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
UK
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 […]
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 […]
Summerscale Wins Johnson prize
Kate Summerscale’s The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher: Or The Murder At Road Hill House won the UK’s £30,000 Samuel Johnson prize for nonfiction. The chair of judges Rosie Boycott declared it a “page-turning yarn” and said “Summerscale has brilliantly merged scrupulous archival research with vivid storytelling that reads with the pace of a Victorian thriller. The book is a rare work of non-fiction that mimics the suspense genre and leaves one gripped until the final paragraph.” Walker is the US publisher for the book.BBC
UK Agents Compete for Estates
Savvy agents have long known the advantages of representing well-established literary estates and now following the diminution of PFD, the gloves are off in London. The Times says: ” No point wasting one’s time with new authors. They’re unpredictable, demanding. They require lunch. No, what any literary agent worth his salt needs in 2008 is a classic author with form: famous, prolific and deceased within the past 70 years. In recent months, the literary estate – the body of work belonging to a dead author – has suddenly and unexpectedly become big business.” As previously reported, Andrew Wylie took over […]
UK Market-Share Stats
Here are figures for the first 24 weeks of 2008, according to Nielsen BookScan Total Consumer Market: UK Market-Shate Publisher Sales (pounds) Share 20081 Hachette Livre UK £105,912,663 15.3%2 Random House £104,515,833 15.1% 3 Penguin £68,827,003 9.9%4 HarperCollins £56,790,193 8.2%5 Pan Macmillan £23,543,369 3.4%6 Bloomsbury £17,316,123 2.5%7 Pearson Education £13,023,242 1.9%8 OUP £12,770,894 1.8%9 John Wiley £11,900,951 1.7%10 Simon & Schuster £11,195,056 1.6%