Latest News from The Bookseller

'Elegant fable' wins Waterstones Book of the Year Children’s book The Fox and the Star by aPenguin cover designer Coralie Bickford-Smith has beaten Harper Lee and Paula Hawkins to be crowned The Waterstones Book of the Year 2015.

Authors need to 'engage' in the publishing process Both traditionally and self-published authors need to be “engaged”, traditional publishers have to be open to new voices from different backgrounds, tricky rights issues need to be tackled, but ultimately traditional and indie author communities need to come together.

Civilised Saturday a 'fantastic success' say booksellers Indie booksellers have reported that Civilised Saturday was a "fantastic success" with many vowing to hold the event again next year.

Shamsie: 'Publishers not investing in author careers' Novelist Kamila Shamsie has said that traditional publishers’ focus on the “bottom line value of pounds and pennies” has meant a shift away from building authors’ careers in the long-term and created a lack of diversity and new voices.

PRH Children’s promotes Richard Haines Penguin Random House Children’s has promoted Richard Haines to the newly created role of head of acquisitions and TV development.

Chakrabarti: 'Story-telling vital to defend liberty' Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, has praised “the enduring power of the written word” - both “for good or ill” - while criticising government for “threatening human rights” in a lecture for The Reading Agency.

Industry should be 'less defensive' about diversity Publishing should be as “demographically representative as possible” in a bid to tackle diversity, delegates to The Bookseller's Author Day conference have heard.

Shakespeare website from OUP Oxford University Press has launched a website devoted to learning about Shakespeare.

Pearson completes FT sale Pearson has completed the sale of FT Group to Nikkei Inc for £844m in cash.

Walker to publish Norwegian director Bobbie Peers Walker Books is set to publish a children’s book by Bobbie Peers, the Norwegian director and scriptwriter.

Public vote opens for Costa Short Story Award Public voting has opened for the 2015 Costa Short Story Award.

Penguin acquires Yukon river debut at auction Penguin has acquired a book from what it says is "one of the UK’s most exciting new voices" in Adam Weymouth.