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Bonnier reaches out for inclusivity


Bonnier Books UK has launched a new recruitment policy and increased the salary for interns to £18,000 p/a (pro rata) in an atempt to be more inclusive. It has also signed an “important and timely” anthology of writing by black British women, edited by Slay in Your Lane duo Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené, and launched an affiliated black, Asian and minorit ethnic (BAME) internship scheme. From 1st November, Bonnier Books UK will no longer accept CVs: it will ask candidates to fill in anony- mous application forms instead. HR director Anna MacLaren-May said “anonymising job applications is helping companies to tackle uncon- scious bias”, and said of interns’ pay: “Simply put, we weren’t paying enough previously.” The firm’s BAME editorial


internship, run in collaboration with Creative Access, will tie into


Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedmann. Audio rights went to Audible. The project gives 20 black British women an open brief, “so readers can expect frank, funny and fearless contributions about the issues facing black women today from a range of pioneers”. It will also feature a contribution by the winner of a forthcoming open-submission competition, an introduction by Adegoke and Uviebinené, and a foreword by one of the contributors. The BAME editorial intern will


NATALIE JEROME SIGNED THE BLACK BRITISH WOMEN WRITING ANTHOLOGY FOR LAGOM


the Lagom imprint’s launch of Slay in Your Lane Presents: Loud Black Girls, The Anthology. Natalie Jerome, acquisitions director and publisher for Bonnier Books UK, acquired world, all-language rights from


start in November, working with the Slay in Your Lane... publishing team full-time, assisting at every stage, from commissioning to print. Jerome said: “This book will reach out to black women, who oſten lack representation in the media and in books, and will engage and entertain anyone interested in a world where cultural diversit is the norm.”


Reporting Katherine Cowdrey Fort knocks for Hachette in global deal


Hachette companies have inked a global deal to publish a series of books around the hugely successful video game Fortnite. Hachette UK, Hachette


Book Group (US), Hachette Illustré (France) and Hachette España reached the multi- year agreement with Fortnite developer Epic Games in a deal brokered by IMG. Hachette UK’s Alex Clarke, publishing director of Headline’s Wildfire imprint, led the negotiations. Fortnite, a cross-platform


CENGAGE C.E.O. MICHAEL HANSEN


Hansen: radical textbook subscription service could transform US market


TheBookseller.com


Cengage c.e.o. Michael Hansen says his firm’s new “Netflix for textbooks” subscription model is “a radical solution” for the US market which he “hopes and believes” others will emulate. Cengage Unlimited (CU) launched in August. Its “all-in-one” model enables students to access all course materials for a fee—currently $179 annually. Hansen said the old US university


business model was “advantageous for publishers, relatively convenient for faculty, OK for institutions, but horrible for students”, and said the new model would “dramatically cut costs” for the end users “while still


game launched in 2017 by North Carolina-based Epic, has more than 125 million players world- wide, with its 100-player “peer versus peer” fight to the death its most popular mode of play. Hachette’s programme launches with a range of statio- nery this autumn, with a collec- tion of handbooks, yearbooks and “much more” due in 2019. Clarke said: “We are delighted to be producing a global book publishing programme to tie in with this gaming phenomenon.”


delivering value for our sharehold- ers”. He added: “If you do think about Netflix, its library of videos doesn’t have everything, it’s a curation. CU is a selection as well. If the industry moves to this model... students would have to get one or two other subscriptions. Tat would mean massive savings for [US] students.” Te launch was not without its


hiccups. Professors David Knox and Caroline Schact objected to their work being put on CU, and sued Cengage. Te parties reached a settlement on 8th October, with Knox and Schact buying back one of their titles; the rest remain on CU.


Bodley gets its head together for Retreat The Bodley Head publisher Stuart Williams has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in Nat Segnit’s Retreat, pre-empt- ing within 24 hours of receiving the proposal. The agent was Will Francis at Janklow & Nesbit. Retreat, due in 2020, looks at a phenomenon that is “urgently contemporary and as old as civilisation itself”: the desire to escape from other people. The book will explore how extended periods of meditation alter the neurochemistry of the brain.


Igloo provides sanctuary for animal cruelty book Igloo Books is partnering with the RSPCA to publish a series of novelty board books, sticker and activity titles, illustrated by Sebastien Braun. The series, published through the Autumn imprint, will be based on the RSPCA sub-brand Buttercup Farm Friends, which aims to teach children the importance of ending cruelty to animals. Mike Heron, Igloo’s head of licensed publishing, negotiated the deal direct with the charity.


DJ plays the song for Faber Faber has signed GQ editor Dylan Jones’ “personal journey” into his favourite song, “Wichita Lineman” by Glen Campbell. In the book, Jones explores why this “seemingly inconsequential” country song became “so important in the narrative arc of the great American songbook”. World rights were acquired by Lee Brackstone from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown.


Mindful sleuths hit screen TV


option


Art of Death by Charlie Bird, the pseudonym of writ- ing duo Laurence


Anholt and Paddy Magrane, has been optioned for TV by World Productions, maker of “Line of Duty” and “Bodyguard”. The novel opens the West Country- set Mindful Detectives series, which stars “chalk-and-cheese” crime-fighting duo Vincent Caine and DI Shanti Joyce. It was sold to Constable by Madeleine Milburn of her epony- mous agency earlier this year.


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LATEST NEWS Bookshops campaign for same business rate relief as pubs


Bookshops are asking to be given the same business-rate relief as pubs, arguing they help to drive social cohesion in a similar way to drinking establishments.


Igloo overhaul puts business back on track


Igloo Books, the mass-market children’s books business owned by Bonnier Publishing, has undergone an overhaul thanks to its new chief executive officer, who has affirmed the division’s future profitability.


PLR to cover e-books and audiobooks


The Public Lending Right (PLR) will be extended to cover e-book audiobooks borrowed from libraries from 1st J


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