Bloomsbury editor-in-chief Paul Baggaley has acquired an "extraordinarily prescient" debut novel by Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark.
Sales fell 11% year-on-year in second quarter, Nielsen estimates
Book sales fell 11% by volume year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020, estimates by Nielsen suggest, although there have been gains on 2019 since bookshops reopened.
Dead Ink and Influx launch collaborative imprint
Independent publishers Dead Ink and Influx are launching an imprint, called New Ruins, focused on books that "defy the conventions" of literary and genre fiction.
Publisher moves up release of book by Trump niece
Jul 06 2020 The publisher of a tell-all book written by President Donald Trump’s niece Mary is planning to rush the book out next Tuesday despite ongoing litigation aimed at bottling up the insider account of life in the Trump family. Simon & Schuster announced Monday that “due to high demand and extraordinary interest” the firm is moving up the book’s publication date by two weeks, to July 14 from July 28. Source: Politico More News Stories
Welbeck hires Keating as head of children’s marketing and PR
Welbeck has hired Lorraine Keating as head of children's marketing and PR.
Prime Minister pledges £1.5bn lifeline to keep UK’s arts sector afloat
Jul 06 2020 Britain’s beleaguered arts and heritage sectors have been promised £1.57bn (approx US$2bn) of help in a long-awaited rescue package described by the government as the biggest one-off investment in UK culture. After weeks of desperate warnings that the UK was facing an irreversible cultural catastrophe without targeted support, ministers announced a package that it said would protect the future of the country’s museums, galleries, theatres and music venues. The playwright James Graham, who has spoken passionately about the urgent need for investment, said the money appeared to be more than most people in the arts had dared...
Authors call for Nicholson’s reinstatement in honorary Booker Prize role
A number of high-profile writers, including Susan Hill, Francis Wheen, Trezza Azzopardi, Jane Harris, Allison Pearson, Justin Hill and Joolz Denby, have joined the signatories to an open letter to the Booker Prize Foundation calling on the body to apologise to former honorary vice-president Baroness Emma Nicholson and to reinstate her in her role.
Rethinking on (not) publishing class
In Bluemoose Books' first online deli a couple of weeks ago, writer Heidi James revealed some uncomfortable truths. She’d been told early on by a supervisor that "the novel was for the middle classes" and that her work was "too shouty" for the typical novel reader.
£1.57bn arts rescue package is ‘seismic step forward’, says Norbury
The Creative Industries Federation and Creative England has welcomed the government's new £1.57bn fund to help the arts as "the game changer we need".