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Katie Allen in The Bookseller, 10 June 2010

A cheer greeted the announcement of Barbara Kingsolver's win of the Orange Prize last night (9th June) at the glitzy 15th anniversary party for the prize at London's Southbank. Kingsolver gave an emotional speech in which she said her win was the "Cinderella" moment, after being unable to attend her first shortlisting for the prize 11 years ago. It was also a first Orange Prize for her publisher Faber, which will no doubt be waiting to see if sales of The Lacuna will be equally fairy tale, as she has never before made the top 50. We reported this week that the three biggest selling Orange winners have outsold all recent Booker winners, save for Life of Pi. Some achievement. The book has so far sold more than 31,000 copies, and Faber has promised "an enormous reprint" ready for Monday (14th). A backlist reprint is also forthcoming.

The Orange has also recently turned its focus to debut writers. Winner of the Orange Prize for New Writers, Irene Sabatini thanked the mobile phone sponsor since her novel—The Boy Next Door (Sceptre)—had "never been reviewed" and might have "disappeared" without the shortlisting. The bestselling New Writers' winner has sold upwards of 50,000 copies.

With a month to go until the release of "Twilight" thre sequel "Eclipse", Meyer's spin-off The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Atom) sold 79 copies a minute on its first day on sale in the UK, although there are some reports from indies in the US that the free download version is impeding sales. Pic left - Stephenie Meyer - Getty Images.

Finally an evaluation of this year's World Book Day have presented a mixed picture, with adult fiction sales boosted 3% during the seven-week period by the inaugural Buy One Give One Free initiative, the children's book market volume "maintained", but sales of WBD £1 books down on last year. Some independent booksellers told us this week that the promotion needed a "rethink". You can have your say online at theBookseller.com.

Katie Allen is The Bookseller's media editor.