Nicola Morgan self-publishes digital backlist (UK)

Young adult author Nicola Morgan has issued an e-book of her 2002 novel Mondays are Red after regaining rights from publisher Hodder. The book is on Amazon for Kindle as of 28 November and also will be made available for reading on all other devices. It has been issued under the name Crabbit Publishing

Scholastic UK targets younger market

Scholastic UK is building its younger fiction in order to replicate its strength in the Young Adult market. Publishing and commercial director Lisa Edwards said: "We have a big footprint in the teen market with series like The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) and authors such as Maggie Stiefvater. Now we want to do the same for younger readers. "We have been acquiring younger fiction books all summer to underpin this part of our list," she added

UK gets ball rolling on digital copyright exchange

UK business secretary Vince Cable has appointed former Ofcom deputy chairman Richard Hooper to lead a feasibility study on establishing a Digital Copyright Exchange. Cable recently agreed with Professor Ian Hargreaves' suggestion, in his Review Of Intellectual Property And Growth, that a body be created that lists copyrighted works

William Hill award won by Ronald Reng's biography of Robert Enke

Ronald Reng has won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2011 for A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke. Reng's biography of Robert Enke, the German national goalkeeper who suffered from depression and took his own life two years ago, was praised by the judging panel for its powerful and insightful nature as well as its sensitivity and sincerity. A Life Too Short tells of Enke's struggles against his own demons and brings into sharp relief the demands and fears faced by those who play top-level sport

2011 New Mexico Book Awards winners

The winners of the 2011 New Mexico Book Awards, sponsored by the New Mexico Book Co-op, were celebrated last week. The two top awards were both ties. The Best New Mexico Book was won by Out of This World by Loretta Hall and Turquoise by Joe and Dan Lowry. The Best Book was a tie between A Good, Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die by Gail Rubin and The World Comes to Albuquerque: The Dream Takes Flight edited by Tom McConnell, Dick Brown, Kim Vesely, and Paul Rhetts

Victorian Broadmoor revealed in free online book

A book documenting the bizarre lives of the Victorian inmates of Broadmoor has become an internet hit but why do these characters still fascinate?

Pippa Middleton in '£400,000' book deal

Pippa Middleton has signed a six-figure publishing deal to write a guide to party planning, which will be released in time for Christmas next year

BTB #262: Reading in the Key of E

Recorded live on Sunday, November 20, at 2011 Miami Book Fair International, a global look at books and reading in the digital age. Featured speakers are Ami Greko of Kobo, and Ana Maria Cabanellas, Argentine publisher and leading figure in the International Publishers Association

Saltire literary awards shortlists announced (Scotland)

The shortlists for the Saltire literary awards have been announced:

Scottish Book of the Year

* 'A summer of drowning' by John Burnside (Jonathan Cape)
* 'A Life in pictures' by Alistair Gray (Canongate)
* 'There but for the' by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton)
* 'Reading Shakespeare sonnets' (Faber and Faber)
* 'Fiere' by Jackie Kay (Picador)
* 'The blue book' by A L Kennedy (Jonathan Cape)
* 'An Cuilithionn 1939 — Somhairle MacGill-Eain' edited by Christopher Whyte (Association for Scottish Literary Studies)

Scottish First Book of the Year

* 'Island of wings' by Karin Altenberg (Quercus)
* 'This road is red' by Alison Irvine (Luath Press)
* 'Let not the waves of the sea' by Simon Stephenson (John Murray)
* 'The echo chamber' by Luke Williams (Hamish Hamilton)

Saltire Society and National Library of Scotland Scottish Research Book of the Year

* 'Noble power in Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution' by Keith M Brown (Edinburgh University Press)
* 'The history of the Scottish Parliament' by Keith Brown and Alan MacDonald (Edinburgh University Press)
* 'Scottish ethnicity and the making of New Zealand society, 1850-1930' by Tanya Bueltmann (Edinburgh University Press)
* 'To the ends of the Earth' by T M Devine (Penguin)
* 'George Mackay Brown: The wound and the gift' by Ron Ferguson (St Andrew Press)
* 'Beyond the last dragon' by James McGonigal (Sandstone Press)
* 'Domination and lordship: Scotland 1070-1230' by Richard Oram (Edinburgh University Press)

