Latest book news from The Bookseller

Free school visits ‘one of the worst things an author can do’ Following the debate over whether authors should be paid to appear at festivals, children’s writers have warned that fewer schools are now offering to pay for author visits.

Amazon launches global Prime day Amazon is launching Prime Day, "a new global shopping event, offering more deals than Black Friday", open solely to members of its Prime service. The first such day will be held on Wednesday 15th July and will offer customers in the UK, US, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada and Austria "thousands of Lightning Deals", and "six popular Deals of the Day". Deals will begin at midnight, with new ones offered "as often as every 10 minutes."

Egmont restructures licensing business Egmont Publishing has created two global divisions for its licensed content business across books and magazines: Global Licensing Management and Global Content Development. The new Global Licensing Management team will acquire global licenses and sell international rights for intellectual property. It will be led by Italy-based Silvia Figini, who has been promoted to the role of vice president of the division from her previous position of vice president of Global Disney at Egmont and m.d. of the Egmont Creative Center.

Guardian to pre-publish first Lee chapter The Guardian is to publish the first chapter of Harper Lee’s forthcoming novel Go Set a Watchman (William Heinemann) ahead of publication, as part of the publicity campaign building up to the novel’s release next week. Go Set a Watchman will be released on Tuesday 14th July. The Guardian will post the first chapter of the novel on its website on Friday (10th July), and in print in Guardian Weekend on 11th July.

Book Trust award for Shirley Hughes Book Trust will tomorrow (7th July) present Shirley Hughes with a lifetime achievement award at a ceremony in London. The prize, which celebrates the body of work of an author or illustrator who has made an outstanding contribution to children literature, will be presented to Hughes for her “remarkable, multi-talented contribution to children's fiction”, said Book Trust c.e.o. Diana Gerald.

Second Mellon grant for Open Library of Humanities Birkbeck, part of the University of London, has been awarded a grant of $741,000 (£476,372) to “cement and expand a new model for open-access publishing in the humanities disciplines”. The grant, from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, will go towards the Open Library of Humanities (OLH) platform which will allow access to peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles without requiring readers to pay.

Collins tweaks revision focus Collins Learning is publishing its reading scheme for the trade for the first time, as well as consolidating and repositioning its revision brands to tie in with upcoming curriculum changes. In May it published the first six packs of its Big Cat Reading Lions scheme, with plans to add six further packs in early spring 2016. The packs comprise six books each and retail at £24. Each pack is directed at a different level of reading, from early readers up to fluent, with the first two packs being fully decodable phonics, in line with how children are currently taught to read.

P J Harvey collaborates on first poetry collection Bloomsbury is publishing The Hollow of the Hand, the first poetry collection from musician P J Harvey, in collaboration with photographer and filmmaker Seamus Murphy. The title will be released in four different editions simultaneously on 8th October: a limited edition with original artwork for an as yet unannounced price; a £45 large format cloth-bound hardback; a £16.99 trade paperback readers’ edition; and a £13.99 enhanced e-book.

Cote denies class certification in Authors Solutions case A lawsuit accusing Author Solutions of seeking to make money from authors, rather than for authors, has been denied class certification by a judge in the US. New York-based law firm Giskan Solotaroff Anderson & Stewart filed a class action lawsuit against Author Solutions in New York in April 2013. The case has survived various motions to dismiss, and the plaintiffs had filed for class certification, which would have allowed a few people to sue Author Solutions on behalf of a larger group.

Canongate to publish 'Jean Brodie' e-book Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is to be made available in e-book for the first time in the UK, as part of a deal with Canongate. Louisa Joyner, editorial director of fiction at Canongate, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, including Canada, to The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and eight other works by Spark in a deal with Georgia Glover at David Higham Associates on behalf of Spark’s Estate.

Piccadilly acquires Bethell middle-grade novel Piccadilly Press has bought A Kingdom of Horses, a middle-grade children’s book by Zillah Bethell. The story follows 12-year-old Serendipity Gouge, who lives in the enclosed city of Lahn Dahn, where rich and poor lead very different lives. When her mother dies, Serendipity knows she is destined for the workhouse so comes up with a plan to escape. Piccadilly Press editor Matilda Johnson bought the UK and Commonwealth rights to the book, plus a second title, from Julia Churchill at A M Heath at auction. Piccadilly will publish in hardback in autumn 2016.

OUP signs Winnie the Witch animation deal Channel 5 is set to broadcast a TV series based on the Winnie the Witch series, after signing a deal with publisher Oxford University Press (OUP) Children’s. The TV series will be entitled "Winnie and Wilbur" (Wilbur is Winnie’s cat) and will consist of 52 11-minute episodes. Produced by UK-based production company Winduna Enterprises, it will air on the channel’s pre-school strand Milkshake, although no release date has been announced.