This weeks Literary Ledger 24 to 31 October 2025

Welcome to your weekly roundup of all things books! We’re keeping it short and sweet, just five stories to keep you in the loop without overwhelming you. Think of this as your quick fix for staying connected to the book world.

I) End of Knights Of

It’s upsetting to hear that Knights Of, the independent publisher, ceased trading on 16 October and is expected to enter liquidation during the week of 10 November. No exact reason has been given for the closure yet, and it’s unclear if we’ll ever know why.

Knights Of is a children’s publisher known for addressing “the lack of representation for diverse voices” in young people’s books. Their commitment to inclusion and storytelling didn’t go unnoticed: they were named Children’s Publisher of the Year at the 2022 British Book Awards.

The closure of such a high-profile, mission-driven independent publisher raises serious concerns, not just for children’s publishing, but also for the wider landscape of independent and under-represented voices in the industry.

II) Martin’s Deadline Battle: Why the Wait for Winds of Winter Keeps Stretching

For what feels like an achingly long time (fourteen years, to be exact), fans of the Game of Thrones series have been waiting for The Winds of Winter. Many are wondering: why? Why can’t George R.R. Martin finish it?

The reason we’ve been given is surprisingly simple. Unlike some authors who can write anywhere, Martin needs a very specific environment to work. “I need my own place,” he explained. “I need my office and my settings. I've tried. I’ve occasionally taken a laptop with me—or, in the old days, a notepad or something like that. But I can’t write, really, except in my own setting with my office around me, where I can get lost in the world I’m creating instead of the world around me.”

And since Martin is often travelling or tied up in other projects, The Winds of Winter remains on standby, a status he recently confirmed in an interview with January Magazine.

III) The Rise of the Lady Knight

There’s no denying the impact fantasy, and more specifically, romantasy, has had on the publishing industry and BookTok as a whole. We’ve seen it with countless popular stories and recurring tropes that seem to take over the genre overnight: mystical fae, dragons, enemies-to-lovers, high courts, you name it.

However, it seems that recently, more than a few fantasy enthusiasts on BookTok have declared 2025 “the year of the lady knight.” At least ten different chivalric fantasies featuring young women in armour have been published in as many months.

While not all of these “lady knight” novels lean fully into fantasy, their connection to the wider romantasy boom is clear. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out to see if this one truly takes off.

IV) AI According to Bloomsbury's CEO

Nigel Newton, founder and CEO of Bloomsbury, recently said that AI will “help creativity” by enabling writers and creatives to get “back in the zone.” “I think AI will probably help creativity,” Newton explained, “because it will enable the eight billion people on the planet to get started on some creative area where they might have hesitated to take the first step.”

I have mixed feelings about this. If you start dabbling in AI, it can be hard to get out of that rut. If you use it to write the “first paragraph” or even the “first chapter,” as Newton suggests, what’s to stop you from letting it do most of the work? Isn’t part of the beauty of writing in the messy first draft, the one that might be terrible, but still came entirely from you? That’s where your voice and growth as a writer come from.

With AI, the process often starts out polished, and somehow that doesn’t feel right. I understand the idea of moderation, but I’m not sure we can truly practise it when AI can brainstorm ideas or draft entire paragraphs for us. It’s especially interesting to hear this stance from the CEO of a publishing house that champions humanity, individuality, and authenticity, values that seem at odds with the use of AI in this way.

V) BBB Festival x Pan Macmillan

Selina Brown, the organiser of the Black British Book Festival, announced this month that the festival is teaming up with Pan Macmillan on a new publishing collaboration. The plan is to release both adult and children’s books, with the first ones expected to hit shelves in 2027.

But alongside the good news, there’s a worrying trend. This year, the festival saw a 50% drop in the number of books pitched by publishers, something Brown says points to a “definite issue in Black authors being acquired.”