Scottish History Book of the Year

* 'Scottish ethnicity and the making of New Zealand society, 1850-1930' by Tanya Bueltmann (Edinburgh University Press)
* 'To the ends of the Earth' by T M Devine (Penguin)
* 'Elite women and polite society in 18th century Scotland' by Katharine Glover, (Boydell & Brewer Ltd)
* 'Andrew Melville and humanism in Renaissance Scotland 1545-1622' by Ernest R Holloway III (Brill)
* 'Men of spirit and enterprise' by Suzanne Rigg (John Donald)
* 'The inner life of empires' by Emma Rothschild (Princeton University Press)
* 'Reading the Scottish Enlightenment: Books and their readers in provincial Scotland, 1750-1820' by Mark Towsey (Brill)
* 'Enlightened evangelicalism' by Jonathan M Yeagher (Oxford University Press)

Book Country

Book Country - an online space for genre fiction writers and readers to share and read fiction, give feedback, and discover new books, has now added a suite of economically priced, easy-to-use self-publishing tools for its members

Publishers Australia CEO steps down

The CEO of Publishers Australia, Claudia Sagripanti, has left the association after a year in the role, to pursue work in the mobile media space. A replacement has not yet been announced

Ruth Stone dies aged 96

US poet Ruth Stone, whose career flourished in her 80s and 90s, has died in Vermont at the age of 96. Her 1959 debut, In an Iridescent Time, was followed by 1971's Topography and Other Poems, and 1986's American Milk. Her best-known work, including The Solution and Simplicity, came after she turned 70. In 2002, she won the National Book Award for Poetry, for In the Next Galaxy. She received acclaim for her insights into love, death and nature

Kerouac's 'lost' book published

American author Jack Kerouac's first ever novel, which was thought to be lost, has been published 40 years after his death. The American writer, who was hailed the king of the Beat generation and a hero to many young men, penned The Sea Is My Brother aged 20, based on his years as a merchant seaman

Apple starts publishing weekly iPhone and iPad apps charts in the UK

Apple has started publishing weekly charts for paid and free apps on iPhone and iPad in the UK, through a partnership with the Press Association

Anne McCaffrey, Author of ‘Dragonriders’ Fantasies, dies at 85

Anne McCaffrey, a science-fiction writer widely known as the Dragon Lady for her best-selling series of young-adult novels, "Dragonriders of Pern," died on Monday in County Wicklow, Ireland. She was 85

Free Julia Donaldson book for all P1s (Scotland)

During their first year at primary school, all children in Scotland will receive a free book with a message from Bookbug. This year's chosen book, What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson, won in the 0-7 age category of the 2011 Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books

Daunt to speak at IPG's 50th conference

Waterstone's m.d. James Daunt will be the keynote speaker at next year's Independent Publishers Guild annual conference, the organisation's 50th

Orbit signs WWII fantasy trilogy

Orbit has acquired a fantasy retelling of the events of the Second World War by American author Ian Tregillis

Amazon rumored to be inviting self-publishing authors to Kindle Prime lending program

According to an anonymous source, Amazon is inviting self-published authors to make their works available in Amazon’s Kindle Prime lending library, for checkout to owners of Kindle devices who subscribe to Kindle Prime. The invitations are going out to individual authors now, but Amazon will reportedly go public with the offer on December 1

Ediciones B and Planeta launch new E-book imprints

On November 15, Spanish publisher Ediciones B launched a new digital imprint, B de Books. The publisher says it will keep prices competitive, with e-books ranging from 1.99 to 9.99 Euros. Some 300 titles will be available to start and B de Books has signed agreements with several major digital distribution platforms, including Amazon, Libranda and Apple

Punk publishing - a clarion call from noir-est Yorkshire (UK)

Getting out tales of darkest Leeds isn't easy, but guest blogger Mick McCann is determined to carry on. He's outsold Booker shortlisters, mind

Wiley’s Peter Balis on the future of publishing

Wiley's Peter Balis on the future of publishing and why he's not on Twitter

American sci-fi author Anne McCaffrey dies in Ireland at age 85

American sci-fi and fantasy writer Anne McCaffrey has died at her home in Ireland, her publisher Random House announced

PA Bulletin 21st November 2011 (UK)

PA Bulletin 21st November 2011, from The Publishers Association, UK, is now available online #publisher #publishing

