Amazon Prime Day 2026 will run Tuesday-Friday, June 23-26. According to the company, book and audiobook deals (through Audible) consist of "up to 45% off Kindle Device bundles, up to 65% off print books, up to 80% off top Kindle titles, and three months free of Kindle Unlimited and Audible."

The June dates for Prime Day mark a shift from July, which has been the timing for Prime Day since it began in 2015. Sales revenue from the event will fall in Amazon's second quarter rather than its third quarter.

Indies now have the timing for anti-Prime Day promotions and strategies, which have gotten more elaborate and creative over the years.

Typo's Bookstore opened May 30 in downtown Parkville, Mo., the Kansas City Star reported.  

Opening day at Typo's Bookstore.

The general-interest bookstore, at 109 Main St., carries titles for all ages, with about 60% of the inventory devoted to children's books and 40% devoted to adult books. Alongside books there are gifts, dog treats, and merchandise. The store's event plans include storytime sessions, author signings, workshops, book clubs for all ages, baby showers, and more.

Owner Lisa McCormick, a journalist and children's book author, told the Star she wants to provide a gathering place for the community while also encouraging children and families to read. The store, she noted, is named after her first rescue dog, Typo the Newshound.

"Bookstores are a place where you have conversations, which leads to connections, which leads to community," McCormick said. "And to do it in this community is so important."

McCormick began her career in journalism at the Platte County Gazette and most recently was an investigative producer at KSHB 14 and Fox4. And with Typo's Bookstore open, she plans to continue freelancing. Her career as a children's author began in the late 2000s and she has published 18 books so far, many of them dealing with supernatural or paranormal topics.

Even before the opening on May 30, Typo's Bookstore met with much enthusiasm. "The response from people who are just thanking us, going, 'oh, we need an independent bookstore,' it's humbling, and we're so grateful," McCormick told the Star. "This is the joy of community to me that I talk about."

Following its debut as a mobile bookstore last year, Austen's Shelf will open a bricks-and-mortar store in Bordentown, N.J., on June 6, WHYY News reported. 

Located at 230 Farnsworth Ave., the bookstore spans 468 square feet and offers new titles for all ages, along with book-related merchandise and gifts. Like the 98-square-foot trailer in which it debuted, the store features a design meant to evoke the Regency era, and the opening weekend festivities will include Regency-themed activities like a Bridgerton dance class and a costume contest. 

Going forward, owner Charity Herndon plans to host book clubs and author readings at the bricks-and-mortar store while continuing to make pop-up appearances with the book trailer. Herndon will also continue the store's monthly audiobook walking club, in which members meet at a local coffee shop before taking walks together while listening to audiobooks.

Herndon is also an author, and she was inspired to open Austen's Shelf after finding two tumors in her breast when she was 29. While waiting for test results following surgery, she thought about "one thing I haven't done that I wanted to save for retirement," Herndon told WHYY. The answer was opening a bookstore.

The book trailer made its first appearance at the Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill, N.J., on September 5. Some 1,000 people attended, Herndon recalled, and the bookstore built up a following with each successive appearance.

To help open the bricks-and-mortar store, Herndon launched a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $20,000. 

"It's so awesome to see a lot of people I've met through Austen's Shelf, to see their names next to the donations," Herndon said. "It just shows that they believe in the dream as much as we do."

Andrew Martin, publisher-at-large at the St. Martin's Publishing Group, is retiring on July 1. He has been at St. Martin's since 2006, when he started as publisher of mystery imprint Minotaur Books. Working with authors such as Louise Penny, CJ Box, Ann Cleeves, Chelsea Cain, Stacy Willingham, Elle Cosimano, Olen Steinhauer, Greg Hurwitz, and Linda Castillo, he grew the imprint.

Andrew Martin

In 2015, Martin started a separate business venture for SMPG, Castle Point Books, with Bruce Lubin. In 2018, Martin became executive publishing director for SMPG.

Before joining SMPG, Martin had a 20-year run at the Crown Publishing Group, where he began in publicity and eventually became associate publisher. There, he worked with bestselling authors such as Martha Stewart, Eric Larson, Suzanne Somers, and Dominick Dunne, among others. After a brief stint at Sterling Publishers, then part of Barnes & Noble, he joined SMPG.

In an announcement to staff, Jen Enderlin, president & publisher of SMPG, said that Martin has been "integral to creating the structure, processes, and collaborative approach that has helped us achieve many remarkable successes over these past few years."

