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News: Journalist and writer David Walsh has been named the favourite by Ladbrokes to win the Autobiography / Biography category at this year’s British Sports Book Awards. His book Seven Deadly Sins tops what is widely recognised as the lead category at the Awards which take place next Tuesday 21 May at Lord’s Cricket Ground.

News: Legendary journalist, sports writer and commentator Christopher Martin-Jenkins is to be honoured at this year’s British Sports Book Awards where he will pick up the Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing award.

As a celebration of the very best in sports writing, the accolade from the British Sports Book Awards will be a fitting posthumous tribute to Christopher Martin-Jenkins (‘CMJ’) who was admired across both the world of sports journalism and by the cricket stars whom he wrote about.

News: Dark Eden by Chris Beckett (Corvus) has been announced as the 27th winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, The UK’s most prestigious prize for science fiction literature.

Set on Eden, a distant alien planet with no natural light source, the book follows the story of The Family. The 532 descendents of the planet’s original discoverer’s who crash-landed generations ago and are still waiting for Earth to find them again and take them home.

Speaking for the award, Chair of the Judges Andrew M. Butler said:

News: Lord Sebastian Coe and Sir Bradley Wiggins have both been shortlisted for the coveted 2013 British Sports Book Awards, one of the key events in the publishing and sporting calendar. Tipped as the Awards’ strongest ever shortlist, Coe and Wiggins will compete against a ‘who’s who’ from sport and literature at the Awards, which are a celebration of the very best in sports writing.

News: The six shortlisted books for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel of the year 2013 are:

Nod by Adrian Barnes (Bluemoose)

Dark Eden by Chris Beckett (Corvus)

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann)

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (Headline)

Intrusion by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)

The six shortlisted titles were selected from a record-breaking long list of 82 individual eligible submissions, put forward by 32 different publishing houses and imprints.

News: The new series of Bookaboo is celebrating its highest ever ratings. A new weekend breakfast slot on ITV and CITV, and a growing fanbase for the show, saw Bookaboo securing its highest ratings to date for the new series launched at the end of February. The third series achieved a peak share of viewing of 21% with children aged 4 to 15 across its run, with the episode on 2nd March 2013 achieving a peak audience of 208,000 viewers.

News: The brand new series of Bookaboo kicked off on Saturday 21st February with a simultaneous launch on ITV1 and the CITV Channel at 7.25am.

The top-rating CITV show is back by popular demand, and this time viewers will be tuning in to see Bookaboo on his first International Tour – in Canada! The new series launched with special Canadian guest star Jason Priestley, best known for his roles in US TV series Call me Fitz and Beverly Hills 90210. Jason joined Bookaboo to read Warduff and the Corncob Caper by Mat Head, published by Andersen Press.

News: The Day Parliament Burned Down by Caroline Shenton, published by OUP, won the Political Book of the Year, at the inaugural Paddy Power and Total Politics Political Book Awards. The glittering ceremony, hosted by author and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, and held at the BFI IMAX, was attended by a select audience of authors, publishers and politicians.

News: The Nudge website today launched The Nudge List, a free iPad app for consumers, designed to help book lovers uncover the best new books and book-based information, with specialist advertising opportunities for publishers.

Updated weekly with the ten best, most interesting and most entertaining stories from the world of books and film, The Nudge List will highlight major new releases and word-of-mouth success stories, as well as championing mid-list titles worthy of wider exposure.

News: New book web network facilitates publisher interaction with book-buying consumers. Publishers will have the unique opportunity to connect with genre specific book buyers through an innovative website network.

www.nudgemenow.com, developed by AMS Digital Publishing Ltd and built upon the ‘Bookswarm’ network of sites, offers publishers a combination of direct access to all types of book lovers, link backs to publisher websites for data collection, and opportunities to seed promotional content to a consumer-specific platform.