The Bookseller

Joel Rickett on the latest news from the publishing industry

· Gossip about management rifts at HarperCollins has fuelled many publishing parties over recent months. The rumours were even picked up by the Observer, which was excited by the idea that three senior women at the company - Victoria Barnsley, Amanda Ridout and Caroline Michel - were possibly not the best of friends.

This week HarperCollins attempted to put a lid on speculation by creating a new literary publishing division. It will be headed by current sales and marketing supremo John Bond, with author favourite Caroline Michel reporting to him. HarperCollins talked up plans to invest more in literary lists, particularly non-fiction and the Fourth Estate imprint. But after the dust settled, it was clear that this was essentially a reshuffle, leading to a fresh round of industry gossip about the personalities involved and their spheres of power. More real news happened across the Atlantic at HarperCollins US, where the Fourth Estate name is being abandoned. Charismatic Fourth Estate co-publisher Christopher Potter is said to be leaving the industry.

· Richard and Judy, the unlikely saviours of the publishing industry, have ended their six-month "How To Get Published" search for new writers. On their Channel 4 show this week, they gave the prize of a publishing deal to Christine Aziz, a "50-something homeopath from Bournemouth". Sponsor Pan Macmillan will pay her a handsome advance of £50,000 for her novel, provisionally titled The Olive Readers and set in a dystopian future. But Macmillan was so impressed with the standard of entries that it also offered the other four finalists £20,000 contracts. The publisher hopes to get all the novels out this autumn, calculating that endless TV plugs will help the debut authors win valuable bookshop space. The books featured on Richard & Judy's 2005 book club have already sold an astonishing 700,000 copies in the last seven weeks alone.

· WH Smith is playing tough with publishers, levying a charge for late or partial deliveries of books. It says that the 3% fine - deducted from the money it owes distributors - is standard practice in other retail sectors, and will help it to speed up. Publishers are fighting the move. They resent being charged even if orders are placed for out of stock titles, and argue that WH Smith has to sort out its own supply systems first. The row will probably be settled before lawyers' letters start to fly.

· Next week children will be able to redeem their £1 World Book Day vouchers in Tesco for the first time. The supermarket will also stock the special £1 World Book Day children's books, in a move that organisers hope will help the campaign reach more people than ever.

Not to be outdone, a record 1,700 bookshops have registered to take part on March 3; most will hold parties or author events. The day has built up enough momentum to become an essential part of the school and bookselling calendar. The trickier challenge is to raise awareness among adults. In an attempt to harness the power of word-of-mouth, the World Book day commmittee has produced "Spread the Word" postcards, which people can use to recommend books to friends. A staggering eight million of the cards have been printed, so expect to see them everywhere.

The micro chart
World fiction

1 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Phoenix £9.99)
2 Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (Harvill Press £12.99)
3 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (HarperCollins £7.99)
4 Strangers by Taichi Yamada (Faber £9.99)
5 Submission by Marthe Blau (Corgi £6.99)
6 Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho (HarperCollins £7.99)
7 The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (Vintage £7.99)
8 Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (Vintage £7.99)
9 Tyrant by V Massimo Manfredi (Macmillan £14.99)
10 Murder on the Leviathan by Boris Akunin (Phoenix £6.99)

· Joel Rickett is deputy editor of the Bookseller. Readers can subscribe to it at
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/26/publishing
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