We scoffed, but UK publisher John Blake is postponing publication of ON HER MAJESTY’S SERVICE until August 11 so that Salman Rushdie can read the book. Founder John Blake tells the Bookseller, “We are hoping when he reads it, and sees that it’s fair, he will withdraw his objections. When he reads the whole thing, I’m sure he’ll feel it’s a great book . . . he’ll probably have a chuckle.” We’ll take that bet.Bookseller
International News
Rushdie Takes the Bait; Threatens to Sue
File it under smart people who do dumb things. Instead of ignoring, or laughing off, the book ON HER MAJESTY’S SERVICE by Ron Evans, who guarded Rushdie when he was in hiding, the knighted author is threatening to sue–which doesn’t really invalidate the book’s assertions. Rushdie tells the Guardian, “He is portraying me as mean, nasty, tight-fisted, arrogant and extremely unpleasant. In my humble opinion I am none of those things.” He gives them paragraphs of quotes and denials, culminating in this: “This is not a free speech issue, this is libel – there is a difference between those two […]
Italian Publisher Overspends to Bring Bestseller to US
The IHT reports on Italian publisher Baldini Castoldi Dalai’s efforts to put out an English translation of Giorgio Faletti’s 2002 book I KILL, “an Italian thriller about a serial killer on a murder spree in Monaco [that] has been translated into two dozen languages and sold five million copies worldwide.” The IHT adds, “For Italian novels, even best sellers at home, the situation is particularly difficult. A few, like Umberto Eco’s Name of the Rose, have managed to break through. But Susanna Tamaro’s Follow Your Heart, the biggest selling Italian postwar novel, with more than 14 million copies sold, according to its […]
Richard and Judy Look for New Writers
The British book trade is worried that talk-show hosts Richard and Judy will draw a significantly smaller audience (and move fewer books) when they move this fall to UKTV. But at least they will have this new partnership with a newspaper: starting in October, their Daily Mail New Writers Book Club will feature one “new writer” every month, on air and in print. While production company Cactus TV head Amanda Ross told publisher she thought it was “scary to attempt to discover 12 new writing stars in a year,” they’ll do it anyway (clearly publishers don’t find it scary, since […]
Chinese Printers Are Censoring Books for Export
Two Australian publishers report incidents of censorship by Chinese printers of their books. A printer company in Guangdong in southern China informed the UNSW Press after their book was printed that “Chinese authorities have found sentences within the text which infringe their sovereignty and have refused to grant an export authorization.” (There was a reference to the “China-Tibet border” in a biography by Felicity Jack.) And Hardie Grant reports “a similar problem with a reference book being printed in Hong Kong for an international market after it was advised to remove a picture of the Dalai Lama.”SMH
Indigo Rises in First Quarter
Sales at dominant Canadian chain Indigo rose 3.1 percent in their first quarter to $191 million (CA), while their net loss was reduced by more than half, to $1.3 million. Same-store sales were up 3.3 percent at the Indigo and Chapters superstores, while the smaller format Coles stores were up 5.4 percent, and online sales rose 7.7 percent, to $21 million. Release