Latest book news from The Bookseller

WHS tips Fresh Talent dozen W H Smith Travel has unveiled the next 12 titles in its Fresh Talent promotion, including one self-published novel and another published through crowd-funding platform Urbane. The retailer said the first dozen titles in its Fresh Talent promotion, which launched in February and aims to promote new and emerging writers, went from “strength to strength” in sales terms.

Grey shackles US charts for second week E L James’ Grey (Vintage) handily retained its number one position in the USA print bestseller charts, although volume sales declined by a almost third week-on-week.

Fuller wins Desmond Elliott Prize Claire Fuller has won the Desmond Elliott Prize 2015 for her novel Our Endless Numbered Days (Fig Tree). Our Endless Numbered Days was described by chair of the judges Louise Doughty as "both shocking and subtle, brilliant and beautiful, a poised and elegant work that recalls the early work of Ian McEwan in the delicacy of its prose and the way that this is combined with some very dark undertones". The Desmond Elliott Prize is given to debut fiction and is worth £10,000 to the winner.

Treeclimber guide to HarperNonFiction for "strong five-figure sum" HarperNonFiction has bought a “unique” escapist’s guide to climbing trees for a “strong five-figure sum” in a “hotly contested” five-publisher auction. The Treeclimber’s Guide to London by Jack Cooke can be read as “either a practical guide or a daydreamer’s handbook”. Publishing director Jack Fogg bought world rights to the book from Claudia Young at Greene and Heaton.

Books by Smith, de Botton and Lewycka among Penguin General 2016 highlights A collection of essays from Zadie Smith, a novel critiquing the concept of romantic love by Alain de Botton and Marina Lewycka’s first book in four years are among the highlights of Penguin General’s spring 2016 list. Authors and staff from Penguin General – which comprises of imprints Penguin, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Fig Tree and Portfolio – presented the highlights at a showcase in Waterstones Piccadilly last night (Wednesday 1st July).

ALPSP innovation awards shortlist Nine initiatives in scholarly publishing have been shortlisted for the 2015 Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) Innovation in Publishing awards.

Octopus reveals Cookbook Confidential programme Octopus has revealed the full programme for its inaugural food and drink festival, Cookbook Confidential.  The event, announced in May, will take place at the Southbank Centre on Saturday 5th September in partnership with Foyles, which is the official bookseller for the festival.

Gojimo hits £500k crowdfunding target Exam preparation app Gojimo has reached its £500,000 crowdfunding target. The app offers 50,000 free curriculum specific quiz questions, and content from publishers such as Oxford University Press and McGraw-Hill Education is available through in-app purchases. Gojimo, which says it has 300,000 monthly active users, aimed to raise half a million through the London-based crowdfunding platform, CrowdBnk.

Bloomsbury Children’s buys spy series Bloomsbury Children’s Books has acquired the rights to the middle grade action adventure series Spy Toys by Mark Powers. In the series the world’s biggest toy manufacturer makes toys with computerised brains for the rich and famous. Dan (a Snugliffic Cuddlestar bear) has a faulty chip so is thrown on a reject pile, where he is invited, along with a doll and a robot rabbit, to join the ‘Spy Toys’. Their first mission is to protect the prime minister's eight-year-old son from being kidnapped.

Hugless Douglas optioned for TV Production company Kindle Entertainment has bought the rights to develop David Melling’s Hugless Douglas character into a TV show. The deal was brokered by Karen Lawler, executive manager of licensing at Hachette Children’s Group (HCG), and Nirmal Sandhu, head of rights at HCG, with Val Ames, director of production at Kindle Entertainment. Kindle is currently developing 52 11-minute TV shows for the pre-school audience, although no broadcast deals have yet been signed.

Author seeks Refuge for Books donations Author Lucy Beresford is launching an initiative to create a library at one of the London shelters for domestic violence charity Refuge. Beresford said: “I'm launching an initiative called Refuge for Books, asking all my friends in the publishing world to send me a copy of a book for Refuge. One of Refuge's London shelters is going to create a library out of the books.”

Manning moves to Phoenix Comic Kate Manning, former sales and marketing director of Hot Key Books, is moving to The Phoenix Comic, which is published by David Fickling Books.