We know a film adaptation can boost a book's sales, but these days even the film trailer can have an astonishing effect. Dymocks reports that Me Before You by JoJo Moyes has been No.1 bestseller in its bookshops for 10 weeks. Before the February release of the trailer for the film, weekly sales of the book were fewer than 100 copies, rising to almost 500 after the trailer appeared. With the release of a film-tie edition in May and the film's opening last week (to mixed reviews and protests that it is "a disability snuff movie"), the two editions have sold more than 15,000 in four-and-a-half months. "This is pretty incredible as in the same period last year this title sold less than what it is now selling in a week," says Alexandra Hammond, Dymocks' fiction buyer. The book's sequel, After You, also sold 500 copies last week. Hammond speculates that readers are drawn to the romance about a quadriplegic young man and his carer as a change from thrillers such as The Girl on the Train, which also had "a huge uplift" from the trailer for the film that opens in October. She notes trailers are now so sophisticated people rush to watch them on YouTube. But why read the book if you can wait for the film? "People like to be ahead of what's on trend and after watching the trailer it's hard not to want to know the story. And they have come to realise that the book is often better than the movie, so the trailer becomes a trailer for the book as well as the movie." Other adaptations on the way include The BFG by Roald Dahl (June), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling (November) and The Light Between Oceans by Australian author M.L. Stedman (September).

AWARDS FOR WAR HISTORY

Following discussion here of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards and the rise of war-themed books, there's news that Waverley Library, which gives the $20,000 Nib Award for Literature, has created a new annual Nib Military History Literary Prize. (The NSW Premier's History Prize also introduced an Australian Military History Prize in 2014.) Last year Waverley Library presented a one-off Anzac Centenary Literary Prize, supported by local RSL sub-branches, to Peter Rees for Bearing Witness, his biography of war correspondent Charles Bean. With a plethora of military history in this period of world war anniversaries, and continuing RSL support, the $3000 prize will reward a book that demonstrates excellence in research, literary merit, readability and value to the community. The guidelines also say the winner will be "a work which illustrates the service and sacrifice of Australian servicemen and women, families or the broader home front, during or in relation to any theatre(s) of war. Books may be written from a military, social or cultural perspective". (No anti-war diatribes, thanks.) Entries for both awards close on July 15. See waverley.nsw.gov.au.

A FESTIVAL WEEKEND AWAY

The St Albans Writers' Festival, started last year by Catherine du Peloux Menage, a part-time resident of that lovely village in the Hawkesbury River valley, has launched the September 16-18 program. Among 50 guests are Stan Grant, giving the opening address and talking with Trevor Jamieson, an actor in The Secret River; crime/thriller writers Gabrielle Lord, Candice Fox, Sulari Gentill, John M. Green and Meg Keneally; political writers Sarah Ferguson and Aaron Patrick; memoirists Tim Elliott, Fiona Wright, Richard Glover and Jane Caro; novelists David Dyer, Nick Earls and Rod Jones; popular fiction writers Judy Nunn, Karly Lane and Lisa Heidke. Other topics are artist biographies, travel writing, economics and publishing. Foodies will be happy: Simmone Logue is the festival caterer and will cook a dinner from her new book before a film screening of Women He's Undressed, about costume designer Orry-Kelly, as well as talking with TV cook-farmer Paul West and Cornersmith's pickler Alex Elliott-Howery. See stalbanswritersfestival.com.