Recently given an OBE on the Queen’s annual honors list, Diana Athill has won the Costa Award for biography for SOMEWHERE TOWARDS THE END, a contemplation of the advantages and disadvantages of advanced age. The other category winners are: First NovelSadie Jones, The Outcast, scoops Novel Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture PoetryAdam Foulds, The Broken Word Children’sMichelle Magorian, Just Henry The overall book of the year winner will be selected from among the category honorees later this month. Guardian
International News
Hachette Buys Control of Salter's Company
In the first acquisition of the year, Hachette Livre has announced the purchase of a controlling interest in Nina Salter’s Editions des Deux Terres, founded in 2002. The line publishes a dozen books a year, focused on literature translated into French (by the likes of Kiran Desai, Julia Glass and Kazuo Ishiguro) and bestselling thrillers from Patricia Cornwell, Jeffery Deaver, Ruth Rendell and others. Hachette call is “an opportunity to strengthen its position in the crucial segment of quality fiction and thrillers.”
UK Sales Finish 2008 Down Slightly
According to Nielsen Bookscan, unit book sales in the UK for 2008 were down by just 0.4 percent, while revenue declined 1.6 percent to 1.773 billion pounds. Revenue was up 3.7 percent for the first half of the year, but declined 5 percent during the second half.
Canadian Bestsellers
BookNet Canada, which tracks point of sale data, his released their list of bestsellers for 2008 (through the week ending December 14th): Top 5 Overall A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, Eckhart Tolle (Penguin Group, trade paperback) $15.50 Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown and Company, trade paperback) $11.50 Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown and Company, hardcover) $23.99 Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown and Company, trade paperback) $21.99 New Moon, Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown and Company, trade paperback) $11.50 Top 5 Trade Paperback Fiction, Adult The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity, William P. Young (Windblown Media) $15.99 The […]
Bertram's Status–Whatever
Ever since the troubles at Woolworth’s became severe earlier this fall, we’ve been dubious about the short statements from Bertram’s managing director Michael Neil, whose twin pillars have been business is great and sale of the book wholesaler is imminent. Now Neil finally admits no sale is likely until next year, and calls himself unrealistic: “”Bertrams will be sold–probably not as quickly as we said it would be, but that’s because of Christmas and New Year. It’s unrealistic to think it would be sorted out this close to Christmas.” And business remains great, except not: “We had a great week […]
Bertelsmann Sells British Club
In a press release issued this morning in German, Bertelsmann announced the sale of their British book clubs, Book Club Associates (BCA), to Munich’s holding company Aurelius. The transfer is scheduled for January 1. BCA has approximately 700,000 members and sales are said to be in the “middle double-digit million euro range.” This will be the first British property in Aurelius’s portfolio.