Goodreading Magazine - News

Digital-only short story trails Fforde novel

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Random House has released the first direct-to-digital fiction title by bestselling author Katie Fforde, a short story entitled The Undercover Cook, while simultaneously relaunching her website.

The Undercover Cook will also feature the first chapter of Fforde's new physical book Recipe for Love, which will be published in hardback in March.

The digital short will be available to read across all devices, with prices varying depending on the retailer.

The website, www.katiefforde.com, includes photos, videos and written pieces from Fforde, as well as news, competitions and exclusives around her publications.

Century and Arrow publisher Selina Walker said: "Recipe for Love is set around a TV cookery competition so we're publishing a digital short which also has cooking at its heart, plus a very sexy chef, to whet the appetite of Katie's existing fans and also to entice new ones to sample her work."

BBC Books in two-year deal with "The Voice"

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

BBC Books has signed a two-year publishing deal with the BBC's upcoming talent show "The Voice" which will feature singers including Jessie J [pictured] and Tom Jones as talent coaches.

Editorial director Lorna Russell bought rights in four titles focused on the series from Julian Alexander at LAW: Backstage Pass (world English language rights); The 2012 Winners' Story (UK and Commonwealth); The Behind the Scenes Guide Series Two (world English language); and 2013 Winners' Story (UK and Commonwealth). The books will be written by TV and entertainment writer Tim Randall, who will be given access to contestants and coaches throughout the filming.

The first book, Backstage Pass, will be published on 12th April 2012 to coincide with the start of the live broadcasts, and will be priced £12.99.

The show, billed as the "purest vocal talent competition ever", will feature Tom Jones, Jessie J, Danny O'Donoghue from band The Script, and Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas as the four recording artists searching for "the nation's best vocal talent".

PPC reveals 2011 shortlists

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

The Publishers' Publicity Circle (PPC) has revealed the shortlists for its 2011 awards, including its new Librarian of the Year prize.

The awards are given to publicists responsible for the best PR campaigns carried out in 2011, and include the PPC Award for Hardback Non-Fiction, with nominations for Riot Communications' Anwen Hooson and Viking's Amelia Fairney for the campaign for Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens: A Life, and Bloomsbury's Katie Bond for The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua.

Campaigns for memoirs of Bear Grylls, Shaun Ryder and Rob Brydon are in the running for the London Book Fair Award for Hardback Non-Fiction (Celebrity). Meanwhile Bertrams, with The Reading Agency, is a new sponsor for the Hardback Fiction Award, which includes Bethan Jones at Harvill Secker's campaign for The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Frances Owen's campaign for Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman at Atlantic.

In the running for the inaugural PPC Librarian of the Year 2011 are Tim O'Dell of Lambeth Libraries, and Heather McNally of Kent Libraries.

The winners will be voted for by PPC members, and will be announced on the 15th February at the PPC Annual Awards dinner.

The shortlists in full:

PPC Award for Hardback Non-Fiction

Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin – Anwen Hooson, Riot Communications, and Amelia Fairney, Viking, Penguin

The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz by Denis Avey and Rob Broomby - Karen Geary and Lucy Zilberkweit, Hodder & Stoughton

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson – Chloe Johnson-Hill, Jonathan Cape, Random House

The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua – Katie Bond, Bloomsbury

Shapely Ankle Preferr'd by Francesca Beauman – Caroline Brown, Colman Getty for Chatto & Windus, Random House

I Shall Not Hate by Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish – Laura Brook, Bloomsbury

The London Book Fair Award for Hardback Non-Fiction (Celebrity)

Mud, Sweat and Tears by Bear Grylls – Polly Osborn, Transworld

Le Freak by Nile Rodgers – Tamsin Kitson, Sphere, Little, Brown

Twisting My Melon by Shaun Ryder – Polly Osborn, Transworld

May I Have Your Attention, Please? by James Corden – Natalie Higgins, Century, Random House

Small Man in a Book by Rob Brydon – Jo Wickham, Michael Joseph, Penguin

Role Models by John Waters – Ryan Davies, Beautiful Books

Hardback Fiction Award, Sponsored by Bertrams in conjunction with The Reading Agency

When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman – Maura Brickell, Headline Review

Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman – Frances Owen, Atlantic Books

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh – Chloe Healy, Pan Macmillan

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – Bethan Jones, Harvill Secker, Random House

Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson – Alison Barrow and Ben Willis, Transworld

Snuff by Terry Pratchett – Lynsey Dalladay, Transworld

Waterstones Award for Second Edition Paperback: Fiction or Non-Fiction

The Bad Beekeeper's Club by Bill Turnbull – Madeleine Feeny, Sphere, Little, Brown

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer - Preena Gadher and Ceri Maxwell from Riot Communications for Penguin

The Brave by Nicholas Evans - Zoe Hood and Hannah Hargrave, Sphere, Little, Brown

The Big Short by Michael Lewis - Mari Yamazaki, Penguin

Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid - Joe Pickering, Penguin

Great Britain 9th Edition by Various, coordinating author David Else – Heather Carswell & Laura Lindsay for Lonely Planet

Daily Mail Award for Paperback Original Fiction

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan – Samantha Evans, Corsair, Constable & Robinson

Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen – Francesca Russell, Michael Joseph, Penguin

The Kid by Sapphire – Caroline Craig, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin

The Report by Jessica Francis Kane – Kelly Pike, Portobello Books

Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota – Emma Bravo, Pan Macmillan

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender – Ruth Waldram, Windmill Books, Random House

Foyles Award for Paperback Original Non-Fiction

How to Leave Twitter by Grace Dent – Rebecca Pearson, Guardian Books, Faber and Faber

Shattered by Rebecca Asher – Kate Bland and Ruth Warburton, Harvill Secker, Random House

Tiger Tiger by Margaux Fragoso – Mari Yamazaki, Penguin

God Collar by Marcus Brigstocke – Madeline Toy, Transworld

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran – Ed Griffiths, Ebury Press, Random House

A Pocketful of Holes and Dreams by Jeff Pearce - Jo Wickham, Michael Joseph, Penguin

The Bookseller Award for a Children's Book

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys – Jayde Lynch, Puffin

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher – Nina Douglas, Orion

Milo and the Restart Button by Alan Silberberg – Catherine Ward, Simon & Schuster

Harry Potter Signature Editions by J K Rowling – Ian Lamb, Bloomsbury

The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford – Emma Bradshaw, Bloomsbury

Nielsen Award for a Generic Campaign

Great Food Series – Penelope Vogler, Penguin Press

Vintage 21 Anniversary – Lisa Gooding, Vintage Books, Random House

Announcement of the Children's Laureate – Anwen Hooson from Riot Communications and Alice Ingall from Book Trust

Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival – Preena Gadher and Liz Hyder, Riot Communications

247tales.com – Ian Lamb, Bloomsbury

Unbound Books – Chris Baker, Matt Railton and Truda Spruyt, Colman Getty for Unbound Books

Best Newcomer Award, Sponsored by Jo James

The Wrong Pong by Steven Butler – Hermione Lawton, Puffin, Penguin

The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman by Vic Armstrong with Robert Sellers – Sophie Calder, Titan Books

The Cry of the Go-Away Bird by Andrea Eames – Fiona Murphy, Harvill Secker, Random House

The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris – Becci Sharpe, Corvus, Atlantic

Awkward Family Pet Photos by Mike Bender and Doug Chernack – Kate Green, Transworld

The Bad Beekeeper's Club by Bill Turnbull – Madeleine Feeny, Sphere, Little, Brown

PPC Events Manager of the Year 2011

Jessica Sage - Waterstones Guildford

Saber Kahn – Topping & Company

Damian Barr - Shoreditch House Literary Salon

Sandeep Mahal - The Reading Agency

Elaine Silverwood - Silverdell Books

Events team - Mr Bs Emporium of Reading Delights

PPC Journalist of the Year 2011

Andrew Holgate - Sunday Times

Jonathan Derbyshire - New Statesman

Viv Groskop – Freelance Journalist

Erica Wagner - the Times

Alex Clark – Freelance Journalist

Annie Flury - BBC Radio Five Live

PPC Librarian of the Year 2011

Nikki Bi - Library Theatre: Birmingham

Libby Tempest - Manchester Libraries

Tim O'Dell - Lambeth Libraries

Sheelagh Gallagher - Nottingham Library

Heather McNally - Kent Libraries

Karen Robinson - City of London Academy librarian and YLG

Jonathan Franzen: 'E-Books Are Damaging'

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Acclaimed American novelist Jonathan Franzen has waded into the e-books vs paperback debate, and came out punching in favour of print.

Describing new technology like Amazon’s Kindle as a ‘con’, the author of Freedom told the Telegraph: “The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it's pretty good technology.

"And what’s more, it will work great ten years from now. So no wonder the capitalists hate it. It’s a bad business model.”

Speaking at the Hay Festival in Cartagena, Colombia, Franzen predicted that in the future, readers will crave the ‘permanence’ of a physical book should they no longer exist.

“Maybe nobody will care about printed books fifty years from now, but I do,” he said.

“When I read a book, I’m handling a specific object in a specific time and place. The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says the same thing - that’s reassuring.”