Arne Dahl winsBest Swedish Crime Novel 2011

Arne Dahl has won the award for Best Swedish Crime Novel 2011 with Viskelen [Chinese Whispers]. Viskelen is the first part in a new quartet of books about international crime and the controversial Europol unit formed to combat it. Translated by Tiina Nunnally

Gavin Pretor-Pinney wins Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books

Gavin Pretor-Pinney has won the £10,000 (US$15,805) Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books for The Wavewatcher's Companion, which the judges called "a book of old-fashioned charm and wit.... A brilliant almost poetic book that really opened our eyes. We were amazed to find that we now see waves everywhere we look, making the world around us a more absorbing and enchanting place, thanks to modern science."

Mystery Writers of America announces Martha Grimes as 2012 Grand Master Plus Ellery Queen and Raven Awards

Martha Grimes has been chosen as this year's Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America. MWA's Grand Master Award represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality. Ms. Grimes will be presented with her award at The Edgar Awards Banquet, which will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on Thursday, April 26, 2012. When told of being named Grand Master, Grimes said, "I was, for once, speechless. Thank you very much for making me a Grand Master."

The Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award 2011 winners

The winners of The Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award 2011 have been announced

2011 National Outdoor Book Awards winners

The winners of the 2011 National Outdoor Book Awards have been announced

2011 Tony Hillerman Prize winner

City of Saints, by Andrew Hunt, has been named the winner of the 2011 Tony Hillerman Prize for best first mystery novel. Hunt is a Utah native and a professor of history at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The announcement was made during last weekend’s Tony Hillerman Writers Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico

The 2011 National Book Award winners:

The winners of The 2011 National Book Award are:

* Fiction: Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones

* Non-fiction: Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

* Poetry: Nikky Finney, Head Off & Split

* Young People's Literature: Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

Costa Book Awards 2011 shortlists

The shortlists for the Costa Book Awards 2011 have been announced

Emma Donoghue's "Room" wins Evergreen Award (Canada)

Emma Donoghue's novel Room (HarperCollins Canada) has won the 2011 Evergreen Award, to be presented on February 3, 2012, in Toronto. The Evergreen Award is administered by the Ontario Library Association as part of the Forest of Reading program, designed to expose adult library users to Canadian fiction and non-fiction. Library patrons are invited to vote for their favourite of 10 nominated titles

75th Governor General's Literary Awards winners (Canada)

The winners of the 75th Governor Generals Literary Awards have been announced

Fourth Estate buys next Hilary Mantel novel

Hilary Mantel will turn her attention to the downfall of Anne Boleyn, after Fourth Estate bought the follow-up to her Man Booker prizewinning Wolf Hall. Publishing director Nicholas Pearson bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to Bring Up the Bodies from Bill Hamilton at AM Heath. The book will be published in May 2012 - The Bookseller

US Authors Guild attacks Amazon over Kindle Lending

The US Authors Guild has accused Amazon.com of "boldly breaching its contracts" with publishers by signing them up to its new Kindle Lending programme without permission. It claimed it is doing this to drive sales of its Kindle Fire, which is up against the Apple iPad and Barnes & Noble Nook in the US' increasingly fraught e-reader wars - The Bookseller

FutureBook awards shortlist announcement

The shortlist for the FutureBook awards has been announced

Peckham Literary Festival 2011 (UK)

Peckham Literary Festival 2011 - 21-27 November, 2011 - Peckham, UK

Guardian First Book Shortlist

Finalists have been named for the £10,000 (US$15,905) Guardian First Book award, which recognizes the best new author in any genre published in English during the past year. The shortlisted titles are:

* Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
* The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
* Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos
* The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed
* The Submission by Amy Waldman

Easons now has twenty-five EStores

The trial phase of Eason's new eStore feature is now finished and the company now has 25 in-store ebook and ereader sections. Several of the stores are in Northern Ireland and the rest in the Republic

Jane Austen 'died from arsenic poisoning'

Crime writer Lindsay Ashford bases claim on reading of author's letters and claims murder cannot be ruled out

Derbyshire Literature Festival 2012 (UK)

Derbyshire Literature Festival 2012 - 11-20 May, 2012 - Derbyshire, UK

Majo Ramírez wins Aura Estrada Prize

Majo Ramírez, a short story writer living in Mexico City, has won the second Aura Estrada Prize, given to a woman under 35 writing creative prose in Spanish who is a resident of the U.S. or Mexico

