A year in review: Top 10 most-read Bookseller stories of 2018

Lionel Shriver's controversial opinion piece on diversity, a publishing start-up offering aspiring writers a £24k salary and Waterstones' shock acquisition of Foyles all feature in the Top 10 most-read stories on The Bookseller website in 2018. But what's at number one?

10.

YouTuber Zoella kicks off our countdown; the news that Hodder & Stoughton had won the rights to publish her first non-fiction book at auction was our tenth most-read online story of the year. Cordially Invited, described as a "blueprint for making an event and a memory out of each day", went on to spend a week in the charts top spot when it was released later in the year.

9.
The ninth most-read story in 2018 was the sad news that beloved author Penny Vincenzi had died, aged 78. Her publisher, Headline, paid tribute, describing her as a "true trailblazer", a "natural story-teller" and "irreplaceable friend".

8.
News that broadcaster Simon Mayo's BBC Radio 2 book club was ending has made it onto the most-read list in eighth place. Listeners lamented the end of the popular show, said to be a result of scheduling changes to the station, but rejoiced when the following month Mayo revealed plans to launch his own book club, in the form of a fortnightly podcast. 

7.

In seventh place we have controversial figure Lionel Shriver, who branded Penguin Random House "drunk on virtue" back in June, after seeing a "by turns fascinating, comical and depressing" questionnaire the publisher had given authors to complete as part of its diversity drive. Shriver's opinion piece for the Spectator, entitled "When diversity means uniformity", prompted a backlash from the industry, including an open letter written by the 2016 cohort of WriteNow mentees.

6.
The news that banker Jonathan De Montfort was launching a publishing start-up to offer aspiring writers a £24k salary to write their novels hits sixth place in our most-read list. De Montfort set up the venture, offering aspiring novelists an alternative to the "traditional" routes to publication, after "experiencing the difficulties of writing and publishing a novel" himself. 

5.

The shock announcement that Waterstones had acquired the Foyles bookshops from the Foyles family for an undisclosed sum sent shockwaves through the industry—and was the fifth most-read story of the year on The Bookseller website.

4.

In fourth place is the reveal of the inaugural Zoe Ball Book Club line-up. The 10-strong selection featured six debuts and spanned everything from epic love stories and life-affirming memoirs to historical crime and chilling ghost stories.  

3.
Lagom's acquisition of Elle Wright's "hopeful and honest" memoir of baby loss takes the bronze medal in our most-read of 2018 list. Ask Me His Name was published in September; part of the book's sales will be donated to baby charity Tommy's.

2.

OceanofPDF hit the headlines in July—authors including Philip Pullman, Robin Stevens and Maz Evans reacted furiously to the news that the website was offering free illegal downloads of their books. Which leads us nicely to the number one spot...

1.
Thankfully, after seven months in operation, oceanofpdf.com was taken offline. The news was welcomed by the trade and became the most-read online story of The Bookseller in 2018.