Franzen added that he felt e-books were ‘damaging’ society.

Despite shooting to literary fame in 2001 with The Corrections, the press conference in Cartagena was the first of Franzen’s career and the author has a history of misfortune when it comes to publicising his novels.

The year The Corrections was released he pulled out of a planned appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show because he felt it would alienate his male readers - though he appeared on the show 9 years later to promote Freedom.

Later in 2010, he was the victim of theft while at a London book launch – a student called James Fletcher grabbed Franzen’s glasses and left behind a ransom note for £100,000.

Quercus reports 270% December e-book sales growth

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Quercus has reported that sales of its non-Larsson books increased by 83% over the last quarter of 2010 while e-book sales grew by 270% in December by comparison to the previous year.

The publisher's trading statement for the final three months of 2011 revealed five of its books had performed "notably" well, alongside Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, as the company continues with its strategy of expanding the depth and breadth of its fiction, non-fiction and children's books "while maintaining the momentum of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy". The King's Speech by Peter Conradi, The Mayan Prophecy by Steve Alten, Born Fearless by Phil Campion, The Black House by Peter May and Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson were all highlighted for their performance.

While the Stieg Larsson franchise saw its peak of sales in 2010, the Millennium Trilogy books were three of the top 10 bestselling novels in the UK over the course of 2011.

Quercus' digital arm accounted for 11% of its 2011 revenue and the company noted a December spike in e-book sales, up 270%, as readers downloaded books onto e-reading devices through the festive period. Going forward, Quercus said it would "continue to benefit from . . . significant investments in digital publishing and marketing, website development and social networking."

For the full year ending 31st December 2011, the company's trading was in line with market expectations and net cash was £4.3m.

Quercus chief executive Mark Smith said: "The directors are pleased with the performance of the company over the crucial Christmas trading period and are satisfied that the improved quality of our revenue and earnings will continue into the future."

He added the New Year had started positively with Peter May's The Lewis Man reaching the number four spot on the UK hardback adult fiction chart, Christie Watson's Tiny Sunbirds Far Away winning the Costa Best First Novel Award and A Cold Season by Alison Littlewood being chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club.

Bloomsbury launches high-flying Circus

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Bloomsbury is to launch a new literary imprint, Bloomsbury Circus, to accommodate its expanding publishing.

The imprint—which sports an aerialist logo adapted from the publisher’s traditional Diana—will feature fiction and very select non-fiction, with a focus on fine writing. It will include both début writers and established novelists, like Liz Jensen and Patrick McGrath, but not authors from the more traditional end of Bloomsbury’s stable. Alexandra Pringle, Bloomsbury’s editor-in-chief, said its books would be "fresh and sometimes surprising", comparing Bloomsbury Circus to “Picador when it started off”.

The books will be trade paperbacks in an unusual, square-ish format (royal width and demi height), with flaps and high production values, and all priced at £12.99. There will be just one title a month in 2012, growing to four a month thereafter. Bloomsbury currently publishes 30–35 fiction titles a year, which will rise to 50 in 2012 with the new imprint.

Pringle said it was unusual for a publisher of Bloomsbury’s size not to have had additional imprints up to now. "With our new global Bloomsbury, we are publishing a lot of books with our cousins in America, and that has meant we are growing the list," she said.

“With fiction, you can’t successfully publish more than four titles a month because, selling into the fiction buyer, you have to have your lead, second lead, dark horse and a crime title. If you do more, you lose the focus. If we are going to grow, we have to do it in an exciting, imaginative way. This is a way we can grow, and continue to offer the service we do.”

Bloomsbury Circus’ launch titles include The Trapeze Artist by Will Davis, whose début, My Side of the Story, won the Betty Trask Award in 2007. The story, featuring a gay love affair in a circus setting, is "incredibly accomplished" and narrated in the past, present and future tenses, Pringle said. Meanwhile, New Zealand writer Emily Perkins’ The Forrests is "reminiscent of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves", telling of a woman’s life from birth to death "written in exquisite prose". Pringle said she had “the very highest hopes” for the novel, believing it has the potential to win a major prize.
Coming later on the list are novels from Liz Jensen and Jane Rusbridge, plus US début Wilderness by Lance Weller. All but one of the launch titles are being published with the US, and five of the first nine titles are US-originated.

Pringle said the imprint was intended to be very much one for the high street. "We hope Waterstones will love it, and it’s perfect for independents. It’s very much about the sort of books booksellers will read and recommend at Daunt’s, Foyles and Hatchards," she said.

Scholastic partners with Bounce!

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Scholastic has entered into a partnership with Bounce! Sales and Marketing, though the publisher's own UK key accounts, and marketing and communications teams will continue unchanged.

Bounce! Sales and Marketing will represent all Scholastic and Chicken House books to independent and specialist accounts.

Scholastic publishing m.d. Hilary Murray Hill said: "This strategic decision reflects Scholastic's plans for growth and acknowledges the changing landscape of the trade. We are pleased to be moving this element of our trade representation to Bounce in order to offer those customers an improved service and we look forward to working with Robert Snuggs [Bounce m.d.] and his team."

Snuggs said: "We're confident that with the more in-depth coverage which Bounce can offer we will significantly increase Scholastic sales right across the market."

Distribution of Scholastic and Chicken House titles will continue to provided by HarperCollins.

New Pelecanos novel for spring

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Orion is to publish a new novel by George Pelecanos, a writer on TV show "The Wire", as a late addition to its spring schedules.

What It Was, a noir thriller set in 1970s Washington DC, will be published as a £25 signed and numbered hardback collectors edition and a £9.99 trade paperback on 9th February. Orion will also simultaneously publish the title as a £5.99 e-book [pictured] price-promoting it for 99p for the first month.

Editor Bill Massey bought UK and Commonwealth rights in the title in October 2011 directly from Little, Brown US. He said: "George delivered this novel unexpectedly, so we’re really publishing it as a one-off, as a treat for his fans, with spectacular-looking print editions alongside a low-priced e-book to attract new readers.

"This may be a publishing first, because even the e-book looks cool."

The novel follows private investigator Derek Strange who becomes embroiled in the chase of ruthless killer "Red Fury". The publisher saying: "this is Pelecanos writing in the hard-boiled noir style that won him his earliest fans".

Pelecanos was an Emmy-nominated writer on the hit crime series "The Wire" and is a writer on US drama "Treme".

Little and Rowling settle

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Agent Christopher Little has reached "an amicable agreement" with author J K Rowling, who ended her longstanding relationship with the Christopher Little Literary Agency LLP suddenly in June last year.

A statement issued by Little's spokesperson said: "J K Rowling and her former agent, Christopher Little, have reached an amicable agreement concluding their longstanding business relationship, the terms of which remain confidential. No further comments will be issued by either party."

The Sunday Telegraph had previously reported that Little was considering legal action over the split, which happened as Rowling joined Little's former business partner Neil Blair to launch website Pottermore.

At the time, a statement from Little's spokesperson said he was "disappointed and surprised" by the development, having "worked closely with J K Rowling since the very beginning 16 years ago." A statement from Rowling's camp said: "This was a painful decision, especially as Ms Rowling had actively sought a different outcome for some weeks. However, it was not taken without good reason and it finally became unavoidable. There won’t be any further comment.”

Kate Winslet to star in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society movie

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Exciting news for fans of this much-loved bestselling novel - Kate Winslet has signed on to play Juliet Ashton, the magazine columnist whose life is turned upside down when she decides to visit the island of Guernsey after being captivated by the islanders' stories of life under the German occupation.

Kenneth Branagh is set to direct and production is due to begin early in 2012.

Costa book award: Andrew Miller wins for sixth novel, Pure

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

A vividly told story of life in pre-revolutionary Paris on Tuesday won the 2011 Costa book award in what turned out to be a bitterly fought two-way tussle between fact and fiction.

Andrew Miller was given one of the UK's most prestigious literary prizes – and a £30,000 cheque – at a ceremony in London for his sixth novel, Pure.

The chairman of the judges, Geordie Greig, said "there really was a fierce debate" during the 90-minute judging discussion. "There was quite bitter dissent and argument to find the winner. The debate was prolonged with passionate views over two books." The books were Pure and Now All Roads Lead to France, Matthew Hollis's gripping and moving biography of the war poet Edward Thomas.

Greig, editor of the London Evening Standard, said the prize, which chooses the best overall book from five categories – novel, biography, poetry, children's novel and first novel – was one which came "with a sense of impossibility about it. You're not just comparing apples and oranges, it feels like you're comparing bananas and chicken curry. It makes the task difficult and interesting." He said Pure emerged as the majority winner after 45 minutes of quite bitter "toing and froing, dinging and donging" – not unpleasant, he said, but "forthright".

He implied that he was on the side of Hollis, but said no one had argued that Pure was not "a book which had incredible merits". He called Pure "a rich and brilliant historical novel of death and superstition. It is a morality tale which engrosses with its vivid evocation of pre-revolutionary France."

Pure is set in 1785 and follows the story of a young engineer, Jean-Baptiste Baratte, – charged with demolishing Paris's oldest cemetery and removing the corpses.

