Germany’s Spiegel reports that Deutsche Telecom is developing its own e-reading device to compete with the likes of Kindle and the Sony Reader (neither is currently sold in Germany). One engineer says their device is likely to be larger and have a flexible display. France Telecom’s Orange also has an electronic reading device in development.Story translated/summarized in Bookseller
International News
New Random UK Imprint
Random House UK’s CHA division will start Windmill Books, a literary paperback line drawing from the Heinemann and Hutchinson hardcover programs. Like the Arrow paperback line, the new imprint will be under publishing director Kate Elton, and aims to issue about 20 titles a year, comprising both nonfiction and fiction. Authors already published through CHA’s Vintage and Arrow will stay with their existing imprint. But CHA managing director Susan Sandon calls the new line “a key plank in CHA’s growth strategy.”B2B
Rushdie Threat Buys a Week
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
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 […]