David Walliams

JRR Tolkien falls off children’s most popular books list (The Guardian) Annual What Kids Are Reading report sees dystopian fantasy and larger-than-life comedies dominate, with John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars the most popular title in secondary schools and David Walliams’s Demon Dentist the favourite book of primary schoolchildren. *** Barnes & Noble Crawls […]

The post Morning Links: Barnes & Noble partnering with Author Solution. Bookish YouTube tutorials appeared first on TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics.

One day we're warned about a sharp decline in children's reading for pleasure. Four days later it's reported that a 9% rise in sales of children's books is the one bright light in a dismal year for publishing. Admittedly the reading for pleasure report comes from the US, but it mirrors years of jeremiads on this side of the Atlantic.

So what is going on? It's likely that, as a YA weepie, John Green's sales have hitched a lift on the reading habits of the twentysomethings who grew up with Harry Potter and so know how bewitching

HarperCollins UK has seen a 66% drop in profits for the year ending 30th June 2013, according to results filed with Companies House. Pre-tax profits at the publisher dropped from £8.3m in 2012 to £2.8m in 2013, a decline of 66%. Profit after tax stood at £1.07m, falling  80% from £5.3m. HarperCollins has attributed the decline in profits to costs incurred by a change in its distribution system.

More Blogs