After accepting the prize, 51-year-old Miller said he would probably spend the money on "living" – paying the mortgage. "It's not as if writers tend to be particularly wealthy people. I have a young daughter, I can feed her and dress her."

He was surprised and shocked at the result. His first word on winning was "blimey." He added: "By the time you give a book to your publisher you never really know what it is any more. It's a pile of paper and beyond that you're just glad to get you life back. I had no special sense of this one being the one."

Miller's first novel, Ingenious Pain, won the Impac Dublin prize and the James Tait Black award. In 2001, his novel Oxygen was shortlisted for the Booker and Whitbread (forerunner of the Costa) novel prize.

Many pundits had predicted success for the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Her volume of poetry The Bees missed out, along with Moira Young's children's book Blood Red Road and Christie Watson's first novel Tiny Sunbirds Far Away.

Pure becomes the 10th novel to win the overall prize in 40 years of the various incarnations of the prize and ends the decent run of poets following wins for Jo Shapcott last year and Christopher Reid in 2009.

Greig said the judges made their decision with criteria that included durability, memorability and quality. "We were looking for quality."

The prize was presented at Quaglino's restaurant in Piccadilly, London, where the Costa award organisers also announced a new short story prize for 2012, although it will not be judged alongside the other five category winners.

This year's judges were actor and comedian Hugh Dennis, broadcaster Mary Nightingale and authors William Fiennes, Flora Fraser, Patrick Gale, Jojo Moyes and Eleanor Updale.

Miller's win was welcomed by Jonathan Ruppin, web editor for Foyles bookshops and a judge for the 2010 Costa award. He said: "Like Hilary Mantel, who finally became a major name when she won the Man Booker, Miller should now gain the commercial success his stylish and absorbing novels have long deserved. Pure perfectly captures the mood of a downtrodden and angry nation, on the verge of overthrowing a self-serving and out-of-touch ruling class – it's very much a book for our time."

SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2012 AUSTRALIAN INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLER AWARDS

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

At a time when ebooks and the survival of bookstores are constantly being debated, it’s important to recognise that booksellers in this country are still going strong. Recent Christmas sales illustrate that people are still buying books, and Independent booksellers will continue to sell them to avid readers in 2012. What more of us are realising is that the passion and knowledge Indie booksellers provide to their customers can’t be bought online.

Australia’s independent booksellers are pleased to announce the shortlist for the Indie Awards 2012, recognizing their favourite Australian authors from the past 12 months. The sixteen shortlisted books will be vying for the top spot as Indie ‘Book of the Year’ for 2012. Panels of expert judges (all avid readers and indie booksellers) choose winners from four book categories – Fiction, Debut Fiction, Non-Fiction and Children’s. Independent booksellers from around the country will then vote to select the much acclaimed award. The category winners and the overall ‘Book of the Year’ winner will be revealed on Saturday 10^th March 2012.

Independent booksellers have a well-earned reputation for being the ones to spot the next-big-thing and The Indie Awards is one to watch. Previous Indie ‘Book of the Year’ winners include Breath by Tim Winton, Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey and The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do, all going on to national and international acclaim.

‘It's always nice to be nominated for an award but doubly so when it comes from a body who's business is also it’s love - books and reading. Independent booksellers help spread the joy and richness of the written word and in the National Year of Reading 2012 they play an incredibly important role.’ – William McInnes

"It's independent booksellers over decades who have guided me to the minds and works that shaped my life. I don't know where or, frankly, who I'd be without them. Since becoming a published author it's been a genuine pleasure to work closely with them. To learn now of this nomination adds honour to the pleasure." - Elliot Perlman

“Independent booksellers give me great hope that stories like mine can be published and sell well. I know the future of Australian books is in good hands if we keep supporting our independents.” - Favel Parrett

“I’m honoured to have ‘The 13-Storey Treehouse’ shortlisted for the Indie Awards. Independent bookshops have always played a crucial role in helping me to find—and keep—and audience for my books. They provide the opportunity for staff who both love and know about books to put them into the hands of the right sort of readers, thereby helping to speed up the crucial word-of-mouth process which helps build a readership. And just as important, they have provided the venues for the many hundreds of in-store events over the years where my readers and I have been able to get to know each other first hand, which ultimately leads to me being able to write better books” - Andy Griffiths

The shortlisted books for the Indie Awards 2012 are:

FICTION SHORTLIST:

· CALEB’S CROSSING by Geraldine Brooks (HarperCollins)

· THE STREET SWEEPER by Elliot Perlman (Random House)

· FOAL’S BREAD by Gillian Mears (Allen & Unwin)

· FIVE BELLS by Gail Jones (Random House)

NON-FICTION SHORTLIST

· WORSE THINGS HAPPEN AT SEA by William McInnes and Sarah Watt (Hachette)

· NOTEBOOKS by Betty Churcher (MUP)

· AFTER WORDS: POST PRIME MINISTERIAL SPEECHES by Paul Keating (Allen & Unwin)

· A PRIVATE LIFE by Michael Kirby (Allen & Unwin)

DEBUT FICTION SHORTLIST

· PAST THE SHALLOWS by Favel Parrett (Hachette)

· ALL THAT I AM by Anna Funder (Penguin)

· THE ROVING PARTY by Rohan Wilson (Allen & Unwin)

· WATERCOLOURS by Adrienne Ferreira (HarperCollins)

CHILDREN’S SHORTLIST

· THE JEWEL FISH OF KARNAK by Graeme Base (Penguin)

· THE LITTLE REFUGEE by Anh and Suzanne Do & Illus Bruce Whatley (Allen & Unwin)

· THE COMING OF THE WHIRLPOOL: SHIP KINGS 1 by Andrew McGahan (Allen & Unwin)

· THE 13-STOREY TREEHOUSE by Andy Griffiths (Macmillan)

The Category Winners and the Indie ‘Book of the Year’ 2012 will be announced on Saturday 10^th March 2012.

MCB wins 'heart-breaking' Soldier Dog

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Macmillan Children's Books has won world rights in a first novel called Soldier Dog by Sam Angus, following a "hotly contested" three-way auction".

Fiction editor Rachel Petty bought world rights to the novel, the story of a boy soldier and his messenger dog during the First World War, through Lucy Juckes at Jenny Brown Associates. MCB plans to publish in September 2012.

The book tells the story of Stanley who runs away from his father to enlist in the army as a messenger dog handler. Before long he is heading to the front line with Great Dane, Bones, and as he becomes exposed to the brutality of war, he realises the loyalty of the dog is the one thing he can rely on.

Petty said: "Soldier Dog is so heartbreaking that I found myself sobbing at my desk as I read it. It has the great virtue of being an historically accurate and wonderfully vivid portrayal of the messenger dogs and their handlers. Sam really brings them to life on the page in gripping and beautifully written prose.

"Sam is a fantastic new voice in children's fiction, and we have big plans for her future at Macmillan."

Angus grew up in Spain, studied literature at Trinity College, Cambridge and taught A-level English before becoming a ski wear designer. She lives in London and Exmoor.

The Black Project wins graphic novel prize

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Gareth Brookes' The Black Project has won Myriad Editions' first competition for a graphic novel in progress, with judges including novelist Ian Rankin choosing Brookes' work from a shortlist of seven.

Graphic novels commissioning editor Corinne Pearlman, who judged the prize alongside Rankin, graphic novelists Bryan Talbot, Ed Hillyer and Hannah Berry, and cartoonist Steve Bell, described the winning book as "funny macabre". It will be published by Myriad in 2013.

The Black Project is about a boy, Richard, who begins making girlfriends out of clothes and objects. The book uses illustrations combining embroidery, print making and lino cuts. Pearlman said: "We had an incredible shortlist and we felt all the submissions were extremely publishable.

"We weren't expecting a fait accompli, and we want to work with Gareth to make it into something both he and we are proud of. Working on it together was part of the prize."

Brookes studied Fine Art at the Royal College of Art, but started making small press comics in 2006.

'Screwball mystery' by Jack Gantos wins oldest children's books prize

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Jack Gantos's "screwball mystery" Dead End in Norvelt has won America's most prestigious award for children's writing, the Newbery medal.

Newbery judges called the US author's novel an "achingly funny romp" with the importance of history and reading at its heart to make sure "you don't do the same stupid stuff again". Set during the summer holidays and blending truth with fiction – Gantos himself grew up in Norvelt, Pennsylvania – it sees a kid named Jack Gantos "grounded for life" and sent to help his old neighbour typewrite the obituaries of the people who founded his town, only to happen upon adventure and a possible murder.

Given to the "most distinguished" American children's book of the previous year and claiming to be the world's first children's book prize (it was established in 1922), the Newbery counts some of the greatest names in children's fiction among its winners. Hugh Lofting won in 1923 for The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, Madeleine L'Engle took the medal in 1963 for A Wrinkle in Time, while Neil Gaiman won in 2009 for The Graveyard Book. Like the UK's Carnegie medal, the Newbery is chosen by children's librarians.

Monday's ceremony also saw the British former Newbery winner Susan Cooper, author of The Dark is Rising sequence, named winner of the Margaret A Edwards award for her "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature", while the 75th Caldecott medal, for an illustrator, went to A Ball for Daisy, illustrated and written by Chris Raschka, described as "a buoyant tale of loss, recovery and friendship". It's "a wordless book with huge child appeal", said judges, with "brilliant economy of line and colour".

