TODAY'S NEWS

PW and BookBrunch Provide Team Coverage of London Book Fair 2009
The London Book Fair began its three-day run today, and PW and BookBrunch will be providing team coverage. In addition to PW Daily reports, we will be posting stories about deals, panels and breaking news on a dedicated London Book Fair newsfeed. We will also be twittering from the show; you can follow PW at twitter.com/PublishersWkly.

London Book Fair Opens, Attendees Optimistic
By Lynn Andriani
The 2009 London Book Fair opened this morning with a long line of attendees wrapped around Earls Court in unusually bright sunshine. It was an auspicious start to the fair, which was predicted by many to be quieter this year, but by anecdotal accounts at least appears to be busy.

The HarperCollins U.K. booth boasted large high-definition TV screens showing book trailers and other book-related content, which seemed to attract many fairgoers. However, the show floor’s biggest eye catchers were probably Hachette Book Group’s massive banners hanging above its stand, which takes up space in the middle of the show floor. Amid a crowded floor jammed with occasionally flashy displays, Earthscan Publications, a U.K. publisher of books on sustainability, said it tried to have a completely sustainable stand. Unfortunately, it was thwarted by the cost of both making the stand and transporting it. "Maybe next year," said Veruschka Selbach. Read on »

LBF Panel Compares U.S. and U.K. Consumer Book Buying Habits
By Lynn Andriani
Among the chief observations made at this morning’s panel on the “special relationship” between U.S. and British consumer book markets were that the British are at least three years behind Americans in adapting e-books, and that American readers are much more interested in romance while British readers skew more heavily toward literary fiction. “We’re more literary but less romantic,” said Steve Bohme, research director of BML, which conducts a Books & Consumers survey in the U.K. Kelly Gallagher, v-p of publisher services at Pub Track/Bowker, which compiles similar data in the U.S., explained American readers’ penchant for romance as “reading to get away from it all.” Read on »

At London Book Fair, E-books on the Outside, But Looking In
By Andrew Albanese
At the London Book Fair, the Digital Zone and Theatre, a 23-seat area on the edge of the show floor, drew overflowing crowds to hear presentations about e-books and digital publishing—an almost poetic embodiment of the e-book market itself: a few on the inside, but with big numbers milling about. Kicking off the day’s presentations, Michael Smith, Executive Director International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), briefed conference-goers on the growing market, and, most notably, the development of EPUB, the open source e-book publishing standard launched some 18 months ago. Read on »

Sen Provides Long View of India’s Relationship with Books
By Liz Thomson
At the London Book Fair’s first official event, Amartya Sen, academic, author and Nobel Laureate, spoke to delegates gathered for the Chairman's Breakfast about the value of browsing and wondered aloud to what extent Calcutta's low crime rate - including a very low homicide rate - might be attributable to India's interest in books and reading. "Does the love of books and culture have a role here? More research is needed to test the hypothesis." India is the focus country for this year’s fair. Read on »

Blogs

MORE STORIES

HC's Prince Charles Deal Tops Pre-London Sales
With the London Book Fair just underway a number of deals have been announced:

HarperCollins has signed a two book deal with Prince Charles. The first title, which HC acquired world rights to, is about stewardship and is called Harmony. Harper's Jonathan Burnham, along with HC's Lisa Sharkey, negotiated the deal with agent Robert Barnett. The Prince of Wales will be edited by Matt Harper in the U.S. and Myles Archibald in the U.K. and the book is slated for a 2010 publication. A children's picture book adaptation is also planned and Katherine Tegen, of HC Children's Books, will be overseeing publication planned for 2011. Speaking to the book, HC said it will be about the Prince of Wales's view "that in our relentless pursuit of economic growth and technological progress we have become dangerously disconnected from Nature." The British royal said, in a statement from HC, that he feels "true ‘sustainability’ depends fundamentally upon us shifting our perception and widening our focus, so that we understand, again, that we have a sacred duty of stewardship of the natural order of things." Read on »

Internet Archive Latest to Object to Google Settlement
The Internet Archive has sent a letter to Judge Dennis Chin, the judge overseeing the Google/Authors Guild, AAP case seeking permission to file a motion that would ask the court to alter the proposed settlement to give other companies that have scanned printed books the same copyright protection of orphan works that would be granted to Google in the settlement. In the letter, the Archive notes that it is one of a number of parties interesting in opposing the settlement, “because it effectively limits the liability for the identified uses of orphan works of one party alone, Google…all other persons, including Internet content providers such as the Archive, would not be able to use orphan works broadly without being exposed to claims of infringement.” Read on »

S&S, GoSpoken to Offer E-titles for Mobile Phones
Simon & Schuster is teaming up with GoSpoken.com, a U.K.-based provider of e-books and audiobooks for mobile phones, to offer a selection of S&S tiles for U.S. mobile phones. Initial titles include the Booker prize-winning The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, Angels & Demons by Dan Brown and Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Read on »

Web Exclusive Reviews
This week's Web features real life stories from citizen-soldiers in Iraq, cancer survivors, a pioneering environmental ethicist, the producer of Blade Runner, and ants. Also: speculative history from JFK experts, the Skinny Bitches gets their man, an exceptional debut novel about family, Alzheimers and the African-American male. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; Monica Seles; Reza Aslan
This morning, The Early Show met with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 23rd president of Liberia, the first elected female president on the African continent and author of This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President (Harper, 978-0061353475, $26.99). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Getting a Literary Buzz in the Lone Star State
Crime writer Ace Atkins (l.) enjoyed a post-signing drink at Kay’s Lounge in Houston with Murder By the Book’s McKenna Jordan and David Thompson. Atkins had just signed copies of his new historical crime novel, Devil’s Garden (Putnam), at MBTB where Jordan is the owner and Thompson (who is Jordan’s husband) works as publicity manager. Thompson also owns Busted Flush Press, which will reprint Atkins’s first novel, Crossroad Blues, in October.
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