Flagship Feature | The Bookseller

Bologna hopes to attract the full focus

Publication Date: Fri, 28/03/2008 - 11:18

A deal for Darcey Bussell and a raft of paranormal fiction is setting the pre-Bologna children’s rights market buzzing. The Bookseller provides a round-up of the pre-fair action.

A hotly contested auction for Sarwat Chadda’s The Devil’s Kiss has kick-started what publishers and agents are predicting will be a busy...

Alison Flood | Bologna Book Fair | Childrens | Flagship Feature | Global
Rowling with the punches

Publication Date: Thu, 20/03/2008 - 15:25

Next week the bitter legal battle between J K Rowling and a US publisher over the Harry Potter Lexicon will reach court—and the implications for publishers could be seismic. Tom Holman looks at the risks and rewards of unofficial tie-ins, from James Bond to the Olympics.

Unofficial tie-ins are big business. A glance at the shelves...

Flagship Feature | Global | legal | Tom Holman
A whole new genre

Publication Date: Thu, 13/03/2008 - 14:09

Celebrity fiction has never been so abundant. The Bookseller looks at the varying degrees of success and whether the public and the trade are tiring of the model—or if we are just at the start of the wave.

A collective groan must have passed through Ebury’s offices last December when Kerry Katona admitted on “Friday...

Alison Flood | Flagship Feature | Media
Leaf, surf or both?

Publication Date: Wed, 20/02/2008 - 12:26

The rise of free information on the internet is matched by a rising anxiety within book circles. As more material becomes available for free, will people still want, and be prepared to pay for, books?

Home reference is singled out as the most vulnerable category. Why buy a parenting book when...

digital | Flagship Feature | Liz Bury | Retail
There's more to libraries than lending

Publication Date: Mon, 11/02/2008 - 13:10

The headline figures for library visits and book issues for 2006–07, released last month by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA), are not encouraging. The overall pattern is one of declining numbers both in general usage and specifically in book-borrowing, with a drop nationally of 1.4% in visits, down to...

Benedicte Page | CIPFA | Flagship Feature | libraries | Public Finance & Accountancy
Borders plots empire

Publication Date: Thu, 31/01/2008 - 12:21

Luke who? Booksellers had to read up late last year on Luke Johnson, the Channel 4 chairman best known for his way with pizza restaurants, when he emerged as the surprise saviour of the seemingly doomed Borders UK chain.

Speaking to The Bookseller before the news of c.e.o. David Roche's shock exit from the business emerged, Johnson said...

Borders | Flagship Feature | Luke Johnson | Retail | Sarah Butler
Hachette steals the show

Publication Date: Thu, 24/01/2008 - 17:25

So it wasn't the Grinch that stole Christmas. It was Hachette Livre. Several of its companies had spectacular festive seasons, transforming a hitherto flat year for the UK's largest consumer publishing group.

Yet Tim Hely Hutchinson, c.e.o., is cautious in his outlook. "Nielsen [BookScan] figures don't take account of returns,...

Alison Flood | Bloomsbury | Egmont | Flagship Feature | Hachette | HarperCollins | Independent Alliance | Joel Rickett and Philip Stone | Liz Bury | Macmillan | OUP | Penguin | random house | Retail | Simon & Schuster
Review of 2007: Paperbacks ride high

Publication Date: Fri, 18/01/2008 - 16:53

Discard any preconceptions, cast aside what you have been told: the following pages offer the authoritative breakdown of the bestselling paperbacks published in 2007. The titles in The Bookseller’s third Hot 100 account for an eye-popping 9.6% of all unit sales in 2007.
With numerous 2007 high-flyers still selling in their...

Flagship Feature | Paperbacks | Philip Stone | publishers | Review of the year
Review of 2007: Sales and price step up

Publication Date: Thu, 10/01/2008 - 16:20

If 2007 could be summarised in a sentence, it would contain a trio of abbreviations: R&J, JK and TV. In a record-breaking year for the British book trade, which saw more than £1.8bn spent on books (6.2% up on 2006) through all retail channels, 105 titles took more than £1m each through the tills and 194 titles sold more than 100...

Charts | Flagship Feature | Philip Stone
New year, new lists to watch

Publication Date: Thu, 03/01/2008 - 16:34

Plenty of new imprints are on show this spring. The Bookseller talks to some of the debutants.

Myrmidon Books
Expect female gladiators
Myrmidon Books wants to bridge the gap between literary and commercial fiction with titles "as eclectic as possible", Ed Handyside,...

Flagship Feature | Hannah Davies and Victoria Arnstein | small publishers