Thursday, September 03, 2015

Latest News from The Bookseller

Four Bonnier Publishing imprints – Templar Publishing, Weldon Owen, Studio Press and Blink Publishing – are to be brought under a new division, resulting in the loss of “less than five” jobs.
Kings Road Publishing will see Templar Publishing, Weldon Owen and Studio Press relocate from Dorking in Surrey to Chelsea in London, where Blink Publishing is based, from 14th September. All four imprints have been under the control of Blink m.d. Perminder Mann, who becomes m.d. of Kings Road Publishing.
A founder of The Book Depository is to launch a global online bookselling site later this year called ibiidi.com. 
Dr Emad Eldeen Elakehal, former chief technology officer at The Book Depository, is to launch ibiidi.com, a website selling titles in multiple languages and offering customers the option to pay for titles in a number of different currencies. 
Scottish Book Trust
The Scottish Children’s Book Awards shortlist has been revealed, with every Primary 1 child given three free shortlisted titles during Book Week Scotland.
Never Tickle a Tiger by Pamela Butchart and Marc Boutavant (Bloomsbury), Wanted! Ralfy Rabbit Book Burglar by Emily MacKenzie (Bloomsbury) and Mouse’s First Night at Moonlight School by Simon Puttock and Ali Pye (Nosy Crow) are shortlisted in the ‘Bookbug Readers’ category for children aged three-seven years-old.
Book recommendation site Goodreads has been integrated into Amazon’s Kindle and Fire tablet devices in the UK, Amazon has announced. 
The company bought Goodreads, a website hosting a book lovers’ community and giving personal book recommendations, in April 2013 for a reported $150m.
Editions du Seuil has said it will not publish a controversial book about King Mohammed VI of Morocco following the arrest of the authors by French police on charges of attempted blackmail and extortion. The publisher's c.e.o. Olivier Bétourné described himself as "staggered" by the development.
Orion is running a digital advertising campaign for the new book from The Hairy Bikers, Meat Feasts, allowing people to print a 50% off voucher for the book to be redeemed in WH Smith stores.
The campaign, which begins this week, will allow people to print off the vouchers for Meat Feasts from around 50 digital advertising units [pictures below] across the country, all within a five-minute walk of a WH Smith outlet.
Orion said it was the first publisher in the UK to have run such a campaign.
Sir Terry Pratchett’s 41st and final Discworld novel The Shepherd’s Crown (Doubleday Children’s) grabbed the UK Official Number one by a sizeable margin, outselling the much-hyped Stieg Larsson reboot by over 37,000 copies.


And Then There Were None has been voted the World's Favourite Agatha Christie Novel.
The book, which is currently being made into a BBC One series starring "Poldark" actor Aidan Turner, came top of a poll carried out to mark the writer's 125th birthday, which is on 15th September.
And Then There Were None, announced as the winner last night (1st September) at the opening of the Agatha Christie: Unfinished Photograph exhibition at Bankside Gallery in London, collected 3,211 of over 15,000 votes in a worldwide poll.
Foyles’ Bristol branch in Cabot Circus is to relocate within the shopping centre this autumn.
Located on Brigstowe Street, close to the recently announced Victoria’s Secret store, the new 3,800 sq ft retail space will “raise the profile of Foyles within Cabot Circus,” a company spokesperson said. 
The relocated store will feature an "exciting" cafe concept, building on the success of the Foyles cafe at the Charing Cross store and aims to become a social hub for shoppers, the company said.
The bookseller expects it will be in situ in time for Christmas.
A memorial service for the late Ruth Rendell is due to held next month.
Rendell died on 2nd May at the age of 85, almost four months after being admitted to hospital after suffering a critical stroke.
A service for Rendell will be held on Thursday 29th October at All Saints Margaret Street, London, at 2pm.
Two Roads has acquired a book by comedian, actress and writer Susan Calman.
The book, currently titled Cheer Up Love: further adventures of the Crab of Hate, will examine Calman’s life coping with depression and “how, with a bit of work and a lot of box sets, she started appreciating how excellent gloomy people actually are”.
Two Roads said Cheer Up Love would be “a survival handbook on how to think positively when you’re the world’s most negative person”.
John Mitchell is to retire as m.d. of Hodder Gibson.
Mitchell has worked for Hodder Education for 31 years, latterly heading its Scottish business. Before Hodder Gibson he led the schools sales and marketing teams, having started his career as sales consultant for Scotland.
Lis Tribe, m.d. of Hodder Education, said: “John has brought both humour and humanity to every project he has worked on, but beyond that he has shown great talent for forming lasting professional relationships that have led in turn to enduring commercial success.
Margaret Hewinson has been appointed as a non-executive director of Edinburgh University Press from 1st September 2015. 
She succeeds Jill Jones who has stood down after two years. Hewinson joins Richard Fisher and Ivon Asquith, who has been re-appointed as chairman for a further four year-term.
Hewinson is a consultant, mentor and development coach for the publishing industry. She has had a long career in academic publishing which included Oxford University Press and Palgrave Macmillan. 

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