Faber launches YA online community

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Faber has set up a "social media hub", The Spark, for teenagers interested in getting involved with Faber's young adult publishing.

The Facebook page has launched with an acting project based around The Glimpse by Claire Merle. The book will be published in June 2012, and the Spark project is looking for a young actor to play one of the characters in a series of web films. The competition is open to anyone aged 13-18 years old, with filmed auditions to be submitted via the site. All entries will be showcased on The Glimpse's YouTube channel.

Further planned projects include a search for musicians to produce a track inspired by Gennifer Albin's Crewel, to feature in the official book trailer; a call for aspiring writers to submit stories, poems or articles inspired by the themes of Natasha Farrant's novel, The Things We Did for Love; and a search for a young film-maker to make a trailer for The Fury by Alexander Gordon Smith, publishing in April 2012.

Campaign manager Susan Holmes, children's publicist Laura Smythe, consumer campaign manager Silvia Novak and marketing assistant Melanie Hall are heading up the project at Faber. The publisher said: "Whilst students aren't obliged to read the books to take part, we hope that they will not only be inspired to produce some creative work, but will also be encouraged to enage with the related books, and develop a greater interest in reading generally. Our aim is that The Spark will become a vibrant community where young people who love reading and creating can meet, talk and share."

Rushdie: 'I was lied to over assassination plot'

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Salman Rushdie has expressed his "outrage" following a report in The Hindu that claims that his personal safety would be under threat if he attended the Jaipur Literary Festival were invented by Rajasthan police.

Rushdie withdrew from the Festival last week, saying he had been informed by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld might be heading to Jaipur to attack him.

"While I have some doubts about the accuracy of this intelligence, it would be irresponsible of me to come to the Festival in such circumstances," he said, in a statement announcing his withdrawal from the event.

But on Twitter this weekend he described himself as "outraged and very angry" after investigating the claims made in The Hindu and finding that he had been lied to by Rajasthan police. The Rajasthan government has denied Rushdie's charge, calling it "baseless", according to a BBC report.

Several authors read passages from Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses at the Festival to show support. Among them was Hari Kunzru, who later confirmed that he had left India following the reading after being informed he risked arrest as a consequence. The Satanic Verses is banned in India.

Meanwhile Sri Lankan debut novelist Shehan Karunatilaka won the $50,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012, awarded at the Festival, for his cricketing novel Chinaman.

Published by Random House, India, and by Jonathan Cape in the UK, the novel is a "portrait of a lost way of life", using the sport to look at Sri Lanka "in a fresh and exciting way".

Jury chair Ira Pande said the decision was unanimous. "The winning title is a brilliant narration of all that is both great and sad about South Asia and in that sense it brings a world to the reader that needs to be seen outside this region... both a portrait of a lost way of life and a glimpse into the future this vast and vivid region is fated to occupy," Pande said.

First edition Audubon book, 'Birds of America' sells for $7.9 M

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

A full-size, complete first edition of John James Audubon's "The Birds of America" sold for $7.9 million at auction on Friday in New York to a private American collector, Christie's said.

The four-volume, bound "Duke of Portland" set of 435 hand-colored engravings in excellent condition and more than 3 feet (1 meter) in height is considered one of the most prized books of ornithological art ever produced.

Francis Wahlgren, Christie's international head of books and manuscripts, said the $7.9 million sale was the third highest price for a printed book at auction.

"This strong result for Audubon's masterpiece confirms its iconic status and now holds the top three auction records for printed books," he added.

Christie's said the book was purchased by William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, the fourth Duke of Portland sometime after 1838.

"Audubon's masterpiece 'The Birds of America' is possibly the highest achievement in ornithological art today," according to Christie's.

Book experts estimate that the entire first edition consisted of just 200 completed copies produced during an 11-year period. Christie's said 120 complete sets are known to exist with 107 in institutions and 13 in private hands.

Women writers dominate Waterstones 11 list

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Eight female novelists have made the Waterstones 11 2012 selection, with three novels each from the Random House and Hachette stables among the line-up for the second year of the promotion for debuts.

HarperCollins has two novels on the list, with one each from Simon & Schuster, Atlantic and Pan Macmillan. The novels were chosen by a Waterstones selection committee- chaired by publisher liaison manager Janine Cook -from nearly 100 publisher submissions, with the promotion free of charge to enter and take part in.

The full line-up is The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan (William Heinemann), Shelter by Frances Greenslade (Virago), The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (Headline), The Unlikely- Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (Doubleday), The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen (Chatto & Windus), Signs of Life by Anna Raverat (Picador), The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan (Virago) and The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (Simon & Schuster). Care of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles (HarperPress), Absolution by Patrick Flanery (Atlantic) and The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (Fourth Estate), the three male-authored works, complete the list.

Managing director James Daunt stressed the key role of booksellers in guiding readers to new works: "For us booksellers, the process of introducing and guiding readers to the very best new work is one of the most important roles we perform."

Waterstones also launched a "Book Club" promotion this week, which highlights 12 books for a period of 12 weeks, offering discounts and extra clubcard points on the books purchased.

Jenny (J T ) Colgan tackles Doctor Who

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Women's fiction writer Jenny Colgan has joined the likes of sci-fi author Michael Moorcook, Orange Prize-winner Naomi Alderman and comic book writer Dan Abnett after agreeing to pen an original Doctor Who novel.

BBC Books senior editorial director Albert DePetrillo bought world rights in the title, Dark Horizons, from Ali Gunn at Gunn Media. Colgan will be writing as J T Colgan, with the book to be published on 7th July as a £12.99 hardback.

The novel will feature the 11th Doctor, as played by Matt Smith, as its hero, in a story set in Viking times. The location is the northern shore of an island off the coast of Scotland, where the islanders live in fear of a Viking attack. Then The Burning comes, consuming everything in its path.

DePetrillo said: "Our Doctor Who list is a place to showcase talented writers and bold ideas and it was a sheer delight to discover that Jenny Colgan, whose commercial fiction is so well respected and loved, was a massive 'Doctor Who' fan."

He added that the novel is "fast-paced, thrilling and often quite funny," and said: "It captures Matt Smith's Doctor perfectly and introduces some very memorable new characters as well. It's a testament to Jenny's range as a writer of quality commercial fiction, and it's a book I'm proud to publish on the Doctor Who list."

Colgan is a self-confessed "Doctor Who" superfan, who, at the age of 11, won a national fan competition to meet Doctor Who. She met the then-Doctor, Peter Davison, who mistook her for a boy. Other authors whose Doctor Who novels are forthcoming include sci-fi writers Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter. BBC Books will also be publishing Gareth Roberts' adaptation of Douglas Adams' "lost" "Doctor Who" story, Shada, in March this year, the first novelisation of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy author's work for the programme.

Colgan will also publish a novel in her usual genre, Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams, with Sphere this March.

Apple launches self-publishing app, partners with textbook publishers

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Apple has announced a new multimedia app called iBooks Author, allowing writers to create their own e-books, in a move to rival Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing.

At an event taking place in New York's Guggenheim Museum today (19th January), Apple's Phil Schiller said the free app was "the most advanced, most powerful, yet most fun e-book authoring tool ever created" designed to simplify the process of designing and selling digital textbooks through the iBookstore.

Authors can simply drag a Word file into a book creation space and the app will automatically design the book, creating appropriate sections and headers. Users can then drag and resize images within the text and add terms and definitions – and film can even be added to the ibook.

The app was announced at the same time as a new textbook experience for iPad, iBooks 2, a free app which includes a new ‘textbook' category.

So far publishers Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have partnered with Apple to supply content for the textbook category, which the company said will eventually include "every subject, every grade level, for every student".

Apple will begin to sell high school textbooks for $14.99 or less, with Pearson making maths and science books for the iBookstore, with two already available and McGraw Hill making maths and science books with five available.

Students using the iBooks2 app will be able click on "review topic" and answer interactive questions, with pictures and immediate feedback for correct answers. Users will also be able to use their finger to highlight parts of texts.

Apple said DK publishing will also have learning tools for younger students available.

Agent Peter Cox responded to the announcement by saying he thinks iBooks Author is Apple's "landgrab".

"They [Apple] are trying to be the hardware right at the heart of the education market. They are doing that by giving away some fairly cool things: iBooks Author makes it easier than ever for an author to create an enhanced e-book. It looks very nice, it's free. Anyone can produce an enhanced e-book and make it look really good. They have taken away whatever technical hurdles there were. This will have wider implications for the burgeoning self-publishing market—not just in textbooks."

Cox also warned about the implications of Apple's pricing strategy, saying that selling school textbooks at "$14.99 or less" would mean "a new race to the bottom" starting with major implications for the textbook market.

Macmillan to publish Queen Mother's letters

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

William Shawcross, whose official biography of the Queen Mother was published by Macmillan in 2009, is to edit a selection of her letters for the same publisher.

Counting One's Blessings: The Selected Letters of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother will be published on 11th October.