She also wrote, "We will miss Andy's wickedly dry humor, his clarity in problem solving, his keen organizational skills, his excellent taste in wine, his ability to cut through clutter and get to the point, and his impeccable comedic timing. Personally, I will miss him terribly and I know I will continue to ask for his advice and counsel (so Andy, don't block my texts or calls)."

Ghoulish Books, a horror-focused bookstore in San Antonio, Tex., will close at the end of June, CultureMap San Antonio reported.

Co-owners Max Booth and Lori Michelle Booth, who founded the bookstore and an independent press of the same name, are divorcing and will be splitting up the businesses. While the Ghoulish Books bricks-and-mortar store will close, Lori Booth will keep the physical space at 628 S. Saint Mary's St., and she plans to open a bookstore under a new name this summer. Max Booth will retain control of the publishing company Ghoulish Books, and he plans to continue operation of the press after relocating to Minnesota.

They first opened Ghoulish Books in Selma, Tex., on Independent Bookstore Day 2023, and last year moved the bookstore to its current home. The publishing company dates back to 2012, when it was founded as Perpetual Motion Machine. In 2020, they renamed it Ghoulish Books to reflect the press's increasing focus on horror.

At the time of the store's opening, Booth told MySA, "I think San Antonio is a city that loves strange and spooky stuff. It just has that vibe to it." Per MySA, it was the city's first horror-focused bookstore.

Literary agent and rights director Samar Hammam, who founded Rocking Chair Books Literary Agency in 2013 after six years as a director at Toby Eady Associates, died May 18. She was 48. The Bookseller reported that she had previously worked as a literary scout in New York City for Linda Clark Associates, and also handled translation rights for International Creative Agency and U.K. and Commonwealth rights for Raya Agency and the Anjali Singh Agency. 

Samar Hammam

Sallyanne Sweeney, director and agent at ICA, said Hammam "exuded class and style in everything she did, from publisher auctions to book fair outfits. Handling some of Samar's meetings at this year's London Book Fair gave me a fresh insight into the love and respect she held from editors around the world. She was fiercely principled, fearless and funny, with exquisite taste and a talent for matchmaking authors and publishers and gathering like-spirited people together."

In a post Hammam wrote last year for ICA, which the agency said "epitomized her peerless flair, tenacity and care as a translation agent," Hammam wrote: "Foreign publishers chase obvious hits; the auction books, the buzzy titles dripping with 'FOMO'--these deals practically sell themselves. But they are the exceptions. Most books need a bit more help to travel. A successful book deal can come from anywhere: a chance meeting in the coffee line at a book fair, or a seven-year courtship of an editor who loved an author's debut but needed time to make it work. Right now the landscape is shifting. Reader habits are changing. AI looms.... 

"But one thing that hasn't changed for me is the thrill of finding an unexpected home for a book. The cavernous gap between what seems possible and what actually happens. Selling translation rights isn't just about the easy wins--though I love those ones dearly. For me, there's a special place for those translation deals which seem to come out of nowhere, but were built on years of quiet determination."

ICA added: "Samar's indomitable spirit will remain a guiding force to us at ICA. We will miss her enormously."

Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix, Ariz., hosted a packed house for the launch of Meghan Le Fay's (r.) fantasy novel Wings of Life (Page & Vine). She was in conversation with Renee Stait.

Hyperbole Bookstore in College Station, Tex., has found a creative way to celebrate Pride Month, posting on Instagram: "Happy Pride!! We are so excited to uplift our fellow LGBTQ+ readers, customers, and community partners this month. In celebration, we've created an exclusive, rainbow-tastic Pride version of our Hyperbole t-shirt that we'll be selling all month in the store. We will be donating 100% of the profits to the Trans Education Network of Texas and the Trevor Project, so be sure to visit us this month and grab a shirt to support two wonderful organizations and show your bookish pride!! These will be available in-store all month long (and for our long-distance friends who may want a shirt, please shoot us an e-mail or call during business hours). Happy Pride."

Kara Coughlin has been promoted to director, sales operations, at HarperCollins.

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At Lakeside Book Company:

Michael Riley has joined the company as national account manager selling to Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million & BN College. He previously spent 20 years at IPG in special market sales, national account sales, and most recently as v-p of sales. 

Lorina Lana has joined the company as special markets manager. She previously worked at Quarto Group for the last 10 years in special markets and national accounts.

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Emily Morris has been promoted to publicist at Zando.

Man Therapy: Therapy, the Way a Man Does It by Joe Conrad and Contributors (New Harbinger).

Today:
All Things Considered: Yeganeh Torbati and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, authors of Stolen Revolution: Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran (Doubleday, $35, 9780385550314).

