YouTube to Sell Audiobooks 15 October 2026 (Wall St Journal) According to The Wall Street Journal , YouTube is in talks with publishers about launching an audiobook service, potentially as early as 2027, and possibly incorporating it into YouTube Premium. With its enormous existing audience, YouTube could become a formidable competitor to Audible and Spotify, while giving publishers a valuable new distribution channel and an opportunity to monetise listening that currently takes place through unauthorised uploads.
Upcoming Workshop: AI in the Publishing Industry 15 October 2026 (Publishing Perspectives) An online course and live seminar series for leaders working in the international book business. Four live sessions will run on Thursdays, Jan 21st to Feb 11th.
Brighter colour e-ink screens are coming 17 October 2026 (BigGo) Goodbye drab. E Ink Kaleido 4 Promises Faster Refresh and Richer Color for Next Wave of E-Readers. The next generation of color e-paper is arriving with a substantial performance leap, as E Ink Holdings unveiled its Kaleido 4 platform with claims of doubled color range, brighter whites, and a refresh rate fast enough to handle video. The Taiwanese display maker announced the technology on October 15.
Kobo unifies EPUB and KEPUB rendering while preserving handwritten annotations 16 October 2026 (Kobo) Kobo’s current OS 6 release notes say ordinary EPUBs and Kobo EPUBs now share one rendering engine. Stylus markups are retained across connected Kobo devices and mobile apps; when layout changes move the underlying text, some handwritten notes appear as anchored thumbnails rather than being lost.
Kobo Plus adds more than 500,000 audiobooks in France 15 October 2026 (Kobo Writing Life) Kobo has expanded its French subscription from ebook-only access to a €14.99 monthly Read & Listen plan. Kobo reports a catalogue of more than two million ebooks and 500,000 audiobooks; independently published audio already opted into all Kobo Plus territories is included automatically.
Libro.fm ebooks are pushed back until 2027 14 October 2026 (Good E-Reader) The company has confirmed in a new FAQ that its new e-book platform will launch sometime in 2027, after initially saying it would be available in 2026. They stated that “Our bookselling partners will gain access to ebooks this fall, and we’ll share updates on wider availability as we approach 2027. All of our audiobooks will remain DRM-free, and we are working to bring on as many DRM-free ebooks as possible.
EPUB 3.4 brings vertical-scroll comics into the ebook standard 12 October 2026 (W3C) W3C’s update explains that EPUB 3.4 adds a standardised roll layout for vertically scrolling comics, alongside AVIF, JPEG XL and OPUS support, refined accessibility metadata and an updated EPUBCheck. Existing conforming EPUB 3 files remain valid; the specification is still undergoing implementation testing.
Google Launches “Expert Intelligence” in Google Play Books 10 October 2026 (Good E-Reader) The platform launched with over 100,000 titles; the integration lets users generate quizzes, infographics, and Audio Overviews while combining published books with personal notes. Publishers include Bloomsbury, PRH, Macmillan & O'Reilly
BookBeat says attention, not catalogue size, is audio’s bottleneck 10 October 2026 (audio@media) BookBeat reported that 50,520 audiobooks were added to its service during the previous 12 months, but the 5,000 most-started titles accounted for 85% of all starts. CEO Niclas Sandin argued that future growth depends more on relevance and discovery than on adding further catalogue volume
S&S offers self-published authors a digital-first hybrid model 8 October 2026 (Publishers Weekly) Simon & Schuster’s new imprint promises to combine the flexibility of self-publishing with big five marketing might. Simon Stream will launch its first titles globally this month, with simultaneous publication in e-book, paperback (available through print-on-demand), and audio. Audible Wants to Turn Every Book into an Audiobook 9 October 2026 (Publishers Weekly) Audible will bring its service, with local languages, currencies and region-specific title recommendations, to Indonesia, South Korea, Denmark, Norway and Finland in 2027. The launches build on the 11 marketplaces announced at the London Book Fair earlier this year.
