UK supply chain hit by border delays, Brexit issues
13 January 2021
In the UK, booksellers are facing issues with goods coming into and out of Europe due to border delays and Brexit red tape, reports the Bookseller. Waterstones has suspended deliveries...
German book market down 2.3% in value
12 January 2021
The German book market was down 2.3% in value and 5.3% in volume in 2020, reports the Bookseller. The market was hit by two Covid lockdowns, the second of which...
US print book sales up 8% in 2020
11 January 2021
In the US, NPD BookScan has reported that print sales in the US rose 8.2% in 2020, making it the bestselling year for print in a decade, reports Publishing Perspectives....
PRH Canada to split Knopf, Random House divisions
11 December 2020
Penguin Random House (PRH) Canada has announced it is dissolving the Knopf Random House Canada Group, to allow the two imprints, Knopf Canada and Random House Canada, to operate independently...
BA, Bookshop.org respond to criticism from booksellers
7 December 2020
In the UK, the Booksellers Association (BA) and Bookshop.org have responded to criticism about how effective the website will be at supporting indie bookshops, as well as the BA’s role...
‘Fifth Sun: A new history of the Aztecs’ wins Cundill History Prize
4 December 2020
Camilla Townsend has won the 2020 Cundill History Prize for her work on Aztec history, Fifth Sun: A new history of the Aztecs (OUP), reports the Bookseller. Fifth Sun uses Nahuatl-language sources...
‘Hamnet’ named Waterstones book of the year
3 December 2020
UK bookselling chain Waterstones has named Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet (Tinder Press) as its book of the year, reports the Bookseller. Waterstones fiction buyer Bea Carvalho said Hamnet—which is inspired...
Reed to retire BookExpo
2 December 2020
BookExpo, the largest publishing trade show in the US, is being retired by Reed Exhibitions, reports Publishers Weekly. Book-focused events BookCon and Unbound will also be retired. Organiser ReedPop, a...
Hachette UK lifts entry-level salaries, boosts pay transparency
1 December 2020
Hachette UK has announced it is raising its entry-level salaries to a minimum of £24,000, will share salary ranges at higher levels of seniority and will introduce transparency on its...
Beatles bio wins £50k Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction
26 November 2020
English writer and critic Craig Brown has won the £50,000 ($90,900) Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction for One Two Three Four: The Beatles in time (Fourth Estate). Brown's biography tells the...
PA to aggregate diversity statistics
25 November 2020
In the UK, the Publishers Association (PA) will aggregate publisher statistics on the diversity make-up of their books, reports the Bookseller. After a number of big publishers confirmed they were...
National Book Award winners announced
23 November 2020
In the US, the winners of this year’s National Book Awards have been announced. The winning titles in each category are: Fiction Interior Chinatown (Charles Yu, Europa Editions) Nonfiction The...
Pan Mac, Nosy Crow among FutureBook Awards winners
23 November 2020
In the UK, the winners of the FutureBook Awards: Best of Lockdown have been announced, reports the Bookseller. The winners include publishers Nosy Crow and Pan Macmillan, Bath-based bookshop Mr...
Stuart wins Booker Prize for ‘Shuggie Bain’
20 November 2020
Scottish author Douglas Stuart has won the £50,000 (A$91,100) Booker Prize for his debut novel Shuggie Bain (Picador), reports the Bookseller. Stuart’s novel, based on his own childhood, tells the...
Pearson creates direct-to-consumer division
19 November 2020
Pearson has announced the creation of a new direct-to-consumer division, focused on direct-to-consumer products and channels. 'With the accelerating interest in digital learning across the globe, we need to meet...
Bologna moves to June; plans new general publishing exhibit
18 November 2020
The Bologna Children’s Book Fair has changed its dates for next year’s fair from April to June 14-17. Director Elena Pasoli said pushing the fair back ‘gives us the valuable...
UK book sales down 11% for first half
16 November 2020
In the UK, stats from the Publishers Association (PA) show that total book sales across the industry fell 11% in the first six months of the year, reports the Bookseller....
WHSmith posts £69 million loss
13 November 2020
UK book chain WHSmith has recorded a £69 million (A$125m) headline loss in preliminary results announced for the year ended 31 August. The company made a £31 million (A$56m) group...
Harrison wins Goldsmiths Prize for ‘The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again’
12 November 2020
In the UK, M John Harrison has won the £10,000 (A$18,165) Goldsmiths Prize for The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again (Gollancz), reports the Bookseller. Harrison’s novel is described as ‘a genre-blurring...
Thammavongsa wins Canada’s $100k Giller Prize
11 November 2020
In Canada, Souvankham Thammavongsa has won this year’s C$100,000 (A$106,150) Giller Prize for her short story collection How to Pronounce Knife (Bloomsbury). Of Thammavongsa’s collection, the prize jury said: ‘How...
FutureBook Conference to run as virtual event
10 November 2020
This year’s FutureBook Conference, run by the UK’s Bookseller, will run as a virtual event from 16–20 November. The program includes more than 40 sessions and 100 speakers, including the...
UK audiobook sales surge in lockdown
9 November 2020
In the UK, audiobook sales are expected to show 15.8% growth in volume by the end of the year according to Nielsen, reports the Bookseller. Nielsen projected UK audiobook sales...
LBF moved to June 2021; new director named
5 November 2020
In the UK, the London Book Fair (LBF) has announced next year’s event will take place from 29 June to 1 July, according to the Bookseller. The fair was originally scheduled...
Bookshop.org makes £65,000 in UK launch
4 November 2020
In the UK, online retailer Bookshop.org made sales of around £65,000 (A$119,000) in its first day of trade on 2 November, reports the Bookseller. Around 150 independent bookshops have signed...
French bookshops to re-enter lockdown
30 October 2020
French bookshops and libraries will close for at least 15 days from 30 October, as the country enters a second lockdown to curb the rise in Covid-19 cases, reports the...
‘Imperial Intimacies: A Tale of Two Islands’ wins Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize
28 October 2020
In the UK, Hazel V Carby has won the £25,000 (A$46,750) Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding for her book Imperial Intimacies: A Tale of Two Islands (Verso), reports the Bookseller....
‘Hello Friend We Missed You’ wins 2020 Not the Booker
27 October 2020
Welsh writer Richard Owain Roberts has won the Guardian’s 2020 Not the Booker Prize for his debut novel Hello Friend We Missed You (Parthian Books). Roberts’ novel won the public vote...
Bird’s ‘The Air Year’ wins Forward Poetry Prize
26 October 2020
In the UK, Caroline Bird’s poetry collection The Air Year (Carcanet) has won the £10,000 (A$18,320) Forward Prize for best poetry collection, reports the Bookseller. Judging panel chair Alexandra Harris described...
Two in three UK authors, illustrators report loss of income
22 October 2020
In the UK, a Society of Authors (SoA) survey of the financial impact of Covid-19 has found 65% of authors, illustrators and literary translators have reported a loss of income—up...
US$75k Cundill History Prize 2020 finalists announced
21 October 2020
The three finalists for the Cundill History Prize have been announced. Chosen from a shortlist of 10, the finalists are: Tacky’s Revolt: The story of an Atlantic slave war (Vincent Brown,...