Fresh Air: Maggie O'Farrell, author of Land: A Novel (Knopf, $32, 9780593320648).

Tomorrow:
Today: Ann Patchett, author of Whistler: A Novel (Harper, $30, 9780063511637).

Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher (The Wonders, Happy as Lazzaro, La Chimera) will direct a film adaptation of Italo Calvino's 1957 novel The Baron in the Trees. Deadline reported that in the wake of their Cannes Best Director-winning Fatherland helmed by Paweł Pawlikowski, Italian producers Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli and their Our Films banner are teaming on the project with Rohrwacher, who will adapt and direct the Viareggio Prize-winning book.

The Baron in the Trees "follows a young Baron, little Cosimo, who is bulled by his older sister and tired of his distinguished role. He decides to climb a tree and never set foot on the ground again," Deadline noted. 

Rohrwacher is currently in production on the film adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's novel Three Incestuous Sisters with Dakota Johnson, Saoirse Ronan, Jessie Buckley, and Josh O'Connor starring. 

The Crime Writers Association has unveiled shortlists for the 2026 Dagger Awards, which honor the best books in the crime writing genre. The winners will be named during the awards ceremony at the CWA gala dinner on July 2 in London. Check out the complete CWA Dagger shortlisted titles here.

In The Mortons, wife-and-husband team Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld create a complex, riveting character in 20-year-old narrator Jessica Morton, who's been raised by her family to steal and murder without detection.

Each Morton child must name and care for a rabbit--and then kill it. Jessica killed hers when she was eight. ("Slay the rabbit, spare the child" goes one of the family's sayings; or, conversely, "Spare the rabbit, slay the child.") Their family motto is "fides sine cura" (loyalty without care); they demand devotion, but detachment is their aim. All the Mortons have attended Helshire, an Ivy League-style school with gothic architecture, where the Mortons and three other legacy families hone skills such as accounting (for money laundering), history, and "No Drama" (the art of blending into crowds). The Mortons are assigned roommates, "ordinaries" from the wealthiest U.S. families, the better to make themselves indispensable to families that need the occasional clean-up of messes, both financial and human in nature.

In the opening scene, Jessica is in the midst of "culling" her sophomore cousin Peter, who adores her. Other than her rabbit, this is Jessica's first kill. The authors hone Jessica's thoughts to tuning-fork perfection. She models clarity of purpose--cold, sharp, and strong of body and constitution. Whatever she sets her mind to doing, she does. Even her discovery of what Peter was secretly working on she dispenses with in a memorable spectacle. Nothing affects her.

That is, until her family assigns her to work in her uncle's New York City gallery in order to seduce artist Hiromi Kennedy. Hiromi has become the obsession of psychiatrist Dr. Lyon, who "collects art like a billionaire" and also "gets inside rich people's heads to control them." Jessica gets pulled into a dark tangle of personalities and desires more complicated than any she's known before. Her laser-focused concentration falters, clouded by possible feelings for her "prey," and she feels like she's cracking open.

Larbalestier and Westerfeld render the constellation of family members with sensational details. Grandmother, the Morton matriarch, knits like Madame Defarge as she metes out the fates of both family and threats. Beautiful Sebastian, adopted into the Morton family, charms everyone he meets, and he and Jessica share a simmering attraction. Bianca and Xavier Lindqvist, from another legacy family, also play strong supporting roles, as does Faraday Wilbert-Lee, Jessica's ordinary roommate, whom she signs on for Morton protection.

The plot unfolds at breakneck speed as the authors immerse readers in a world of "loyalty without care," so it's all the more impressive how worthy of care Jessica turns out to be. --Jennifer M. Brown

Shelf Talker: In this fascinating thriller, Jessica Morton is a prodigy in a family of assassins and money launderers--until she develops feelings for her assigned "prey."

The following were the most popular book club books during May based on votes from book club readers in more than 94,000 book clubs registered at Bookmovement.com:

1. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi (Atria)
2. The Correspondent: A Novel by Virginia Evans (Crown)
3. Project Hail Mary: A Novel by Andy Weir (Ballantine)
4. Wild Dark Shore: A Novel by Charlotte McConaghy (Flatiron)
5. The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick (Harper Muse)
6. Culpability: A Novel by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau)
7. My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney (Flatiron Books/Pine & Cedar)
8. The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (Ballantine)
9. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (Knopf)
10. How to Read a Book: A Novel by Monica Wood (Mariner Books)

Rising Stars:

Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray (Berkley)
The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict (St. Martin's Press)