Shawcross' biography included extracts from the Queen Mother's correspondence, which was hailed by the Sunday Times as "brimful of liveliness and irreverence, steeliness and sweetness". Now Shawcross has drawn on the wealth of material retained in the Royal Archives and at Glamis Castle to produce a full selection.

"A prolific correspondent from her earliest childhood before the First World War to the very end of her long life at the beginning of the 21st century, the letters offer readers a vivid insight into the real person behind the public face," Macmillan said.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish simultaneously in the US, and HarperCollins in Canada.

Anticipation builds for Apple education news

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Apple will today lift the lid on a hotly anticipated education announcement which many commentators think will revolutionise how students and educational publishers interact with each other.

Since invitations to the New York press conference went out earlier this month, speculation has focused on the development of an e-textbook store, based on the iTunes model, with leading education publishers expected to participate from launch despite the threat it would pose to their own existing print-based businesses. But other rumours have suggested that Apple could be about to launch a set of self-publishing tools aimed at academics, similar to its GarageBand application, which mimics a recording studio.

UK publishers were tight-lipped when approached to comment on the impending announcement this week, though it is understood that Apple held a series of meetings with education and academic publishers in central London last week.

In his biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson said Jobs regarded the textbook business as an $8bn a year industry ripe for digital destruction. "His idea was to hire great textbook writers to create digital versions, and make them a feature of the iPad. In addition, he held meetings with the major publishers, such as Pearson Education, about partnering with Apple."

According to Mike Fisher, convergence and new technologies consultant with Futuresource Consulting, all the signals are pointing the way to a future of PC and tablet-filled classrooms with content delivered over the cloud. "In the USA, by 2015 nearly one in four children in K-12 education will be using a school or district funded mobile computing device in the classroom, and that equates to annual sales volumes of over four million units."

"Similar to developments in the consumer space, a battleground is emerging in the education sector over who can develop and own the ecosystem," said Fisher. "This includes hardware, interactivity, storage, content, the learning platform and associated elements, and it's here within the fully-integrated offering where the war is likely to be won or lost."

Digital blog FutureBook is hosting a live discussion on the implications of the announcement in conjunction with the internet radio Litopia, with participants including Alison Jones, director of digital development at Palgrave Macmillan; Sage's digital sales manager Huw Alexander; industry commentator Martyn Daniels, and the author M J Rose. The show will be broadcast from 8pm tonight, with a podcast to be made available soon after.

Registrations are now open for Qantas Spirit Of Youth Awards 2011/2012

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

The Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards (SOYA), the leading award for Australia?s best emerging artists, designers, and creatives, has today unveiled an exciting new format which will see SOYA become a year round initiative.

Talented Australians aged 30 and under across eleven creative fields - fashion, interactive content and gaming, written word, visual design and communications, film and video, photography, visual arts, craft and object design, music, architecture and interior design and
animation - are invited to submit their work for a chance to receive financial support in the form of $5000 in cash, as well as a rare 12-month mentorship opportunity with leading luminaries from the international creative community. This year, winners will also be sent on
the trip-of-a-lifetime to premiere industry only events at the forefront of their fields.

For 2011/2012, SOYA announces a stellar line-up of inspirational mentors, including Markus Zusak (Written Word).

Markus Zusak first made waves in the literary scene when publishing The Underdog in 1999. Five novels later, Zusak has asserted himself as one of today?s most innovative and poetic novelists. With the publication of The Book Thief, which has been translated into over thirty languages, Zusak was dubbed a „literary phenomenon? by Australian and U.S. critics. Zusak other works include: The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Getting the Girl, and The Messenger. He is currently working on his new book, Bridge of Clay, set for release in 2012.

Zusak has been the recipient of prestigious awards such as: 2006 Printz Honor for excellence in young adult literature, 2003 CBC Book of the Year Award (Older Readers) and the 2003 NSW Premier's Literary Award (Ethel Turner Prize).

Sutherland to chair Fiction Uncovered panel

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

John Sutherland, a former judge and chair of the Man Booker prize, is to chair the judging panel to choose books for this year's Fiction Uncovered promotion.

Sutherland, who is professor of modern English literature at University College London, will join the Independent on Sunday's literary editor Katy Guest; Foyles Group head of buying Jasper Sutcliffe; and writer Matt Thorne.

Eight titles will be chosen for Fiction Uncovered, a promotion which supports writers who deserve recognition but have yet to receive a major literary prize or big media attention. This year's chosen books will be announced at the end of May and the promotion will run across the summer.

The 2011 event saw partnerships with Waterstones, Foyles, iBookstore, Amazon and The Book Depository, as well as with charity The Reading Agency and Lovereading UK. Details on 2012 partnerships are yet to be announced.

Lindsay Clarke, Robert Edric, Catherine Hall, Sarah Moss, Chris Paling, Tim Pears and Ray Robinson were the authors picked for last year's inaugural promotion.

Hitchens memoir delayed to September

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Publication of Christopher Hitchens' last book Mortality, originally scheduled for April, has been put back to the autumn. The title, a collection of essays on death first published in Vanity Fair, will now appear in September.

Atlantic Books publicist Karen Duffy said the move, initiated in the US, would enable simultaneous publication for the book in the UK, US and Australia, and ensure that any additional material needed in the wake of Hitchens' death, such as a new introduction, was in place.

Hitchens died of cancer shortly before Christmas. Atlantic c.e.o. Toby Mundy was among the many paying tribute to him, calling him "the most brilliant and versatile non-fiction writer of modern times".

The writer's memoir, Hitch-22, has sold 31,620 copies since publication in May 2010, according to Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market statistics.

ARR Awards: finalists announced

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Voting has opened today for the 2011 Australian Romance Readers Awards. Below are the finalists in each of the nine categories. ARRA members can now vote for their favourite in each category. Voting will close on 29 January.

Winners will be announced at the Awards Dinner on 11 February 2012.

Favourite paranormal romance for 2011 (proudly sponsored by Galaxy Bookshop)

Big Bad Beast / Shelly Laurenston
Dragon Bound / Thea Harrison
Dreams of a Dark Warrior / Kresley Cole
Fate’s Edge / Ilona Andrews
Goblin King / Shona Husk
Kiss of Snow / Nalini Singh
Lover Unleashed / JR Ward
Nightfall / Ellen Connor
The Guardian / Sherrilyn Kenyon
Three Wishes / Jenny Schwartz

Favourite sci-fi, urban fantasy or futuristic romance for 2011 (proudly sponsored by Carina Press)

Archangel’s Blade / Nalini Singh
Archangel’s Consort / Nalini Singh
Blood Bound / Rachel Vincent
Blood Cursed / Erica Hayes
Born of Shadows / Sherrilyn Kenyon
Death Magic / Eileen Wilks
Magic Slays / Ilona Andrews
River Marked / Patricia Briggs
Shadow Kin / MJ Scott
Shadowfever / Karen Marie Moning

Favourite short category romance for 2011 (proudly sponsored by Harlequin Enterprises Australia)

Colorado Cowboy / CC Coburn
Girl in the Bedouin Tent / Annie West
Molly Cooper’s Dream Date / Barbara Hannay
Prince of Scandal / Annie West
Promoted to Wife? / Paula Roe
Rapunzel in New York / Nikki Logan
Sex, Lies and Mistletoe / Tawny Weber
The Man Behind the Badge / Sharon Archer
The Man She Loves to Hate / Kelly Hunter
With This Fling … / Kelly Hunter

Favourite historical romance for 2011 (proudly sponsored by Rosemary’s Romance Books and Temptation the Romance Bookstore)

A Little Deception / Beverley Eikli
Cloudy With a Chance of Marriage / Kieran Kramer
Heiress in Love / Christina Brooke
How the Marquess was Won / Julie Anne Long
Midnight’s Wild Passion / Anna Campbell
Never Love a Highlander / Maya Banks
Salt Bride / Lucinda Brant
The Many Sins of Lord Cameron / Jennifer Ashley
Unveiled / Courtney Milan
Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue / Stephanie Laurens

Favourite contemporary romance for 2011 (proudly sponsored by Romantic Reflections)

A Lot Like Love / Julie James
Any Man of Mine / Rachel Gibson
Boomerang Bride / Fiona Lowe
Claudia’s Big Break / Lisa Heidke
Cop’s Passion / Angela Verdenius
North Star / Karly Lane
One Perfect Night / Rachael Johns
Promises / Cathyrn Hein
The Castaway Bride / Kandy Shepherd
The Next Always / Nora Roberts

Favourite erotic romance for 2011 (proudly sponsored by Romance Direct)

Agent / Lexxie Couper
All of You / Rhian Cahill
Bunny and the Bear / Eve Langlais
Endless Lust / Lexxie Couper
Guilty as Sin / Denise Rossetti
Love, Lust and Lies / Cathleen Ross
See You In My Dreams / Jess Dee
The Lone Warrior / Denise Rossetti
The Surrender of Lacy Morgan / Suzanne Ferrell
Triple Dare / Lexxie Couper

Favourite romantic suspense for 2011

Beyond Fear / Jaye Ford
Breaking Point / Pamela Clare
Breaking the Rules / Suzanne Brockmann
Chasing Fire / Nora Roberts
Deadly Little Lies / Jeanne Adams
New York to Dallas / JD Robb
Shattered Sky / Helene Young
Treachery in Death / JD Robb
Viper’s Kiss / Shannon Curtis
With No Remorse / Cindy Gerard

Favourite continuing romance series for 2011

Gena Showalter / Lords of the Underworld
Ilona Andrews / Kate Daniels series
JD Robb / In Death series
Karen Marie Moning / Fever series
Kresley Cole / Immortals After Dark
Nalini Singh / Guild Hunters
Nalini Singh / Psy/Changeling series
Rhian Cahill / Coyote Hunger series
Sherrilyn Kenyon / The League
Thea Harrison / Elder Races

Favourite Australian romance author of 2011 (proudly sponsored by Booktopia)

Angela Verdenius
Anna Campbell
Annie West
Christina Brooke
Helene Young
Kelly Hunter
Lexxie Couper
Nikki Logan
Paula Roe
Stephanie Laurens

Burnside wins T S Eliot Prize

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

John Burnside's Black Cat Bone (Jonathan Cape) has won the 2011 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry, worth £15,000.

