At Usborne, it's "Malory Towers on ice"; at Faber, it's magic toys called Hoozles; at Egmont, it's a father-and-son spy team with lashings of football. Publishers have placed their bets on the series they hope will make it big next year, and are now watching nervously to see what will take off—and what won't.

Series and...

Nick Davies at Canongate won an auction for Guardian journalist Oliver Burkeman's The Backwards Law on Wednesday afternoon (30th September).

The auction, which was rumoured to have reached six figures, although agent Claire Paterson at Janklow and Nesbit would not comment on this, ended at 5pm yesterday.

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Hip hop star Akala has joined the Reading Agency’s drive to encourage teenagers to read, as the reading charity stresses the need for a “dramatic change” in the reading and library landscape if teenagers are not to be turned off reading for life.

Yesterday (29th September) the Reading Agency launched its autumn teenage...

Two new London independent bookshops opening this autumn are predicting a "golden age" for indies. According to the Booksellers Association (BA), the new shops join more than 60 new indies to open in the past 15 months. BA chief executive Tim Godfray, just back from the Independent Booksellers Forum, said he had been "struck by...