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association's 2012 Book Awards shortlist

The shortlist for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association's 2012 Book Awards, selected by PNBA bookseller members, consists of the following 12 titles:

* The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (Ecco)
* Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle by Thor Hanson (Basic Books)
* Habibi by Craig Thompson (Pantheon)
* The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch (Hawthorne Books)
* Putting Makeup on Dead People by Jen Violi (Hyperion)
* The Bled: Poems by Frances McCue (Factory Hollow Press)
* West of Here by Jonathan Evison (Algonquin)
* Reamde by Neal Stephenson (Morrow)
* Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber (Norton)
* Ed King by David Guterson (Knopf)
* Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings (Scribner)
* Shards by Ismet Prcic (Black Cat/Grove)

Essential JSP: Critical Insights into the World of Scholarly Publishing

Essential JSP: Critical Insights into the World of Scholarly Publishing, brings together the essential articles from the Journal of Scholarly Publishing with new introductions, additional bibliographies, statistics tables and analysis of the state of scholarly publishing today

2011 Wellcome Trust Book Prize winner

The third Wellcome Trust Book Prize has been awarded to Alice LaPlante for her debut novel "Turn of Mind", a tale of a family's secrets exposed by murder and a brilliant mind in terminal decline. It is the first work of fiction to win the Prize, triumphing ahead of Philip Roth's study of a polio epidemic in wartime Newark, "Nemesis", and Siddhartha Mukherjee's Pulitzer Prize-winning history of cancer, "The Emperor of All Maladies"

2011 Dylan Thomas Prize won by Lucy Caldwell

Lucy Caldwell has been announced as the winner of the 2011 University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize for young writers at a ceremony in Swansea, South Wales

Author sues reviewer over comments on Amazon

Chris McGrath, a self-published author, is suing a reviewer alongside Amazon and Richard Dawkins after unfavourable comments were posted about his book

Andy Mulligan wins 2011 Guardian children's fiction prize

Andy Mulligan wins 2011 Guardian children's fiction prize for "Return to Ribblestrop"

Springer to acquire Pharma Marketing and Publishing Services from Wolters Kluwer

Springer Science+Business Media has reached an agreement with Wolters Kluwer to acquire the Pharma Marketing and Publishing Services division for its Springer Healthcare unit. MPS is one of the five largest global providers of strategic marketing, publishing and business intelligence products and services to the pharmaceutical industry, as well as to medical libraries and academic and research institutions

Interview with Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin: the Life and the Legend

In this exclusive interview for Digital Book World, Rich Fahle of Astral Road Media interviews Susan Orlean, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of the just published Rin Tin Tin: the Life and the Legend, who discusses Twitter, interacting with readers, and the role of social media in creating an ambient intimacy between author and reader

Rakuten buys Kobo ebook business

Japan's biggest internet retailer is taking over the ebook firm Kobo. Rakuten already sells another digital reader in Japan: the Raboo, which is made by Panasonic. The $315m (£198m) acquisition is designed to help it become one of the biggest players in the ebook industry

The Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2011 winners

A rhyming picture book about pirate cats has seized the bounty for the funniest book for children aged six and under in this year's Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Cats Ahoy! is written by Peter Bently (who was also shortlisted in 2009 for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize), and illustrated by Jim Field. It is joined on the podium by The Brilliant World of Tom Gates, the winner of the seven to fourteen category, and the first in a series of books about Tom, an expert doodler and master of excuses, written and illustrated by Liz Pichon

Esi Edugyan wins the Giller Prize (Canada)

Esi Edugyan of Victoria has won the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel, Half-Blood Blues. The winner of the $50,000 award for the best English-language novel was named Tuesday evening at a gala in Toronto

Interview with Maureen Johnson, author of The Name of the Star

In this exclusive interview for Digital Book World, Rich Fahle of Astral Road Media interviews Maureen Johnson, bestselling author of the just published The Name of the Star, who discusses researching her novels, Twitter, and author branding.

