Picador has bought a debut novel by Royal Holloway creative writing MA graduate Emma Chapman, with editorial director Francesca Main making her first acquisition for the imprint.

Main bought UK and Commonwealth rights, including Australia and New Zealand, to How to Be a Good Wife from Jamie Coleman at Toby Eady Associates, with plans to publish in spring 2013.

The book focuses on long-married Marta and Hector, as Marta begins to see visions of a blonde girl, and she tries to remember life before Hector.

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Picador has won an eight-way auction for an American debut set primarily in 1950s America, snapping up the title and one other for a six-figure sum.

Editorial director Kate Harvey acquired Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann in a two-book deal from Caroline Wood at Felicity Bryan Associates. Little, Brown in the US acquired North American rights. The debut tells of the story of a wealthy east coast family and its secrets, with the tale told from five points of view across three decades.

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Jackie Kay has won the £30,000 Scottish Book of the Year award for her autobiography Red Dust Road (Picador).

The award, which is run by Creative Scotland, was presented to Kay by Dame Jenni Murray today (26th August) at an event at the Edinburgh Book Festival.

Kay was born in Edinburgh to a Scottish nurse and Nigerian student and she was adopted at birth by a white couple, who brought her up in Glasgow. The book is her account of the search to find her parents.

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A book dubbed “Watership Down meets True Grit” is among Sam Humphreys’ first acquisitions at Serpent’s Tail since she moved from Picador.

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William Hill has installed former Man Booker winner Alan Hollinghurst as the 5/1 favourite to clinch the prize for the second time for his novel The Stranger's Child (Picador).

The longlist was announced this afternoon and the bookmaker has moved quickly to lay out its odds. Julian Barnes is 6/1 second favourite for The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape).

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Simon & Schuster senior commissioning editor Francesca Main is leaving the publisher to become editorial director at Picador.

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Picador has scooped two nominations on the shortlist for the Dolman Travel book of the year.

Parisians by Graham Robb and Germania by Simon Winder are on the six-strong list for the £2,500 prize, the UK's only travel writing award.

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Man Booker-nominated Room (Picador) is the hot favourite to win the Orange Prize for Fiction, according to odds just released by bookmakers William Hill.

The winner of the 16th prize will be revealed next Wednesday (8th June) at the Southbank Centre in London.

Author Emma Donoghue is 2/1 to win the prize, with Aminatta Forna's second novel, The Memory of Love (Bloomsbury) sitting at 3/1.

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