Latest News from The Bookseller

Glass ceiling hinders women in the trade Corporate publishers need to offer female employees a flexible working environment and take advantage of decentralised office arrangements in order to encourage more female executives to take the step to the next tier of management, key figures in the trade have told The Bookseller. However, these employees need to put themselves forward in order to ameliorate the current situation, in which none of the big corporate publishers is run by a female chief executive.

Patterson most borrowed author but loan numbers fall James Patterson remains the most borrowed author in UK libraries for the eighth year running, according to data released today (13th February) by the Public Lending Right (PLR). Daisy Meadows holds firm in second place, while fellow children’s authors Julia Donaldson and Francesca Simon remain in third and fourth places. Nora Roberts, M C Beaton, Adam Blade and Jacqueline Wilson also stay in the top 10, joined by Roald Dahl and Lee Child, who replace David Baldacci and Mick Inkpen.

Booksellers rev up for Fifty Shades film release Competitions, radio adverts and point of sale in major retailers such as Tesco and Asda have been launched to coincide with today’s release (13th February) of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" film. The film, adapted from the first novel in E L James’ bestselling trilogy (Arrow), is expected to attract huge audiences across the world because it is released in time for Valentine’s Day.

Sales and profit dip at S&S Sales and profit both dropped year-on-year at Simon & Schuster's global operations in 2014. The publisher’s parent company CBS released its fourth quarter and end-of-year results yesterday (12th February) revealing a sales drop of 3.8% to $778m in the 12 months to the end of December 2014. Meanwhile operating profit dropped 5.6% to $101m.

Susan Lamb to leave Orion this week Susan Lamb, m.d. of Orion Fiction, is to leave the company at the end of this week. Jon Wood, m.d. of Gollancz and deputy group publisher, will assume Lamb’s publishing responsibilities, and will report to Orion Group publisher Malcolm Edwards. In a letter sent to authors and agents today (12th February), David Young, c.e.o. of Hachette-owned Orion, said: “After 23 years with the company that she helped to found, Susan has decided it is time to move on.

Highsmith rights to see new light Little, Brown is continuing to acquire and reissue Patricia Highsmith’s backlist. However, as Donna Coonan, editorial director at Virago Modern Classics (VMC), said: “the rights situation is a bit peculiar”.

Hampson and Yapp promoted at Vintage Vintage has promoted senior editors Poppy Hampson and Rowan Yapp. Hampson becomes editorial director of Chatto & Windus and Hogarth, reported to Clara Farmer.

Kindle Unlimited launches in Canada Amazon Kindle Unlimited has launched in Canada.  Continuing the roll-out of the e-book subscription service which launched in the US last summer, KU has now been established in Canada, with over 750,000 titles available to readers.  The launch means that Canadian consumers will now also have access to 15,000 French language titles among the 750,000 e-books to choose from for $9.99 a month, with a free 30 day trial available. Kindle Unlimited titles can be read on Kindle e-readers, Kindle Fire tables of through any Kindle branded reading apps.

Bertelsmann to 'massively expand in Brazil, China and India Bertelsmann is to “step up” its investments in the education and digital media sectors in Brazil, China and India. The company will also look to expand its existing activities in the areas of TV production, books, magazines and services in the three countries.

Bookshop tour for The Rosie Effect Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect (Penguin),will be taking to the road for a tour of UK bookshops.

Rakuten sees revenue increase 15% Online retailer Rakuten's revenue was up 15.4% in 2014, compared to the year before, despite “increasing uncertainty” in the world economy. In results released today (13th February), the Tokyo-based Rakuten Group said it achieved revenue of ¥598,565m (£3272m), up 15.4% year-on-year. Its operating income was ¥106,397m (£582m) up 17.9% year-on-year.

Igloo Books signs deal with London Taxi Northampton-based publisher Igloo Books is set to produce a series of books based on London taxis, after signing a licensing deal with The London Taxi Company.  Igloo, which signed the agreement through Bulldog Licensing, acquired the worldwide rights for a three-year period. It will publish children’s London Taxi books, including colouring books and novelty titles, from August 2015. It will then begin publishing adult titles in 2016.