Update from the Society of Authors newsletter....

Tony Mitton has won the CLPE award for children’s poetry with Wayland (illustrator John Lawrence, David Fickling Books).

 

Neilson Bookscan

Data shows that the UK children’s publishing market is up by 10% this year with consumers spending £187.9m on children’s books in the first eight months of 2014. If the market stays more than 10% ahead of last year’s figures, it is projected to be worth £337m in 2014—the best year the children’s sector will have had since BookScan records began in 1998.

 

Philip Ardagh is now Booktrust’s writer in residence. Over the next six months he will write a blog post every Monday and will talk to his fans on the first Monday of every month. Twitter users are encouraged to ask him questions using the hashtag #AskArdagh.

Daniel Hahn’s new edition of the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature will be released as a £30 hardback in March 2015 - more than 30 years after the book first appeared in print. It will cover all the major developments in children’s publishing since 1983. He has introduced 900 new entries, bringing the total to 3,640 adding authors such as Philip Pullman, David Almond, Julia Donaldson, Jacqueline Wilson, Dick King Smith and Neil Gaiman as well as foreign-language writers. Entries now include YA fiction, crossover books, manga, fan fiction and non-print publishing.

 

Books for Cambodia
Viking Cruises sponsor an orphanage and school in Kampongcham Siam Reap, Cambodia. Member Suzy Jane Tanner visited the children, who are all learning English, and noticed that they had pitifully few books. Consequently she is appealing for books from friends and colleagues. Please sign any donations with a general message of encouragement.
Viking Cruises will arrange shipping to Cambodia, but call Suzy on 0207 207 2278 if you would like to deliver or send books to her address: 25 Consort Road, London, SE15 2PH. We will also collect copies at the CWIG AGM on 25 November.