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Sarah Weinman here, returning to Publishers Lunch for the next couple of weeks while the head chef is away. And since my own news-gathering skills may not pick up everything that merits inclusion, please send on tips, suggestions and comments until August 21 to marketplacetips@gmail.com. 

As the AP reports, David Fredosso’s The Case Against Barack Obama has nearly 300,000 copies in print; Jerome Corsi’s The Obama Nation almost 375,000 copies in print so far; and Dick Morris’s Fleeced, released in June, has 210,000 copies in print after eight printings.USAT

* Food & Wine magazine’s book line will be distributed by Time Inc. Home Entertainment. * Don’t expect Thomas Nelson to change their policy about reducing trade show expenses any time soon. After bowing out of BEA and the annual CBA show, the company’s Spanish division Grupo Nelson announced that it will pull out of the Spanish Christian Book Fairs known as Expolit (Miami) and Expo Cristiana (Mexico). Publisher Larry Downs says: “New market trends are forcing us to re-evaluate the expenditure of every marketing dollar; consequently, we have determined that, for Grupo Nelson, these trade shows provide very little […]

* China is launching an American Idol-style literary competition, called The Next – A Search for the New Face of Chinese Literature. A judging panel of authors and critics will select the shortlist of 36 works from open submissions, and “Chinese netizens will be invited to comment on and vote for the works under consideration, until a final winner is chosen from four finalists in April 2009.” The winner gets a publishing contract, an advance worth about $14,600, “payment of outstanding college fees, with a guarantee of national media exposure and major marketing,” and other prizes. Established by Changjiang Art […]

* So it has come to this. The owners of branded children’s characters are delighted to sell plates, napkins, decorations, favors and more for birthday parties, but don’t think you can have someone dressed up as that character attend the party. The WSJ reports: “In recent years, corporations that own the rights to some of the more popular characters, companies that include Marvel, Scholastic and HIT Entertainment, have sent cease-and-desist letters, threatened lawsuits and in some cases received settlements from companies that market unauthorized character impersonators. The threats rattle the costume industry.” At least Scholastic does provide costume rentals for […]

Vedran Smailovic, the actual musician whose story is featured briefly in Steven Galloway’s novel THE CELLIST OF SARAJEVO, is objecting: “”They put my picture, my face, on the front, on the cover with no permission. They don’t ask me — they use my name advertising their product. I don’t care about fiction, I care about reality.” Galloway, who sent Smailovic an autographed copy, interviewed over 25 people for the book and says to the CBC: “[I don’t know] for what I would be compensating. I mean, he performed a public act and I mentioned it?” One potential problem area according […]