Australian Google eBookstore opens

Google has opened the Australian Google eBookstore

Barnes & Noble debuts $249 Nook Tablet

Barnes & Noble will release the Nook Tablet, a new 7-inch multimedia reading and media device, priced at $249, on November 17. In addition, B&N is upgrading the NookColor and the Nook Simple Touch, and lowering their prices to $199 and $99, respectively

ALPSP endorses new British Library INCD Licensing Framework

ALPSP endorses the soon-to-be launched British Library INCD Service for the supply of copies of articles to non-commercial end users via not-for-profit libraries outside the UK. The INCD Service is underpinned by agreements with publishers, for which a framework licence agreement, to be entered into directly between individual publishers and the British Library, has been agreed with the British Library by the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) in consultation with the Publishers Association (PA)

2012 Children's Book Calendar, proceeds to Kids with Arthritis (UK)

Children's Book Calendar featuring the work of 12 different illustrators

Elpub 2012: 16th International Conference on Electronic Publishing

16th International Conference on Electronic Publishing: Social Shaping of Digital Publishing: Exploring the interplay between Culture and Technology - June 14-15, 2012 - Portugal

Impac Dublin Literary Award 2012 longlist

The longlist for the Impac Dublin Literary Award 2012 has been announced

PA Bulletin 9th November 2011 (UK)

PA Bulletin 9th November 2011, from The Publishers Association, UK, is now available online #publisher #publishing

The Green Carnation Prize Shortlist 2011

The Green Carnation Prize Shortlist 2011 has been announced:

* The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge – Patricia Duncker (Bloomsbury)
* The Proof of Love – Catherine Hall (Portobello)
* Red Dust Road – Jackie Kay (Picador)
* Remembrance of Things I Forgot – Bob Smith (Terrace Books)
* Ever Fallen in Love – Zoe Strachan (Sandstone Press)
* The Empty Family – Colm Toibin (Penguin Books)

Peter Stothard to chair the 2012 Man Booker Prize for Fiction

Sir Peter Stothard is announced as the chair of the judges for the 2012 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, the leading literary prize in the English language. He will lead a panel of five judges in choosing the best book of the year

The Galaxy National Book Awards 2011 winners

The Galaxy National Book Awards 2011 winners:

Audible.co.uk Audiobook of the year
My Dear I Wanted to Tell You Louisa Young (HCAudio)

Specsavers Popular Fiction Book of the Year
A Tiny Bit Marvellous Dawn French (Penguin)

Crime & Thriller of the Year
Before I Go To sleep S J Watson (Doubleday)

More4 popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year
How To Be a Woman Caitlin Moran (Ebury)

Galaxy New Writer of the Year
When God was a Rabbit Sarah Winman (Headline)

National Book tokens Children's Book of the Year
A Monster Calls Patrick Ness (Walker)

Food & Drink Book of the Year
The Good Cook Simon Hopkinson (BBC Books)

The Telegraph Biography of the Year
Charles Dickens Claire Tomalin (Viking)

International Author of the Year
A Visit From the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan (Corsair)

Waterstone's UK Author of the Year
The Stranger's Child Alan Hollinghurst (Picador)

WHSmith Paperback of the Year
Room Emma Donoghue (Picador)

Outstanding Achievement Award
Jackie Collins (Simon & Schuster)

The 2011 Best Illustrated Children's Books

The New York Times Book Review has announced its list of the 10 Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2011. Artwork from this year's winners will appear in the special Children's Book section of the Book Review's November 13 issue:

* Along a Long Road by Frank Viva (Little, Brown)
* A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade/Random House)
* Brother Sun, Sister Moon: Saint Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Creatures by Katherine Paterson, illustrated by Pamela Dalton (Chronicle)
* Grandpa Green by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)
* Ice by Arthur Geisert (Enchanted Lion Books)
* I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (Candlewick)
* Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown)
* Migrant by Maxine Trottier, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (Groundwood)
* A Nation's Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Dial/Penguin)
* A New Year's Reunion by Yu Li-Qiong, illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang (Candlewick)

Sci-fi/fantasy new frontier for publishers

Mainstream publishers can "no longer afford to ignore" science-fiction and fantasy projects, with genre tropes now perceived as an "advantage" in general fiction, as a flurry of six-figure deals and chart successes point to a rising demand for the genre - The Bookseller