Chair of the judges Gillian Clarke said: "Amongst an unprecedentedly strong and unusually well-received shortlist, John Burnside's Black Cat Bone is a haunting book of great beauty, powered by love, childhood memory, human longing and loneliness." The judges felt it was an "outstanding" collection which "grew with every reading", she added.

Siôn Hamilton, manager of Foyles Charing Cross Road, described the title as "an elegant collection of poems that greatly reward[s] re-reading".

Burnside beat shortlisted poets Carol Ann Duffy, Leontia Flynn, David Harsent, Esther Morgan, Daljit Nagra, Sean O'Brien and Bernard O'Donoghue to take this year's prize.

However Alice Oswald and John Kinsella withdrew from the shortlist in December, citing ethical concerns with the award's new sponsor Aurum Funds.

New Pan Mac site targets direct-to-consumer

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Pan Macmillan has launched a new website at www.panmacmillan.com with the infrastructure to support the building of a “growing range” of direct-to-consumer platforms.

The site, intended as a “hub” for consumers, trade and the media, will work to “support Pan Macmillan’s established and evolving brands, including picador.com and mykindabook.com”, the publisher said. Digital director Sara Lloyd called this the new website’s "first phase", saying additional social media components will be added in the next stage.

The new homepage features “Showcase,” “Brand New” and “Featured” options which highlight particular themes and guide readers to relevant books and authors. A drop-down menu link takes the user through to sections including Books, Authors & Illustrators, News, Events, and Trade & Media. The site also features subject pages such as Crime & Thrillers, Women's Fiction and Science Fiction, as well as a "Books You Might Like" feature.

The Trade & Media section includes material for sales customers and rights buyers, as well as information about authors' publicity tours or campaigns for the press.

Books can be bought directly through the site as well as via links to a range of retailers, including Amazon, Blackwell, Foyles, Play.com, Sainsbury's, Tesco, The Book Depository, the Hive, Waterstones and W H Smith.

Lloyd said: "We've created a hub for our authors, readers and trade customers. We wanted to demonstrate our passion for our authors and titles, and create an environment where readers can find the best information and conversation about our books and authors.

"The site will act as a place for readers and writers to come together to talk about books when we introduce additional social features into the next phase, and it also delivers us a modular toolkit for quickly developing a dedicated web presence for any campaign or author."

The website was designed by design agency Root, with MMT Digital doing the technical build.

Jackie Collins backlist for digital

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Simon and Schuster will release blockbuster writer Jackie Collins’ backlist in digital format at the end of the month.

The publisher bought the novelist’s first 20 titles from Pan Macmillan in June 2011 when it announced it would also publish Collins’ new work as e-books, along with promising a “huge promotional push” for the backlist.

Those backlist titles to be released as e-books on 31st January include Chances, American Star, Hollywood Wives, The Stud, The Bitch and Lethal Seduction.

S&S digital sales and marketing manager Ally Glynn said: “We are incredibly excited about bringing Jackie Collins’ backlist into e-book format, allowing her UK fans the opportunity to download every single one of her 28 books onto their reading devices for the very first time, as well as introducing new readers to the glamour and scandal of Jackie Collins’ novels.”

Collins moved to S&S for her book Lethal Seduction in 2000.

The 74-year-old writer and actress said: “As an author who has never been out of print, I am delighted to be bringing all 28 of my books to the e-book format. It's new, it's exciting, and I know my loyal fans are going to love it!”

Bloomsbury e-book sales up nearly 40% in final quarter of 2011

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Bloomsbury has said it had a "strong" final three months of 2011, with e-book sales growing by 38% year on year in the quarter from 1st September to 31st December 2011.

In an interim management statement, chief executive Nigel Newton said he was "delighted" with the group's performance over the period, an "extremely active time in the industry", describing the business as "robust" and "strongly adapted to the digital marketplace".

At 31st December 2011, the publisher had net cash of £7m, having "generated significant revenues from intellectual property and publishing services projects". The quarter saw the finalising of a long-term licensing deal for the Wisden brand in India, announced in October, with contracted revenues for the Adult division predicted at $3.2m over five years plus a royalty share. Meanwhile Bloomsbury Information's partnership with private independent non-profit research institute Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH, announced in December, is predicted to generate £4.3m of revenue over five years.

In Academic & Professional, the publisher cited the launch in October of an online service for UK tax practitioners, and said: "Early indications are very positive for this competitively priced reference service launched for mid-tier firms. Further online services in 2012 will include a financial reporting product".

Bloomsbury also announced it is developing an online information portal for the study of labour economics in partnership with the Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA). The IZA World of Labor portal will provide a "comprehensive, reliable and up-to-date information resource aimed at labor economists, decision makers, and other professionals in labor economics around the world", and will be available free online. Bloomsbury will publish an accompanying range of books in print and electronic formats.

Across the trade publishing divisions, the statement mentioned Public Library Online's connection with Google, with the internet search giant sponsoring two shelves from December, as well as cookery list Absolute Press acquired in October. In the adult division, "major bestsellers" included River Cottage Veg Everyday! by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Heston at Home by Heston Blumenthal and Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman. In children's ithe Harry Potter box sets were cited. The statement also mentioned Rebecca McNally's appointment as publishing director and international editor in chief, Bloomsbury Children's Books, in October, reiterating that her role will "include the expansion of Bloomsbury's illustrated children's publishing".

Newton added: "Other Bloomsbury strengths of database creation, publishing management services and rights licensing are underpinned by an extremely strong author list as we set forth in the New Year, building on our many recent successful acquisitions."

German book retailer to restructure to face digital challenge

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

The earnings of German book retailer Thalia's parent group Douglas Holding will be hit by the need to transfer its book business online and embrace the potential of e-books, the company said.

Profit-before-tax for Douglas, which also runs perfume, make-up and confectionary chains, fell to €200m from €292.9m last year.

Only Thalia and Douglas's confectionary business showed declines in EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization], with the book unit dropping 33% to €40m, while group profit across the rest of the retailer's arms grew over 12 months.

Chief executive officer Hanning Kreke said: "We must find the optimum way of integrating our traditional stores with our online shops so that we can leverage the potential of the new megatrend, the e-book."

Kreke said Thalia needed to respond to the "extremely rapid development" of Amazon.com in its bookshops as well as online.

Meanwhile, German analysts have called for the company to tell investors what Thalia's restructuring costs will be.

Media reacts to Waterstones' logo change

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

The chairman of the Apostrophe Society has called Waterstones' dropping of its apostrophe "just plain wrong", as the national press reacted to the change.

The move was reported in the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and on BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme this morning (12th January), with Apostrophe Society chairman John Richards reported as saying: "It's just plain wrong. It's gramatically incorrect. If Sainsbury's and McDonald's can get it right, then why can't Waterstones? You would really hope that a bookshop is the last place to be so slapdash with English."

The Telegraph said the brand reverting to its former style and typeface, using the Baskerville serif font and reinstating the capital "W", was a "consolation for grammar traditionalists", whereas the Mail said dropping the apostrophe "appeared to be a slight to Mr Waterstone, who founded the chain in 1982 with one store in Kensington".

In the Mail's online story, it also reported Twitter users commenting on the move, with one quoted as saying: "Seeing as Waterstones thinks the public is too stupid to manage apostrophes, maybe it's time they just stopped selling books."

M.d. James Daunt called the move "a more versatile and practical spelling" in a "digital world of URLs and email addresses", which "reflects an altogether truer picture of our business today which, while created by one, is now built on the continued contribution of thousands of individual booksellers".

Carlton releases Olympic e-books

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Carlton Books has today (11th January) released the first e-book editions of its Olympic publishing range, with plans to release a further selection of digital versions of the more than 30 titles in the range in the run-up to the Games this summer.

The first e-books released are The Official Countdown to the London 2012 Games by Simon Hart; children's book Meet Wenlock and Mandeville! which features a built-in film; The True Story of Britain's Paralympic Heroes; and London 2012: Get Fit for the Games; as well as four children's novels by Robert Rigby: Running in her Shadow, Parallel Lines, Wheels of Fire and Deep Waters.

