Latest book news from The Bookseller

Book trade turns red for Ed The book trade has abandoned the Liberal Democrats in favour of Labour and the Green Party in the five years since the last election, according to a poll of voting intentions conducted by The Bookseller. Support for libraries and making Amazon pay a fair share of tax are the issues the trade is most keen for the new government to address, the poll found.

ProQuest buys Coutts from Ingram Ingram Content Group has sold its library supply business Coutts Information Services to ProQuest. The acquisition, which also includes the platforms MyiLibrary and OASIS, is expected to close within the next few weeks. ProQuest is an information and technology company based in Michigan in the US. Coutts’ staff in Ringwood in the UK, La Vergne in the USA, and Nijhoff in the Netherlands, as well as remote staff, will be “invited to join the ProQuest team”.

Granta's Rausing makes Ondaatje shortlist Granta owner Sigrid Rausing has been shortlisted for the 2015 RSL Ondaatje Prize for her book Everything is Wonderful (Grove Press), alongside authors including Helen Dunmore and Elif Shafak. The annual award of £10,000 is given for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place.

CNL makes a stand on event fees The French National Book Centre (Centre National du Livre, CNL) will cut subsidies for the 90-plus book fairs and literary festivals it supports next year if organisers do not agree to pay authors for giving talks and participating in debates.  Meetings are being held with organisers, none of whom have rejected the idea so far, according to CNL president Vincent Monadé.

Blackwell’s to increase its focus on festivals Literary festivals are growing in importance for retailer Blackwell’s, with the company actively seeking to establish partnerships with the sector. Zool Verjee, Blackwell’s sales development manager, told The Bookseller the chain had enjoyed sales growth of 15% year on year after partnering with the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival for the 15th year.

Applebaum to chair Samuel Johnson Prize judges Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist Anne Applebaum is to chair the judging panel for the 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. She will be supported by Emma Duncan, associate editor of The Economist; Sumit Paul-Choudhury, editor of New Scientist; Oxford University professor Rana Mitter; and former controller of film and drama, and head of Film 4, Tessa Ross.

S&S signs Portillo railway tie-ins Simon & Schuster has acquired two television tie-ins with Michael Portillo. Iain MacGregor, non-fiction publishing director, signed world rights for a tie-in book for “Great Continental Railway Journeys” and a tie-in for a new series called “Great American Railway Journeys”. Both titles were acquired from Freemantle UK via the Cat Ledger Literary Agency.

Publishers give $250m free e-books for Obama scheme Publishers in the US including Hachette Book Group, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster are making $250m (£163m) in free e-books available to low-income students as part of a scheme announced today (30th April) by President Obama. The new e-book commitments, to cover a three-year period, will see publishers making sure their content is available to low-income young people in America.

Vintage and Burberry team up for cloth-bound Chatwin Vintage is publishing a limited edition box set of some of novelist and travel writer Bruce Chatwin’s books, in collaboration with British luxury brand Burberry.

Amazon’s Audible to run Amok Audible, the Amazon-owned audio product company, is releasing a new audio drama production on 8th May, based on Sebastian Fitzek’s German-language thriller Amok.

The Pigeonhole picks up indie author Alexander A self-published author whose début novel has sold 9,000 copies through W H Smith Travel stores will have his title published in e-book and audio format. Piers Alexander’s début The Bitter Trade was picked up by WHS travel fiction buyer Matthew Bates last October, and it will now be serialised as an e-book and audiobook on The Pigeonhole platform. Subscribers to the site can get 10 weekly instalments of the historical novel in digital or audio format, with actor Roland Bearne narrating the latter.

Keane leads British Sports Book awards shortlists Roy Keane and Roddy Doyle's memoir The Second Half leads the nominations for the Cross British Sports Book Awards shortlists, as it competes for three separate prizes. The book, published by Orion, is in the running for autobiography of the year, football book of the year and the outstanding sports writing prize. The awards are now in their 13th year, sponsored for the first time by luxury pen maker Cross.