Latest News from The Booksller

'Extremely dangerous' to see e-books as main publishing disruptor A “slower, more complicated and insidious disruption” of the publishing industry is emerging, a report from research and advisory firm Enders Analysis had said, and it is “extremely dangerous” to see the e-book transition as the key disruptive force to the trade. Consumer book subscriptions have not taken off, mobile consumption is reducing the amount of time people spend reading, and publishers need to “innovate vigorously”, the report found.

Informa pays £20m for Ashgate Publishing Taylor & Francis's parent company Informa has acquired independent humanities and social sciences publisher Ashgate Publishing for £20m.   Ashgate, based in Farnham in Surrey, has over 14,000 titles. Informa said: "Its experienced team and strong brands will be highly complementary to our other major HSS [humanities and social sciences] brand, Routledge, the world's largest English language publisher of academic content in HSS disciplines."

Matter of 'when not if' Pearson sells PRH shares If Pearson aims to concentrate on its global education business then it is “only a matter of when not if” it will sell its stake in Penguin Random House, as the date Pearson is permitted to sell its PRH shares looms.

Skippy in the Well bookshop opens in Garstang A new independent bookshop has opened in the rural Lancashire town of Garstang by former secondary school teacher Sally-Anne Fraser. Skippy in the Well has opened on 3 Oak Grove on Garstang’s high street, restoring a bookshop to the town once more after its last one closed several years ago.

'Watchman' continues to dominate charts Harper Lee has held the Official Top 50 number one spot for a second consecutive week, with Go Set A Watchman (Heinemann) selling 57,612 copies, worth £632,690, through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market.

Walliams’ next title to be Grandpa’s Great Escape David Walliams’ next children’s book, due to be published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in September, will be titled Grandpa’s Great Escape. In the book, which will once again be illustrated by Tony Ross, Grandpa becomes muddled in old age and believes he is still a fighter pilot in World War Two. When he is sent to an old people’s home he is convinced it is a prisoner of war camp and plans an escape with his grandson Jack.

New indie publisher Dodo Ink launches Novelist Sam Mills, reviewer Thom Cuell and digital marketer Alex Spears have announced the creation of a new independent publishing house, Dodo Ink.

'Delight' is focus at Yale Publishing Course Structural disruption and all things digital were woven into discussions at the Yale Publishing Course, which took place in New Haven last week (19th-24th July). Two dozen faculty and 68 mid-career professionals from 22 countries were on hand. Yet in the words of keynoter Craig Mod, it was the importance of giving oneself  “permission to think,” and a reassertion of the primacy of books as objects able to inspire “delight,” that best captured the zeitgeist of the week.

Litvinenko's Russia study gets 'extremist' ban Alexander Litvinenko’s only book Blowing Up Russia has been put on a list of “extremist materials” in Russia and banned, according to its English language publisher Gibson Square Books. The Russian fugitive officer of the FSB secret service died in November 2006 after meeting with two former agents and drinking tea laced with a lethal dose of radioactive polonium. He was allegedly poisoned on the command of the Russian state after making direct allegations against President Vladimir Putin.

Anti-FGM campaigner to publish 'empowering' book with S&S Simon & Schuster has acquired an “empowering” book by anti-FGM campaigner Hibo Wardere [pictured]. S&S commissioning editor Abigail Bergstrom acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to the book entitled Cut: FGM in Britain Today from Robyn Drury at Diane Banks Associates.

Usborne buys historical novel by Curtis Usborne has acquired a YA historical novel, entitled The One Who Knows My Name, by Vanessa  Curtis. The book, told through the first-person voice of fifteen-year-old Inge, is about the Nazi’s Lebensborn programme, under which Polish children were stolen from their families to be brought up in the Aryan ideal.

Walker acquires Weinstein trilogy Walker Books will in 2017 publish The City of Secret Rivers, the first book in a London-set children’s adventure trilogy by US writer Jacob Sager Weinstein. The City of Secret Rivers is about Hyacinth Hayward who, recently arrived in London from America, accidentally unleashes the power of a secret river running through the city. To stop a second Great Fire, she must find a magically charged drop of water from the sewer system.