Book talk with Graeme Neill - The Bookseller's news editor.

Publishing phenomenon Martina Cole (left) hit another milestone this week, becoming the first British female novelist who writes for an adult audience to break the £50m sales mark since records began. The amount of money spent on physical editions of her books since 1998 is a eyewatering £50.3m. Put another way, if you were to place all of her 7.3m books sold end to end, they would stretch roughly the distance between central London and Budapest as the crow flies (or 902 miles).

Also hitting a milestone this week was Amanda Hocking. She has yet to have a book released through a conventional publisher but she has already reached one million sales of her Kindle e-books by self-publishing. Amazon revealed this week she joins the likes of Stieg Larsson and James Patterson in the Kindle Million Club, as well as other new entrants David Baldacci and Stephenie Meyer.

Alan Hollinghurst put his Man Booker disappointment behind him as he was awarded the Waterstone's Author of the Year award at this year's Galaxy National Book Awards. Other winners included Jackie Collins and Dawn French. Caitlin Moran had the best (and most puntastic) speech of the evening when she picked up the prize for the More4 Popular Non-Fiction book. She said: "Brian Cox may have the Wonders of the Universe to play with—but I had the contents of my bra and pants and, ultimately, they were obviously the more mysterious and awesome. I'm thrilled that I've beaten off Cox to win this prize. Also, winning appears to make me look thinner."

Speaking of the Man Booker Prize, Times Literary Supplement editor Peter Stothard will chair the judges of next year's award. The longlist of titles will be announced in July 2012. Stothard said: "I have admired the prize for all my editing and writing life—and look forward hugely to a year as a reader and critic within its great traditions."

The increasingly crowded UK e-reader market will be bolstered by Barnes & Noble's Nook in 2012. Speaking to The Bookseller as the retailer unveiled its new Nook Tablet, B&N c.e.o. William Lynch said an announcement would come about the Nook's international plans within the next four months. Lynch's disclosure raises speculation it could team up with Waterstone's, with the latter promising its own e-book device in 2012.