Sincere thanks to BookBrunch for all of their articles republished in the blog each week. Specific acknowledgements are made to them as copyright holders. If you have learned something new about publishing and the book trade or perhaps discovered a title you otherwise might not have read and enjoyed, all credit to the BookBrunch team.
New edition of Clark’s Publishing Agreements coming next year Clark’s Publishing Agreements: A Book of Precedents (Eleventh Edition) is set for publication in February by Bloomsbury Professional, with Lynette Owen as General Editor, and all royalties donated to the Book Trade Charity. Reviewing a previous edition, Martin Woodhead said: “It is a true tour de…
Parents prefer to read old classics to children ahead of new fiction The Oxford University Press survey gathered the views of 4,000 parents across the UK, Australia, Hong Kong and China. When asked what their favourite book or author was to read to their child, parents overwhelmingly named Roald Dahl as their top pick, 60…
Bloomsbury unveils plans for Harry Potter’s 25th Bloomsbury has unveiled early plans for the celebration of the 25th anniversary of publication of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first novel in her record-breaking seven-novel sequence. A silver anniversary paperback edition of the novel, illustrated by Jonny Duddle and emblazoned with a lightning…
The BookBrunch Report: How book publicity pivoted in 2021 For the companies we spoke to, the pandemic has been a time of difficulty but also opportunity; a moment to wipe the slate clean and reconsider what we thought possible. From clever usage of billboards and surprise pop-ups to leveraging digital social booms in TikTok, our…
Daunt: ‘Almost everyone will get the book they want’ James Daunt, head of Waterstones and Barnes & Noble, reasssured listeners to Radio 4’s You and Yours yesterday that Waterstones was “very, very full of books at the moment”, when asked about possible shortages in the run-up to Christmas. But he did imply that some titles…
Wilbur Smith dies Wilbur Smith, a bestselling writer of adventure stories since publication of When the Lion Feeds in 1964, has died at the age of 88. Smith was published for a large part of his career by Wm Heinemann and Pan, and then by Macmillan and Pan. He moved to HarperCollins in 2012, and…
Lost scripts find a home at BBC Audio BBC Audio announced, in partnership with Dancing Ledge Productions, the release of Unmade Movies – ‘a series of unproduced screenplays from globally celebrated writers’ – as digital downloads from next February. According to the publication announcement: ‘These lost treasures of movie history with their spectacular scripts from…
HarperCollins buys Pavilion HarperCollins (HC) is to buy illustrated publisher Pavilion Books. The imprints Collins & Brown, Pavilion, Portico and Robson will transfer to HarperCollins’ HQ and Mills & Boon division (under Lisa Milton), while National Trust Publishing will move to Collins Learning (Alex Beecroft), and Pavilion Children’s to Farshore (Cally Poplak). The Batsford and…
Hachette launches how-to guide to writing diversity in fiction Vaseem Khan, author of the Malabar House historical crime novels, is to present a series of videos offering a best practice guide to writing diversity in fiction for Hachette UK’s Future Bookshelf. Turning the Page: A Best Practice Guide to Writing Cultural Diversity in Fiction is…
Publishers Association marks 125th birthday Hachette’s top floor was the welcoming and well ventilated venue last night (20th October) for guests from across the industry to come together to celebrate the PA’s 125 anniversary, all delighted to find a good party in London during the week of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Those there to…
Bloomsbury Music and Sound launches Bloomsbury has unveiled a new digital hub, Bloomsbury Music and Sound. It aims to provide exclusive reference content, scholarship and learning resources across music and sound studies. Future modules will include opera and classical ebook and streaming video collections. The platform currently hosts two collections: Bloomsbury Popular Music, which covers…
Bookshop.org reveals September 2021 Indie Champions list Bookshop.org has revealed its September Indie Champions list, the books that generated the most money for independent bookshops on the platform last month. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney (Faber) took the top spot for the second month while Richard Osman is in the number two…
Independent bookshops: the summer 2021 edition Over the summer, independent bookshops have been thriving – more people have been holidaying in the UK rather than going abroad, with plenty of time to read. We asked a panel of indies what their recent months have been like – and how they’re getting ready for Christmas. Chicken…
PRH gives Peter Rabbit a ‘brand refresh’ Penguin Random House (PRH) Children’s has given Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit a “brand refresh”. The new look, appearing on published and licensed products from this autumn, “places Peter front and centre of the world that Beatrix Potter created almost 120 years ago”. PRH is planning a 120th birthday…