TODAY'S NEWS

Regionals End in L.A. on Positive Note
by Wendy Werris
The historic Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles was the setting for the annual Southern California Independent Booksellers Association trade show and Author’s Feast on October 18, the last such regional event of the year. Among the authors in attendance were Joseph Wambaugh, Jan Burke, Debra Ginsburg, Cheryl Crane, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jonathan Kirsch, Marisa Silver, Jerry Stahl and Robert Crais. Bookseller attendance was strong as well, reports SCIBA’s Executive Director Jennifer Bigelow. “Although the numbers aren’t in yet, I know that we had more booksellers than usual on the floor this year, including some new ones from San Diego.” Another newcomer were the owners of the NeverEnding Story Bookstore who made the five-hour drive from Las Vegas to attend the trade show. Read on »

XML: Code of the Future
by Liz Thomson
Mike Shatzkin of the IdeaLogical Company delivered some news at a Frankfurt seminar that will shock many publishers: the book now comes under that catch-all contractual category of subsidiary rights. It is part of what has been called "the Copernican change" - that is, intellectual property is now the sun, not the book. "The book is merely one orbiting opportunity," declared Shatzkin at a session entitled Start with XML.

For those who don't know, XML - standing for Extensible Markup Language - allows users to determine their own markup elements, its prime purpose being to allow systems to share structured data via the Internet. It is used both to encode documents and serialize information. ONIX, epub, XBITS and bookDROP are all examples of XML-based standards and specs. Read on »

Sports Publishing in Chapter 11
by Jim Milliot
Struggling Sports Publishing officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Central Illinois late last week. The publisher estimated assets of between $100,001 and $500,000 and liabilities of between $500,001 and $1 million. The company said it had between 100 to 199 creditors and reported that it did not believe there will be money available to pay unsecured creditors. Ingram Publisher Services will continue to accept returns from the company through January 23, but will stop shipping new titles October 24. Sports Publishing is said to be close to signing with a new distributor. Read on »

BMI Adds More Distribution; Nurnberg First Client
by Jim Milliot
BookMasters Inc., the book manufacturer and parent company of Atlas Books, has formed BookMasters Distribution Services and appointed former PGW head Rich Freese to lead it. Freese will also direct Atlas, BMI’s distributor for small presses. BMI’s other two units, digital services and manufacturing, will be headed by Matt Wurster and Ray Sevin, respectively. Read on »

Le Clézio Books Selling Briskly at AbeBooks
By Lynn Andriani
Many Americans may not have heard of recent Nobel Prize in Literature winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, a 68-year-old French novelist well-known in Europe. But because the majority of the author’s books are difficult to find or out of print, online retailer AbeBooks.com is enjoying a surge in interest. About 1,500 (mostly used) copies of Le Clézio books are currently on sale on the site, and “Le Clézio” has become the top search term on AbeBooks.com. “We have sold significant numbers of his books since the Nobel announcement,” said PR manager Richard Davies. Davies said demand is primarily coming from buyers in the U.S. Read on »

Blogs

EXTRA STORIES

Web Exclusive Reviews
This week's Web: just why oil is as bad as it seems, the man who knew what inquiring minds want to know, Marilyn French completes her history of women, two worthy new Holocaust entries, the history of food fraud and the strangling of Los Angeles's air supply. Plus: a slick, sexy photobook from Prince explores his famously impenetrable image, while the leftover polaroids of the "Jazz Baroness" achieve effortless intimacy with greats like Coltrane and Monk. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: James Patterson; Nicholas Katzenbach; Vince Flynn
Today on Good Morning America, James Patterson discussed his nonfiction thriller Against Medical Advice: One Family's Struggle with an Agonizing Medical Mystery (Little Brown, $26.99; Hachette Audio unabridged CD, $34.98), which pubs today. After the jump: documentary film maker Eugene Jarecki, former attorney general Nicholas Katzenbach and George Hamilton. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Toasting Carroll
On September 30 Amistad threw a publication party at LeCirque for Diahann Carroll to celebrate the release of her new book, The Legs Are the Last to Go: Aging, Acting Marrying & Other Things I Learned the Hard Way. Pictured here, at the event, (l. ro r.) are: Amistad v-p and editorial director Dawn Davis; HarperCollins president and publisher, Michael Morrison; Carroll and Barbara Walters. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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