 interview has resurfaced of James Frey (who back in 2005 notoriously lied to mother Oprah’s face about his memoir) boasting about using AI to write his book. Frey had this to say in the interview: "I have asked the AI to mimic my writing style so you, the reader, will not be able to tell what was written by me and what was generated by the AI. I am also not going to tell you or make any indication of what was written by me and what was generated by the AI. It was I, the writer, who decided what words were put on to the pages of this book, so despite the contributions of the AI, I still consider every word of this book to be mine. And I don’t care if you don’t." Okay …

Book Ban Battles

Unfortunately, another topic that will continue to be daily news in the publishing world is the continuing rise in book banning across the country. Early in May, the Pentagon expanded efforts to censor and remove books that mention diversity and anti-racism. Orders were given to remove “divisive concepts and gender ideology” from the shelves of libraries at all military branches. There’s never been a time in history when banning books did more good than harm. The officials demanding these removals would probably know this if they actually took a moment to read the books they were banning.

This One’s a Little Unexpected …

… but I can see it. Fox Chapel, an independent US-based publisher known for its craft, DIY, and gardening books, announced a broad licensed publishing program tied to the Jeep brand. The program launches this fall with three activity books for children and young adults. They plan to follow that up in 2026 with activity books and a Jeep travel journal in 2026.

That wraps up this week’s Five On Fridays. Thank you for subscribing and reading. If you found this newsletter helpful, please share it on social media and forward it to your writer friends. Happy writing!

-Grace