Latest News from The Bookseller

Next Generation Poets to go on tourPoets selected by the Poetry Book Society as its Next Generation Poets 2014 will be heading on tour across the country for the next month. Writers including Adam Foulds, Helen Mort, Daljit Nagra and Annie Freud will take part in the tour a follow-up to an intital tour in 2014, appearing at venues including arts centres, bookshops and libraries.

PRH commercial director Waters to leave Penguin Random House UK’s group commercial director, Nigel Waters, is to leave the business at Easter. The company is still working out where Waters’ team will report, and an announcement about some new roles and responsibilities is to follow in the coming weeks, PRH said.  Ian Hudson, deputy c.e.o. of PRH UK, said Waters had decided over Christmas that "the time had come to try something new and we have reluctantly agreed”.

Waterstones cuts losses as Daunt looks ahead with 'optimism'Waterstones cut its losses in its last financial year with managing director James Daunt describing it as year of “significant progress” and insisting that the business was edging towards profitability. It is the second consecutive year of reduced losses at Waterstones under Daunt, and includes the period when the chain was restructuring its store and head office staff with staff numbers reduced by 512 in the year to April 2014.

Reading for pleasure boosts self-esteemPeople who read regularly for pleasure have greater levels of self-esteem, are less stressed, and can cope better with difficult situations than lapsed or non-readers, new research for Galaxy Quick Reads has found. While the research, carried out by Dr Josie Billington at the University of Liverpool, found that 58% of people read regularly, it found that 16m adults in the UK – almost a third of the UK adult population – are lapsed readers, who used to read but either rarely read now or don’t read at all.

Harper Lee 'happy as hell' with book reactionHarper Lee has said she is “alive and kicking and happy as hell” with the reaction to her new book. Cornerstone division William Heinemann announced on Tuesday (3rd February) that it would publish Go Set a Watchman, a novel written by Lee before she penned To Kill a Mockingbird and featuring some of the same characters, but never published before.

Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little available in 'e' for first time HarperCollins will publish three children’s classics by Charlotte’s Web author E B White as e-books for the first time this March. Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, both written by White and illustrated by Garth Williams, will be published digitally along with The Trumpet of the Swan, illustrated by Fred Marcellino.

Howells to join Riot PRJon Howells will join Riot Communications PR agency in the role of campaigns director from next week. Howells, former head of PR and brand communications at Waterstones, will begin his new role at Riot on Monday (9th February).  Riot m.d Anwen Hooson described Howells, who has worked on several brand campaigns such as Waterstones 11 and Picture This, as “one of the industry’s true creatives”.

S&S creates new 'global digital sales' roleSimon & Schuster has created a director of global digital and online sales role based in the US to apply a global approach to sales and marketing across its businesses worldwide. Colin Shields, who headed up the publishers’ digital sales, has been promoted to the newly created position of vice president, director of global digital and online sales, based in the US and reporting to Michael Selleck, executive vice president of sales and marketing.

Southbank to create Alice in Wonderland 'immersive experience'Macmillan and Southbank Centre have teamed up to put on an immersive theatre production to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. As part of the Imagine Children’s Festival, sponsored The Book People, which takes place from Monday 9th February to Sunday 22nd February, Southbank Centre will be transformed into a wonderland with Alice in Wonderland themed interactive installations, workshops and pop-up theatre.

'Sensitive children' title goes for six figuresPan Macmillan has acquired a book about sensitive children for six figures in a “fiercely contested auction”. Carole Tonkinson bought The Orchid and the Dandelion: Why Some Children Thrive and Others Struggle to Survive by Dr Tom Boyce for her Bluebird imprint in a "competitive 12-way bid" from Doug Abrams at Idea Architects in a deal brokered by Chandler Crawford of the Crawford Agency.

Taylor, Knight and Waldram among PPC award nominationsNominations for this year’s Publishers Publicity Circle (PPC) awards include Sandra Taylor for The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (Picador), Emma Knight for There’s Something I’ve Been Dying to Tell You by Lynda Bellingham (Hodder & Stoughton), and Ruth Waldram for the award-winning H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Jonathan Cape). There are nine categories for the annual awards, which recognise the best publicity campaigns of the year.

Six-figure pre-empt for Carnegie winning DonnellyHot Key Books has acquired a new standalone fiction title from Carnegie Medal winning author Jennifer Donnelly in a six-figure pre-empt deal. Junior editor at Hot Key Books, Naomi Colthurst, struck a deal for UK and Commonwealth rights to These Shallow Graves through Cecilia de la Campa, director of subsidiary rights at Writers House.