London Day I: Golden Goals, Pop-Star's Abstinence Are Among Early Bits

This article originally appeared in the March 13 issue of the PW Daily.

by Steven Zeitchik, with reporting by John Baker and Charlotte Abbott , PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 3/14/2005

A sports icon from the '60's, a rock icon from the '80's and worry about locations future were all currents that run under the first day of this year's London Book Fair.

The prototypical 'big book' was little in doubt--it was a memoir by Pele, and it saw a level of choreography worthy of the famed Brazilian offense. An autobio that S&S UK had in fact bought world rights to last week, it was splashed on the front page of both Publishing News and The Bookseller, perfectly coordinated with the giant poster of the star at the publisher's booth. At press time, though, we'd heard of no U.S. buy from S&S U.K. The soccer celebrity's first memoir was published in the U.S. by Doubleday in the late 1970's.

Another international legend was also still looking for an American home as of this writing. In a fittingly melodramatic auction last month, Smiths frontman and cult hero Morrissey sold his memoir for a reported two million pounds to Penguin U.K. (after reportedly rejecting a deal with Faber because the seven-figure price was too low). At the fair, the recently assembled Inkwell Management was handling foreign sales, with no deal immediately in place. Morrissey is of course the mopey recluse who rarely talks to the media. In the post-Chronicles age (speaking of media shyness), he's expected to fetch a solid price even in the U.S.

In general, the rights floor had the overflowing feel that's made this show a must-visit for rights agents over the last few years; hundreds slapped down hot lists and spilled across the balcony.

Yet for all the big money and names, a sense of the bittersweet pervaded. A little like BEA in Chicago last year, this is London's last for, at least a long while, at the cozy Olympia Center in West Kensington. Next year it moves to the glossy ExCel Center at the less accessible Docklands. The change, predictably, was a source of grousing among some attendees who had been by the new spot, which may partly explain the show making a big push for the new venue with adverts all around the hall. (The London Book Fair is owned by Reed Exhibitions, part of the same company that owns PW.)

Conversation at the Rights Center, when it wasn't about, well, rights, seemed to center on a number of B's—namely, new HC publisher Jonathan Burnham and the recently-dissolved Burnes & Clegg. The former will likely be a celebrity attendee at HarperCollins' annual fete this evening, but during the day his switch from Miramax was evaluated with relish by a number of agents on the floor.

As for the latter, the dissolution of the agency meant it wasn't represented in London despite the presence of a table with its name on it at the Rights Center. This as further word came today that Bill Clegg's clients won't be taken over by Sarah Burnes, mainly because of contractual restrictions.

Nor was it the only unfortunate news from the fair. News also spread quickly of the passing of German publisher Karl Blessing, who died Saturday of kidney failure at the age of 63. "He was one of the great lights," says Maria Campbell, who scouted for Blessing when he was running Droemer, and later at his Bertelsmann imprint, Karl Blessing Verlag. The German publisher of Crichton, Gorbachev, A. Scott Berg and Jhumpa Lahiri, Blessing had been restricted to a wheelchair in the last several years of his life. Of course that didn't stop him from being voted German Publisher of the Year by the German Book Association in 2004. He was remembered around the floor for his elegance, charm and love of American writers.

Some other tidbits:

A meeting with Google Print was SRO, filled with international publishers asking many of the usual questions. Of note: The company's Tom Turvey described upcoming launches of localized country sites and said they could be a way for publishers to use Google Print to capture more local readers. He also emphasized the service's ability to allow pubs to sell direct. Perhaps sensing the presence of small publishers—or the zeitgeist—he noted that as a longtime publishing veteran, "I've never seen a platform that enables direct sales like Google Print."

On the publishing-as-global-village theme, one chance LBF encounter had noted mystery publisher Otto Penzler and former New Millennium publisher Michael Viner running into each other at a third party's booth. Penzler, of course, won a $2.8 million breach-of-contract suit from Viner in 2003, and the two publishing veterans spoke no words to each other—but their eyes did plenty of talking.

In other deal news, Morgan Entrekin was out in force talking up his new Myths series, which has celebrated authors offering their own versions on myths that go from Samson to the Minotaur. The line was first announced at LBF a few years ago but debuts this fall.

Joe Veltre sold Stephanie Klein's naughty-divorcee memoir Straight Up & Dirty to Ebury in the U.K. and looking for more transatlantic action. The book had previously sold to Regan and is riding a caravan of considerable buzz ahead of its expected release next fall. Also to Regan: Barbara Zitwer has sold Chasing the Dragon, which has Times of London Beijing bureau chief Oliver August writing on Lai Changxing, a peasant who became one of the richest men in China before he fled the country on tax-evasion charges. Another hot title is the R. Crumb memoir from U.K. publisher MQ which plans to distribute the book in the U.S. but is selling rights everywhere else.

And Marly Rusoff has some heady offerings, including a Maine baker's diet book that's already sold world English to Warner and is expected to draw interest from Sweden, Germany, Israel and others. It's no ordinary diet book: the title combines math and cooking and, speaking of the zeitgeist, hinges on—what else?—Da Vinci's Golden Ratio.