Picture Book Month - November 2011

Picture Book Month is an international initiative to designate November as Picture Book Month, encouraging everyone to celebrate literacy with picture books. Founder, Dianne de Las Casas (author & storyteller) storyconnection.net, and Co-Founders, Katie Davis (author/illustrator) katiedavis.com, Elizabeth O. Dulemba (author/illustrator) www.dulemba.com, Tara Lazar (author) taralazar.wordpress.com, and Wendy Martin (author/illustrator) wendymartinillustration.com, are putting together their worldwide connections to make this happen

Princeton University Press to try e-book shorts

Princeton University Press is going to begin publishing e-book shorts on Amazon and other e-book sellers, testing the idea that an academic publisher can succeed where other e-book publishers have gone with Kindle Singles

ALPSP International Conference 2012 (UK)

ALPSP International Conference 2012 - 11-13 September 2012 - Birmingham, UK

Anthony Horowitz reopens the Sherlock Holmes casebook

Anthony Horowitz explains why he was so keen to resurrect Sherlock Holmes - 81 years after the death of his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Interview with Kathleen Schmidt, President of KMSPR

In this exclusive interview for Digital Book World, Rich Fahle of Astral Road Media interviews Kathleen Schmidt, president of KMSPR, a Ridgewood, NJ-based public relations firm specializing in books and authors, who discusses book marketing, writing careers and Twitter

Crisis talks over Wayne Rooney's HarperCollins book deal

Wayne Rooney's record £5million five-book deal with HarperCollins is the subject of much discussion at the publishers, who are considering a revamp of the troubled contract. The second autobiography in the series has already been postponed once following England's dismal 2010 World Cup. Plans to bring out the book either before or after Euro 2012 are also on the back burner, with Rooney suspended from the group stage of the tournament

School Library Association Information Book Award 2011 Winners

The winners of the School Library Association Information Book Award 2011 are:

Under 7s
* The Great Big Book of Families by Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith

7-12
* Animals at the Edge by Jonathan and Marilyn Baillie

12-16 and overall winner
* How To Make A Universe With 92 Ingredients by Adrian Dingle

Prix Goncourt won by biology teacher Alexis Jenni

A biology teacher has won France's top literary prize with a novel about the country's colonial wars. Alexis Jenni received the Prix Goncourt for his debut, L'Art Francais De La Guerre (The French Art of War). As is traditional, the 10 Euro (£8.60) prize was handed out at the Drouant restaurant in Paris. The prize virtually guarantees high book sales

The Wapping Project Bookshop (UK)

The Wapping Project Bookshop - an independent bookshop specialising in art, photography and new fiction, in a greenhouse

John Wiley and Sons sue 27 BitTorrent users

John Wiley and Sons have sued 27 BitTorrent users at a federal court in New York. The publisher claims that the defendants have shared copies of its "For Dummies" books without permission, and demands compensation. After several movie studios started filing lawsuits against BitTorrent users last year, Wiley is the first book publisher to take this kind of action

Cambridge University Press launches University Publishing Online

University Publishing Online provides aggregated content from the Mathematical Association of America (based in Washington D.C.), Liverpool University Press, Foundation Books (based in India), and Cambridge University Press. Access to content from Edinburgh University Press and Nottingham University Press will be available from early 2012

HarperCollins acquires Thomas Nelson

HarperCollins acquires Thomas Nelson

2011 Man Asian Literary Prize longlist

The longlist for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2011 has been announced:

* The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad
* The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam
* Rebirth by Jahnavi Barua
* The Sly Company of People Who Care by Rahul Bhattacharya
* The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi
* River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
* 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
* The Folded Earth by Anuradha Roy
* Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
* The Valley of Masks by Tarun J. Tejpal
* Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke
* The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto

Interview with Mark Allin, SVP Trade and Professional at Wiley

In this exclusive interview for Digital Book World, Rich Fahle of Astral Road Media interviews Mark Allin, Senior Vice President, Professional and Trade at John Wiley & Sons, who discusses global publishing, digital in markets outside the trade, and how to take brands into new kinds of media

National Non-Fiction Day 2011

National Non-Fiction Day is an annual celebration, initiated by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups in partnership with Scholastic Children’s Books. It aims to celebrate all that is brilliant about non fiction and show that it's not just fiction that can be read and enjoyed for pleasure - 3 November 2011

PA International Conference (UK)

The 2011 International Conference takes place on 15 December 2011 at Fishmongers' Hall, London, UK. This year's conference is titled The Changing Scene in International Markets for UK Publishers