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• DC's flagship Batman series delayed a month as Jim Lee and Jeph Loeb's 'H2SH' storyline hits a snag

Even five years later, it doesn't look like Disney Publishing has returned to the same levels of success that it enjoyed pre-pandemic, and the ever-changing state of the publishing industry - and financial performance within said industry - demands that Disney Publishing make changes to how it operates as a result. For now, that looks like a movement into adult nonfiction, and away from books from licensed properties and kid lit. 

A new report from Publisher's Weekly outlines the changing of the guard within Disney Publishing, and without bogging you down with the details, the basics are thus: Children's publishing staffing has contracted, while the ranks at their adult imprint Hyperion Avenue have grown in recent months. This comes hot on the heels of a new publishing agreement with Penguin Random House concerning content from 20th Century Studios, Disney, Marvel, National Geographic, Pixar, and Star Wars. (Think the Star Wars books published under the Random House Worlds imprint, for instance.) Adding fuel to the fire, while staff at Disney Publishing didn't want to comment on the "future of several Disney children's imprints," they were eager to shed light on what's in store for adult nonfiction publishing. 

In an email to Publisher's Weekly, Senior Vice President and "publisher of new IP and global business development" at Disney Publishing Tonya Agurto iterated that, "We continue to support nonfiction through both our vertical and licensees,” referring to nonfiction books published at Hyperion for adult audiences and National Geographic Adult. Disney Publishing is also looking to develop "nonfiction projects by individuals with a connection to other Disney projects and collaborations with a number of other Disney-owned groups—including ABC, ESPN, FX, Hulu, and Marvel—on both fiction and nonfiction book initiatives." These could be memoirs, like the upcoming book from sportscaster Jayne Kennedy and late visual effects producer and James Cameron collaborator, Jon Landau. 

In other words, managing intellectual property is messy business, and in publishing, that's no different. Disney Publishing seems to have a more streamlined path with nonfiction geared toward adults, and that's the path that it's going to take for now. So what this means is that while there will still be plenty of books published featuring Disney properties, don't expect them to be published by Disney. More likely, they'll be published by Penguin Random House, through its increasingly broad licensing agreement with Disney Publishing. 

Just like yourself, the Popverse staff spends a whole lot of time with our respective noses in respective books. It's why we've come up with stuff like:

• The hottest upcoming fiction
• Queer romance to add to your reading list
• A reading guide to Cassandar Clare's Shadowhunter Chronicles

...and a whole lot more. Join our metaphorical library, won't you? There are no late fees and you can be as loud as you want, so long as the people you live with are OK with it.