The week that was with Graeme Neil at The Bookseller

If you are one of those people who scours newspapers for book advertisements rather than stories (which I sadly am), you won't have failed to notice several high profile book ads from Waterstone's, WH Smith and Sainsbury's. The former went for a rather brave approach, running an advert in The Times without any details of book offers. It instead opted for a quote from Alan Bennett, talking about the value of reading. Sainsbury's was at the other end of the spectrum, pushing Jeff Kinney's latest book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series for £5.
Kinney smashed records last week, selling 81,656 copies of Cabin Fever in its first four days on sale. Only two children's authors have had a bigger opening week sale - JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer. It comes just one week after Christopher Paolini's then recordbreaking Inheritance sold 76,359 copies across several days, as well as some 8,000 e-books. Great news for the kids sector but surprisingly, it is not the Meyers, Kinneys, Paolinis and Rowling that have been the main drivers of the children's market over the past decade. It has been backlist and midlist titles, two sectors long pronounced dying by booksellers and publishers.

The Kobo Vox was launched into the UK market this week by WH Smith. Selling for £169.99, the tablet device has a seven-inch screen, which can be used to watch video as well as read books. This may force Amazon's hand in bringing its own tablet device, the Fire, to the UK earlier that it had planned.

Retailers and publishers from across the industry came to raise money for English PEN at the Colman Getty PEN Quiz on Monday. Held at the Royal Institute of British Architects, AP Watt were crowned winners with a team comprising captain Derek Johns, plus Louisa Young, Giles Foden, Daisy Goodwin, David Miller, Martin Rowson, Andrew Kidd, Gillian Slovo and James and Natasha Fairweather. More than £18,000 was raised on the night to help fund PEN's excellent work.