Tonies CEO Shares Vision for Growth 8 October 2026 (Publishers Weekly) Tonies, the German maker of the screen-free Toniebox audio player for children, will start selling in two new markets next year, with a plan to be global by 2030, CEO Tobias Wann said during the annual showcase CEO Talk at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Wednesday, Oct.
Storytel Talks AI-translated Audiobooks 8 October 2026 (Publishers Weekly) Storytel sees AI primarily as a publishing acceleration tool: useful for translating high-volume, commercially suitable content quickly across markets, while retaining human judgement and quality control for work where literary nuance matters most.
Spotify takes audiobooks global 7 October 2026 (9to5mac) Spotify has announced a massive global expansion of its audiobooks section, rolling out over 350,000 titles across 180+ markets to reach more than 750 million listeners worldwide by 2026. The update introduces flexible listening options—including 12 monthly hours for eligible Premium subscribers and an expanded Audiobooks+ add-on—alongside an upgraded Page Match feature that syncs physical books to their audio versions via ISBN barcode scanning.
Demands for work-level disclosure of AI training data 6 October 2026 (boersenverein) More than 120 publishers launched an appeal asking European and German lawmakers to require AI companies to disclose the individual works used for training, respect rights reservations and participate in licensing markets with fair remuneration. The statement argues that general descriptions of datasets are insufficient for rightsholders to identify unauthorised
Amazon’s new Kindle case is an insult to left-handers6 October 2026 (Business Insider) It's the case that I find to be a microaggression — no, perhaps macro — to my existence as a left-handed person. In fact, it makes me wonder: Does Amazon HATE left-handed people?
Marvel, Webtoon Team up on Digital Comics App 5 October 2026 (Publishers Weekly) The new "Marvel Comics" app, a digital comics platform that will include titles from Marvel, Star Wars, and 20th Century Studios. The app, built and operated by Webtoon, will replace the Marvel Unlimited app, which is the publisher’s current digital platform.
Kortext acquires StudyStash 2 October 2026 (saasRISE) The acquisition underscores a growing appetite among edtech platforms for AI‑centric tools that can demonstrably improve student outcomes. The move signals that larger edtech operators are willing to allocate capital to acquire specialized AI capabilities rather than build them in‑house, a trend that may accelerate consolidation in the sector.
ElevenLabs opens free AI tools to university students 2 October 2026 (ETIH) ElevenLabs for Students gives eligible university students free access to the company’s AI voice, agent and development tools. The new student plan includes three months of ElevenCreative, ElevenAgents and ElevenAPI, plus a year of ElevenReader Ultra for eligible university students aged 18 and over.
Huge ebook antitrust suit against Amazon proceeds 2 October 2026 (Hagens Berman) “Amazon customers paid over $740 million more (in aggregate) for trade eBooks published by the Big Five than they would have in a competitive market.” The lawsuit that alleges Amazon has anticompetitive agreements with publishers that prevent the sale of their ebooks at lower prices on other retail platforms. Attorneys accuse Amazon of using these agreements to maintain its dominance in the ebook market.
Podcast: Kobo's CEO, Michael Tamblyn, interviewed 1 October 2026 (Open Road) Michael talks about his unusual journey to bookselling, how Kobo competes against Amazon, Apple, and Google in ebook markets around the world, and the surprising truth about who reads ebooks—and what it means for the future of digital publishing.
ReadBee converts photographed print pages into dyslexia-friendly reading 1 October 2026 (Publishing Perspectives) ReadBee lets a child photograph a printed page and reconstructs it with adjustable layout, colour-coded syllables and a visual pacing guide. The pitch is accessibility layered over existing print books, rather than replacing reading with audio. Analysis: demonstrates how computer vision can provide personalised accessibility without requiring a specially manufactured edition. Publishers will nevertheless need clarity about OCR accuracy, privacy, copyright and whether the transformation preserves intended meaning.
Digital Publishing Award Shortlist 1 October 2026 (Publishing Perspectives) Innovation with AI Abounds: The 12 Finalists. The winners of the four categories for digital innovation and ingenuity in the global publishing industry will be announced at Frankfurter Buchmesse next week.