Latest news from The Bookseller

Festive book offer 'best in years' Thursday 8th October is this year’s Super Thursday, with an eye-popping 503 hardback titles due for release to capitalise on Christmas trading. The autumn publishing programme has been greeted with enthusiasm by retailers, with one declaring it “the best in years”, while a ”compelling” cookery selection, strong children’s brands, vlogger superstars and booming adult colouring books are among the tips for ideal Christmas gifts.

Stanfords returns to profit after more than a decade Stanfords has reported an annual profit for the first time since 2002. The company’s two travel bookshops, based in London’s Covent Garden and Bristol respectively, achieved sales of £6.06m for the 12 months to the end of March 2015, a 6.5% increase on the previous 12-month period, posting a trading profit of £27,191.

Coates calls for Vaizey to be replaced as culture minister Former Waterstones’ boss Tim Coates has called for Ed Vaizey to be replaced as culture minister, and for his replacement to “get a really tight grip on what’s happening” with libraries across the UK and help councils.

Man Booker Prize announces vloggers 'book club' The Man Booker Prize has announced a vloggers book club featuring five popular “BookTubers” living in the UK who will be following the prize. The prize has invited five popular literary YouTubers to be part of the inaugural book club: Jen Campbell, Leena Normington, Jean Menzies, Lauren Whitehead and Ariel Bissett who collectively have over 140,000 subscribers. The group will be posting videos including reviews, readalongs, giveaways and discussions from the longlist stage up until the announcement of the winner and will vlog from the ceremony.

One exam board 'good for publishers and bookshops' The prospect of one exam board for all examinations in England could improve textbooks and be positive for high street booksellers, two educational publishers have said. Education minister Nick Gibb told the Mail on Sunday that the government is considering scrapping exam boards AQA, OCR, Pearson-owned Edexcel, and WJEC – and having government-produced papers instead.

The Bookseller launches children's marketing competition The Bookseller is launching a children’s marketing competition for delegates of this year’s children’s conference, which will take place at the Barbican in London on the 29th September.

Southampton residents confront council over library closures Southampton residents branded their council leisure chief a “disgrace” at a meeting to discuss the closure of six libraries in the area. According to local newspaper the Daily Echo, library users and council members met Labour cabinet member Satvir Kaur, member for communities, culture and leisure, about the proposed library closures, announced last week.

Sophie Hannah springs a launch surprise Hodder & Stoughton publicity director Karen Geary was surprised and delighted to discover at the launch party for crime writer Sophie Hannah's latest book A Game for All the Family last night (Thursday 13th August) that she was the novel's dedicatee. "I haven't seen a finished copy until this evening," she explained to Hannah, who was celebrating her 10th anniversary with the Hachette imprint, which launched her crime career with Little Face a decade ago.