Carlton Publishing Group commercial director Jim Greenhough said: "We have already sold in excess of 100,000 physical books in 2011 and the demand is building day by day . . . It is important to publish the London 2012 titles electronically as early in 2012 as possible to take advantage of the massive interest in the Olympic Games in the UK."

All titles will be for sale at the same price as their printed counterparts (between £5.99-£12.99) and are now available for Kindle and from the iBook store.

Morpurgo titles to be given away at UK McDonald's

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Restaurant chain McDonald's is to give away nine million copies of Michael Morpurgo's Mudpuddle Farm books in its McDonald's Happy Meals for children, as part of a promotion with HarperCollins Children's Books.

The initiative will run from today, 11th January, to Tuesday 7th February. Customers ordering Happy Meals will be offered a free book from a selection including six titles from Mudpuddle Farm range including Mossop's Last Chance, Pigs Might Fly! and Martians at Mudpuddle Farm, all aimed at children aged six to eight years.

Each book comes with a finger puppet and books will also be available to purchase at McDonald's restaurants without the need to buy a Happy Meal. The initiative is being publically backed by TV presenter Jeff Brazier.

Morpurgo said: "I'm pleased that nine million children in Britain will be receiving copies of my books during this promotion." His own royalties on the titles will go to his charity, Farms for City Children.

Ann-Janine Murtagh, publisher at HarperCollins Children's Books, added: "We are delighted to be offering mums, dads and children the chance to enjoy books when they visit McDonald's. We hope it will provide a great experience of reading together and also introduce them to the wonderful world of stories by inspiring authors such as Michael Morpurgo."

The campaign is being backed by the National Literacy Trust. Director Jonathan Douglas said: “Our recent research showed that one in three children in this country don’t own a book, which is extremely concerning as there is a clear link between book ownership and children's future success in life.

"We are very supportive of McDonald’s decision to give families access to popular books, as its size and scale will be a huge leap towards encouraging more families to read together.”

"Unprecedented" seven make Man Asian shortlist

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

An "unprecedented" seven novels have been shortlisted for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize, two more than the usual five-strong list, after judges hailed the "imaginative powers" of the entries.

Titles including Amitav Ghosh's River of Smoke and Jamil Ahmad's The Wandering Falcon were shortlisted from the longlist of 12. Four were originally written in English, while the titles by South Korean author Kyung-Sook Shin, China's Yan Lianke and Japan's Banana Yoshimoto were judged in translation.

Chair of judges Razia Iqbal said: "The judges were greatly impressed by the imaginative power of the stories now being written about rapidly changing life in worlds as diverse as the arid borderlands of Pakistan, the crowded cityscape of modern Seoul, and the opium factories of 19th-century Canton.

"This power and diversity made it imperative for us to expand the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize shortlist beyond the usual five books.”

The winner will be announced on 15th March at a black tie dinner in Hong Kong.

The shortlist in full:

The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad (Penguin India/Hamish Hamilton)

Rebirth by Jahnavi Barua (Penguin India/Penguin Books)

The Sly Company of People Who Care by Rahul Bhattaharya (Pan Macmillan/Pan Macmillan India/Picador)

River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh (John Murray/Penguin India/Hamish Hamilton)

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin (Alfred A Knopf)

Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke (Corsair)

The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto (Melville House)

Stephen Fry to judge Literary Platform comp

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

TV presenter Stephen Fry is to judge an international competition, launched by literature and technology site The Literary Platform, to animate an audio recording of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" author Douglas Adams.

The recording, made in 1993 for his US publisher of the time, Bob Stein of Voyager Expanded Books, is of Adams talking about the evolution of the book, from rocks to scrolls to the silicon chip.

"Getting the Book Invented Properly: The International Douglas Adams Animation Competition" aims to find the animation that best illustrates the recording, which Stein has donated to The Literary Platform. Entrants can use all or just part of the recording, which can be downloaded.

The judging panel comprises: Fry, who was a close friend of Adams; Stein; Guardian journalist Ranjit Dhaliwal; and Merlin Nation and Chris Angelkov, founders of design practice Atyp.

The competition platform, Launchpad6, is now open for entries, with the deadline 15th April 2012. The longlist will be announced on 30th April, and the winner on 25th May, when Adams' fans carry a towel in reference to it being the most useful item an "interstellar hitchhiker can have".

The winner receives an iPad 2 loaded with Douglas Adams books and apps and a Don't Panic towel to carry on Towel Day.

Elton John's first book to Hodder

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Hodder & Stoughton has acquired music star Sir Elton John's first book, Love is The Cure: Ending the Global AIDS Epidemic, intending to publish in July 2012 to coincide with the 2012 XIX International AIDS Conference.

H&S and Little, Brown in the US bought world rights in the title from Robert Barnett at Williams & Connolly LLP, with H&S non-fiction editorial director Rowena Webb acquiring UK and Commonwealth rights. The proceeds of the book will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF).

The book is described as "the very personal story of Sir Elton's life during the AIDS epidemic, including his agony at seeing friend after friend perish needlessly. Through his stories of close encounters with people like Ryan White, Freddie Mercury, and many others, he will convey the personal toll AIDS has taken on his life—and his infinite determination to stop its spread." Hodder Audio will publish the audiobook, read by John, simultaneously.

John said: "This is a disease that must be cured not by a miraculous vaccine, but by changing hearts and minds, and through a collective effort to break down social barriers and to build bridges of compassion. Why are we not doing more? This is a question I have thought deeply about, and wish to answer—and to help change—by writing this book."

John's hits include "Tiny Dancer", "Daniel" and "Candle in the Wind". He has been working to tackle AIDS for the past 20 years.

Piccadilly picks up another Alien Schoolboy

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Piccadilly Press has acquired a new title in the Alien Schoolboy series by author Ros Asquith.

Piccadilly Press m.d. Brenda Gardner bought world rights in An Alien Schoolboy's Guide to Earth from Jodie Marsh at United Agents, with plans to publish in autumn 2012.

In the book, which follows on from other titles in the series including Letters From an Alien Schoolboy, main character Flowkwee provides an A-Z guide to life on earth for his friends on planet Faa, covering everything from ants to sweeties.

Gardner said: "We've been delighted with the success of the books; adults and children alike find Ros' stories of Flowkwee extremely funny. An Alien Schoolboy's Guide to Earth will appeal to existing fans and new readers alike."

Orbit buys new Humanity's Fire novel

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Orbit has acquired a standalone novel by Michael Cobley, author of the space opera trilogy Humanity's Fire.

Editorial director Anne Clarke bought world English rights from John Parker at the Zeno Agency for the new novel, set in the Humanity's Fire universe. The book, Warcage, is described as a "high-action space adventure", with Orbit planning worldwide hardback release in autumn 2013.

Ahead of that date, Orbit US has plans to publish the three books in the existing trilogy, with Seeds of Earth due for publication in October, Orphaned Worlds in November and The Ascendant Stars in December 2012.

Editorial director Anne Clarke said: "We're all delighted with the continuing success of Michael Cobley's superb Humanity's Fire series, and we're very excited about Warcage and looking forward to sharing it with Mike's fans next year. Michael Cobley is becoming an increasingly important name in science fiction, so we're extremely happy that our colleagues in the US will be on this adventure with us too."

Quercus acquires two by Linda Green

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Quercus has acquired two novels by women's fiction author Linda Green, with the author moving from Headline, which published her previous four novels.

Paperback publisher Joanne Dickinson acquired world English language rights, excluding US and Philippines, in the two as-yet-untitled novels through Anthony Goff, managing director of David Higham Associates. Quercus will publish the first in 2013.

Dickinson said: "I am thrilled that Linda is joining the Quercus team. She is a very talented writer, incredibly skilled at combining warmth and humour with serious and very moving storylines. Linda has some fantastic ideas for future novels and I'm really excited to be working with her."

Green's previous novels are I Did A Bad Thing, 10 Reasons Not to Fall in Love, Things I Wish I'd Known and And Then It Happened.

Kobo e-book sales increase seven-fold in December

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Daily Kobo e-book sales in the UK increased seven times in December as the company revealed one of its top three downloaded books was self-published.

The Canadian e-bookseller said The Unremarkable Heart by Karin Slaughter (Cornerstone) was its top-selling title in December driven by a low sale price of £0.49. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Quercus) sold the second most Kobo books, most likely due to a simultaneous film release of the story, and the third biggest selling UK Kobo book in December was Saving Rachel—a self-published title by John Locke, who also became the first self-published author to sell over a million Kindle books on Amazon in June last year. The digital business did not reveal sales figures.

It said: "Kobo expects 2012 to bring additional surprise bestsellers from self-published authors, whether through direct relationships or aggregating partners. The pricing experimentation Kobo has seen from publishers large and small will likely continue, as we work with e-booksellers to drive visibility by pricing select titles at pocket change for a limited time."

Worldwide, Kobo saw a 10-fold increase in new customers from November, with "hundreds of thousands of devices activated each day since Christmas Eve” which led to what Kobo described as “fuelling the highest e-book download rate in Kobo history".

Michael Serbinis, c.e.o. of Kobo, said: “This holiday season broke every foreseeable record for Kobo, and we have exceeded our expectations driving several e-book downloads per second through the holidays.”

