Friday, August 07, 2015

Latest from The Bookseller

LATEST NEWS
Booksellers say they are enjoying a “bumper summer”, with the release of Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman encouraging people to “re-engage with books and bookshops again.”
James Daunt, m.d of Waterstones, said the release of the William Heinnemann title last month had injected life into the chain’s shops, with book sales up across the board.
Revenues for Simon and Schuster's global operations dropped 5.7% year on year in the second quarter of  2015, its parent company CBS has reported. The total for the quarter stood at $199m, a drop of $12m.
However operating income was $25m, up 9% from $23m in the second quarter of 2014, with CBS saying that the “revenue decline was more than offset by lower production and distribution costs”.
Amazon UK has extended Prime Now, which allows customers to receive goods within one hour of purchasing, to Birmingham and the surrounding areas.
From today (6th August), shoppers in Birmingham, and towns such as Lichfield, Cannock and Tamworth, can benefit from the super-fast delivery times if they are members of Amazon Prime, a £79-per-year service that offers members benefits such as money-off deals and unlimited streaming of TV shows.
Writer Catherine Nichols has revealed that she received eight times as many responses by sending out her manuscript to agents under a man’s name than when sending it out under her own name.
In an essay for Jezebel, Nichols said she sent query letters to 50 agents under her own name, receiving only two manuscript requests.
Amazon has released a list of its best-selling Kindle books over the last five years in the UK, with Fifty Shades writer EL James topping the e-book chart.
Amazon has released the data to mark five years today (5th August) since it opened the Kindle Store in the UK.
EL James’ original Fifty Shades of Grey (Arrow) title was the best-selling e-book on the Amazon.co.uk platform (released April 2012) with her follow-up in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker, ranking second and the third instalment Fifty Shades Freed coming in fourth.
Science fiction and fantasy publisher Gollancz has partnered with London's Prince Charles cinema and mobile video game library the Gamer’s Bus on the second Gollancz Festival.
The festival takes place at Waterstones Manchester Deansgate on 16th October and Waterstones Piccadilly in London on 17th October, with events online on both days.
HarperCollins crime and thriller publisher Julia Wisdom has bought a "deeply disturbing" psychological suspense novel by Camilla Way [pictured], Watching Edie McCrae.
Wisdom bought UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in the novel, plus a further book, from Hellie Ogden at Janklow & Nesbit.
Bloomsbury is publishing the debut graphic novel by British cartoonist and teacher Rachael Ball, The Inflatable Woman (October, £18.99).

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