Latest from The Bookseller

HC UK concludes 'tough negotiations' with Amazon HarperCollins UK has concluded what its chief executive Charlie Redmayne described as “tough negotiations” with Amazon over new terms. The publisher is the latest of the original agency publishers to negotiate new arrangements after its revised agency contract came up for renewal. Redmayne would not be drawn on the nature of the deal, or if it was a return to full agency. He said: “I am confident that we secured the best deal that we could possibly have got: we negotiated hard and long to make sure that was the case. It’s the best deal we could have done.”

Indies wary of the introduction of increased Minimum Wage The proposed rise in the Minimum Wage announced by chancellor George Osborne in his recent budget will “hit indies hardest”, booksellers have said. Osborne said the Minimum Wage for people aged 25 and over would rise to £7.20 per hour in April 2016 (it is currently £6.50 per hour for those aged 21 or over) in what he described as the “new living wage”. That figure will rise to “over £9” per hour by 2020.

Pearson confirms Economist sale talks Pearson has confirmed that it is in talks to sell The Economist Group. The company said it is “in discussions” with the board of The Economist Group and with trustees regarding sale of its 50% share. “There is no certainty that this process will lead to a transaction,” said a statement from Pearson. The company said it would make further announcements “if and when appropriate”.

Boris Johnson to write Shakespeare biography Boris Johnson is to write a biography of William Shakespeare for Hodder & Stoughton for October 2016. The publisher has confirmed the deal, which was reported in the Sunday Times to have been done for £500,000. The newspaper reported that Johnson’s advance was almost seven times his salary as an MP, which is £74,000. Last year Johnson authored a biography of Winston Churchill, The Churchill Factor, for Hodder. It has sold 187,568 copies through Nielsen BookScan, for a value of just over £2.6m so far.

Jane Furze to step down from Cheltenham Literature Festival role Jane Furze is to step down as literature festival director for the Cheltenham Literature Festival after four years in the post. A statement from the board of Cheltenham Festivals said it was announcing the news “sadly”. Furze said she was leaving to “allow myself some time out”. She will step down from the post on 30th September, just ahead of this year's festival, which takes place from 2nd to 11th October. The statement from the board said that she had made a “significant contribution” to the development of the festival.

Nosy Crow launches illustrator salons Children’s publisher Nosy Crow will from September host a number of evening events dedicated to illustration. The first Nosy Crow Illustrator Salon will feature Steven Lenton, illustrator of the Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam picture books, written by Tracy Corderoy, on the 14th September. Nosy Crow m.d. Kate Wilson will interview Lenton before opening the questions up to the audience.

Maximum Pop! launches books channel Maximum Pop!, a pop music site for 14-21 year olds, has launched a dedicated channel for YA books. The company has hired a full-time books editor, former YA blogger Laura Fulton, to run the books area of the site and already has more than 4,000 followers of its twitter account @maximumpopbooks. Publisher Olly Meakings said he decided to launch a books channel after trialling book content in 2014.

Lambert novel to Aardvark Aardvark Bureau has acquired a “chilling” new novel by Charles Lambert. Publisher-at-large Scott Pack bought UK and British Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to The Children’s Home and one other novel, Prodigal, from Isobel Dixon of Blake Friedmann. Pack published Lambert’s memoir With a Zero at its Heart at HarperCollins’ The Friday Project.

Welsh, Cleeves and Brookmyre on Bloody Scotland shortlist Hachette has three titles on the Bloody Scotland Crime Book of the Year shortlist, while Pan Macmillan has two. From Pan Mac comes Lin Anderson’s Paths of the Dead, in which forensic expert Dr Rhona MacLeod investigating a murder in spiritualist and Druidic circles, and Ann Cleeves’ Thin Air, which follows a group of old university friends reuniting in Shetland for a wedding when one of them disappears.

Three Barclay thrillers to Orion Orion has acquired three new books by Linwood Barclay. Deputy publishing director Bill Massey bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to the thrillers from Helen Heller at The Helen Heller Agency. The first book from the new deal will be published in September 2017. Before that, Orion will publish three novels set in Promise Falls, a small New England town that has featured in previous titles by Barclay, over 18 months, beginning with Broken Promise in hardcover in September 2015.

BBC Bloomsbury drama airs tonight A television drama based on the lives of the Bloomsbury set, including author Virginia Woolf, starts tonight (Monday 27th July) on BBC2 at 9pm. "Life in Squares", a three-part drama, explores the relationships between Woolf and her husband Leonard Woolf, and their artistic and intellectual friends, including the painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, authors E M Forster and David "Bunny" Garnett, art critics Roger Fry and Clive Bell, the biographer Lytton Strachey and the economist John Maynard Keynes.

No Exit's short story contest longlist No Exit Press has released the longlist for its short story writing competition.