W H Smith began selling Kobo e-readers to the UK in October and Asda began retailing them in December, but a free Kobo reading app has been available in the UK previous to the devices being sold.

More than one million e-readers sold over Christmas

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

More than one million e-readers and more than half a million tablet devices were received as gifts over Christmas, according to research released today, with Amazon and Apple the leading suppliers of e-readers and tablets respectively.

According to the analysis one in every 40 adults in the UK received an e-reader as a Christmas present. The data, based on a YouGov survey of 2012 adults in the week after Christmas, indicated that 1.33 million e-readers were gifted over the festive period, 92% of which were Kindles, making Amazon’s e-reader the most popular choice this Christmas. The research suggests that just over 100,000 rival e-readers were sold.

The research showed the devices were more popular with women than men, with 61% of people receiving them being women. The results also showed an age-bias, with Amazon’s Kindle being twice as popular with the over-55 age group than the 18-24 age group. Londoners were least likely to receive Kindles, and the research said other e-reader brands were “relatively more successful in the capital”.

Tablet sales were also buoyant at Christmas. YouGov's modelling suggests that more than 640,000 tablets were gifted to adults, 72% of them Apple iPads with 60% of the Apple products being gifted to women. Non-Apple-branded tablets were relatively more popular with men.

Marek Vaygelt, head of Technology and Telecoms Consulting at YouGov, said: "Amazon has done a remarkable job of selling the benefits of e-readers and the upside for the publishing industry is that it appears e-reader owners, at least in the early days, buy more e-books than the printed books they purchased before acquiring an e- reader."

The survey was taken between 28th December 2011 and 3rd January 2012 with YouGov asking 2,012 adults in the UK what presents they had personally received or treated themselves to over the Christmas period.

Duffy among contenders for Costa Book of the Year

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy has won the Costa Poetry Award for The Bees (Picador), and debut biographer Matthew Hollis has scooped the Costa Biography Award, with both now entering the final race alongside three other category winners to be named the overall £30,000 Costa Book of the Year 2011.

Hollis' Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas (Faber) won the Biography Award, with Andrew Miller taking the Costa Novel Award for his sixth novel, Pure (Sceptre), chosen over other contenders including Booker winner Julian Barnes' The Sense of An Ending (Harvill Secker).

Christie Watson, a former Great Ormond Street nurse, has won the Costa First Novel Award for her book, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away (Quercus), which is set in the Niger Delta. Former opera singer and debut children's writer, Moira Young, has won the Costa Children's Book Award for Blood Red Road (Marion Lloyd Books).

The category prize winners each win £5,000, and were chosen by separate panels of three judges. Each category winner now competes to be named the overall Costa Book of the Year, which will be chosen by another panel, chaired by London Evening Standard editor Geordie Greig, and announced on 24th January.

Costa managing director John Derkach said: "The Costa Book Awards have an excellent track record of recognising and celebrating some of the very best current British writing, and books that can be enjoyed by everyone. We're very proud to be announcing such a terrific collection of books which we know people will enjoy reading."

HC Christmas Day downloads top 100,000

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Over 100,000 HarperCollins UK e-books were downloaded on Christmas Day, the publisher has announced.

HarperCollins said the figure, which covers UK and international territories including Australia and New Zealand, but not the US, was a record high and an increase of over 600% on the daily average title download during the previous month.

The most popular titles downloaded were George R R Martin's Game of Thrones, Confessions of a GP by Dr Benjamin Daniels and Twelve Days of Christmas by romantic comedy novelist Trisha Ashley. Sanctus by Simon Toyne and Midnight by Josephine Cox were also among the strong sellers.

HarperCollins Group digital director David Roth-Ey said put the rise down to e-readers and tablets becoming a "must-have gift" this Christmas. The publisher brought several new e-books out in the run-up to December 25th, including a series of digital-only short stories, 12 Days of Winter by the Stuart MacBride, which were released individually between the 1st and 12th December.

Indies report "surprise" increase in festive sales

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Indie booksellers have reported a “surprise” increase in sales over Christmas in comparison to last year.

Many reported seeing a revenue increase of 5-10% year-on-year through their responses to The Bookseller Christmas trading survey, which is open until up 3pm today (3rd January). Some said they experienced a decline in hardback sales and others saw a drop in fiction sales, which they blamed on the growing popularity of e-readers.

Other indie booksellers said better weather and a six-day trading period before Christmas Day helped them to rack up last minute gift purchases in comparison to last year.

Of the festive bestsellers, indies reported P D James’ Death Comes to Pemberley a popular choice with customers and Mark Forsyth’s The Etymologicon was also a last minute hit after it was featured on BBC Radio Four’s Book of the Week in the last week of Christmas trading.

According to Nielsen BookScan data, Forsyth’s title was the bestseller for independent retailers in the week running up to Christmas.

A full report based on the Christmas trading survey will published in The Bookseller this week.

'Confessions' is e-book of the year

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

The Friday Project's Confessions of a GP has been crowned the top-selling UK e-book of the year, according to FutureBook's weighted digital bestsellers chart.

The Benjamin Daniels hit that has been in and around the the weekly chart for much of the year has sold just 8,500 copies in UK in print, but has been a runaway success as a download, with more than 100,000 editions sold. It beats self-published bestseller The Basement by Stephen Leather and the Swedish sensation Stieg Larsson's first novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to the coveted top spot.

Larsson and Leather dominate the top 10 with five books between them. David Nicholls' One Day, a print and film success over the year, comes in at fifth, ahead of the next two Millennium titles, with A Game of Thrones, Room and The Hanging Shed making up the remainder of the top 10.

Despite having no titles in the top 10, Transworld is the most successful publisher in the top 50 with five titles, though among the big groups the spoils are won by Hachette, which has 11 titles in the list compared with Random's nine.

The chart is dominated by fiction, and in particular adventure/thriller novels. There are 30 such books in the digital top 50 compared with just 12 in the print equivalent. In non-fiction the highest charting book is Life and Laughing by Michael McIntyre, which at 16 is 22 places ahead of the next contender, Madeleine by Kate McCann.

The average selling price of the top 50 on Amazon was just £3.50, with 10 available for less than £1. In the print chart, the equivalent price was £6.60 with just one book (The Official Highway Code) retailing at under £4.

The FutureBook e-bestseller list is compiled by The Bookseller and uses a points-based system based on e-tailer chart positions and estimated e-tailer market shares.

Top 10

1 Confessions of a GP Benjamin Daniels (The Friday Project)

2 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson (Quercus)

3 The Basement Stephen Leather (AmazonEncore)

4 Hard Landing Stephen Leather (Hodder)

5 One Day David Nicholls (Hodder)

6 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest Stieg Larsson (Quercus)

7 The Girl Who Played with Fire Stieg Larsson (Quercus)

8 A Game of Thrones George R R Martin (HarperVoyager)

9 Room Emma Donoghue (Picador)

10 The Hanging Shed Gordon Ferris (Corvus)

Moran wins Galaxy Book of the Year

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Journalist Caitlin Moran's take on modern feminism How to Be A Woman, published by Ebury, has won the Galaxy Book of the Year. Moran's book beat 10 other contenders chosen by industry experts to be crowned the overall winner by a public vote.

Other contenders included The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst (Waterstone's UK Author of the Year, Picador); A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French (Specsavers Popular Fiction Book of the Year, Penguin) and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin Daily Telegraph Biography of the Year (Viking).

Moran said: "Obviously Rear Of The Year is the one I've always been gunning for, but since I found out it's judged on 'form' rather than 'sheer volume', then Book of the Year is not only a total honour and thrill, but also enables me to chow down on a hogroast over Christmas without worrying about fitting into my jeggings."

Tennant to voice Chitty audiobook

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Scottish actor David Tennant, known for his roles in “Doctor Who” and with the Royal Shakespeare Company, has been chosen to voice the downloadable audiobook of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by the family of Ian Fleming.

The novel by Frank Cottrell Boyce, the first official sequel to Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, will be available as an exclusive download for £10.99 from Audible and iTunes from today (21st December).

Lucy Fleming, niece of Ian Fleming, said: “We are thrilled that David agreed to read the audiobook. He is such a talented actor and his voice brings Frank Cottrell Boyce’s story to life with a wry humour and great characterisation.’

The audiobook also includes an interview between Lucy Fleming and Tennant, who said: “The idea of a flying car is hard to better. I think we would all love to have a car that would take off, escape the traffic, and fly you to any country in the world.’

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again

is also published as hardback and e-book by Macmillan Children’s Books.

E-books in Apple's annual giveaway

2012-02-05T06:51:19+11:00

Apple is to launch a 12 Days of Christmas giveaway, to begin on Boxing Day, which will include e-books, as yet unspecified, as well as free apps, TV shows, movies and music.

The giveaway will run from 26th December to 6th January on iTunes, with a different product being offered free for each 24-hour period. The online retailer has run the promotion since Christmas 2008.

Meanwhile, Amazon.co.uk's own 12 Days of Christmas sale began at the end of November, with 138 titles offered, and a discount of up to 65% being offered on each title.

It also announced its New Year discounting on 12th December, its earliest launch date yet, with up to 70% off books. The internet retailer said it took orders for more than three million items on 5th December, which it branded its own Cyber Monday.