Latest News from The Bookseller

Corbyn election 'good for the arts' Jeremy Corbyn’s appointment as Labour leader will be positive for the arts, figures in the trade have said, while warning the party must stick together to form a strong opposition. Corbyn was appointed as the new Labour leader on Saturday (12th September) with 59% of the vote. Before his election he said that investing in the arts and culture was "central" to creating a better society.

Pearson will not sell PRH stake until 2017Pearson is to keep its stake in Penguin Random House until at least 2017, its c.e.o. John Fallon has said. The company owns 47% of the publishing company, with the other 53% owned by Bertelsmann. In an interview with Bloomberg TV Fallon said it was “unlikely” that Pearson would exercise its option to sell its stake “at this time”. “The business is doing well, and we are one year away from achieving peak synergies,” he said.

Eimear McBride's second novel to FaberFaber has acquired Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction winner Eimear McBride’s second novel. The Lesser Bohemians follows an 18-year-old girl, recently arrived in London from Ireland to study drama, as she meets an older actor and a relationship ensues. The book is a “story about love and innocence, joy and discovery - the grip of the past and the struggle to be new again”. Faber’s Hannah Griffiths bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada and Australia New Zealand, with exclusive European rights, from Tracy Bohan at the Wylie Agency.

Kim Sears' dog 'pens' children’s bookFrances Lincoln Children’s Books will next year publish a title "by" Kim Sears' dog Maggie Mayhem “with help from" Sears. Maggie Mayhem is one of the dogs belonging to Sears and her husband, tennis star Andy Murray, and has her own twitter account. How to Look After Your Human: A Dog’s Guide is about how dogs can bond with humans and will be fully illustrated with artwork from Penguin in Peril (Templar) creator Helen Hancocks.

Wordery founders sell 49% stake to Connect BooksConnect Books has bought the remaining 49% stake in Wordery to become the sole owners of the retailer. Wordery – an online bookseller – was established in October 2012 as a joint enterprise between Connect Books, which owned a 51% stake, and former Book Depository IT director Will Jones and founding partners Steve Potter, Rob Johnson, Lee Valentine and Tim Williams who owned the remaining 49%.

Biteback acquires Corbyn biographyBiteback has acquired world rights to a biography on the newly-elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn entitled Comrade Jeremy: A Very Unlikely Coup: How Jeremy Corbyn Stormed to the Labour Leadership by journalist Rosa Prince.

Lagercrantz sales at 2.3 million worldwideThe Millennium follow-up, The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz (Maclehose Books), has sold 2.3 million books worldwide, across both print and digital, according to its publishers. Meanwhile Quercus said its English language edition, available in all territories in the world apart from the US, Canada and the Philippines, has sold 335,000 in all territories across hardback, trade paperback, e-book and audio editions. UK print sales stood at 31,280 to 5th September, according to Nielsen Bookscan data.

Linghams Bookshop sold to new ownersLinghams Bookshop in Heswall (Merseyside) has been bought by new owners Sue Porter and Mike King. The 2013 Bookseller Industry Awards’ Independent Bookshop of the Year was put up for sale last September by its owners Eleanor and Peter Davies, who had decided the time was right to retire.

Memorial for Martyn GoffA memorial event is to be held for Martyn Goff, who served as administrator of the Booker Prize for 33 years, in November. Goff died in March at the age of 92 after a long period of ill health. He ran the Booker Prize for 33 years, retiring from that role in 2006. Before that he had been a bookseller and director of the National Book League (later Book Trust), in addition to being the author of nine novels. After leaving the trust, he became Chairman of the antiquarian booksellers, Henry Sotheran’s.

Stanfords launches Children’s book of the Month promotionStanfords has launched a Children’s Book of the Month promotion, which will begin with City Atlas by Martin Haake (Wide Eyed Editions).

Craig Russell wins Scottish Crime Book of the YearCraig Russell’s novel The Ghosts of Altona (Quercus), has won the fourth annual Scottish Crime Book of the Year, organised by the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival. The novel is part of Russell’s series about detective Jan Fabel and is set in both modern and 20th century Hamburg.

Chinese publishing: full of Eastern promiseThe Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) 2015 took place in the last week of August under a storm cloud of a slightly weakened Chinese economy and a tumbling stock market. Yet at BIBF, Chinese and foreign publishers were talking of a bright and sunny future: a book trade that is solid domestically despite the recent roller-coaster of the markets, and an industry that is increasingly looking to export Chinese Intellectual Property (IP).