TODAY'S NEWS

Hachette Book Publishing India Opens; Orbit Expands
By Lynn Andriani
Hachette Book Publishing India is now in business. The group is a subsidiary of Hachette Livre UK, based in New Delhi and led by managing director Thomas Abraham. Its first titles will be released nationwide in India today. They are The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow (Hodder) and Cold Steel by Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey (Little, Brown). Pricing will be in Indian rupees and all books will be in English.

Abraham said, “This is a dream start, and the team has done a great job. We’re very upbeat when we look at what’s to follow.”

Hachette India currently has a staff of seven with two more signed on to join by the end of the month, and the company plans to up staff numbers to between 20 and 25 by the end of the year. In the first phase of its development, the new venture will concentrate on sales and marketing for Hachette’s trade lists from around the world. Hachette Book Publishing India will launch its local list in early 2009.

The expansion at Hachette doesn't stop with its Indian outpost, though. Read on »

Books on the Nightstand
By Judith Rosen
After three years of taking their act on the road and adding presentations to book groups to their traditional presentations to frontline booksellers, longtime New England sales representatives Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness decided to go online. In April the pair, who between them split the Random House adult trade list, launched a book blog and podcasts at Booksonthenightstand.com.

Given the success of their bookstore presentations, which draw crowds of anywhere from 12 people up to ten times that number, Kingman sees the blog as “a vehicle for us to talk to the people we talk to more often.” Part of the appeal of the book talks, she says, is to give readers a peek behind the publishing curtain. At book group presentations, like one they gave at R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn., earlier this week, Kingman and Kindness hand out reading group guides as well as a one-page information sheet on the books they discuss. Read on »

Dalkey Press Novel Wins Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
By Lynn Andriani
Arts Council England today announced the winner of The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2008 in association with Champagne Taittinger: Belgian author Paul Verhaeghen for his novel Omega Minor, which Dalkey Archive published last November. Verhaeghen is the first author to have both written and translated the winning title and has therefore won the full £10,000 prize for his work translated from Dutch into English. Read on »

The PW Morning Report
By Lynn Andriani
Does the truth matter in memoir?, Turin Book Fair causes stir, Susan Cheever tells steamy tales, McCain says Huffington just wants to promote her book, what's behind Olson's exit? Read on »

Monday's Reviews Today: Adrian's Angel and Fatsis Inside the NFL
In Chris Adrian (Gob's Grief) new "sublime" short story collection, A Better Angel, a collection of characters--mostly children--"fugue around death and are plagued by remembrance of things past and possessed by violence." Displaying "heartbreaking imagination," Adrian shows how people "act out their grief on their own bodies and the bodies of others." Facing pain of a different sort, Stefan Fatsis puts his slight 5'8" self through the perils of the Denver Broncos' training camp in A Few Seconds of Panic. Fatsis, who's treated like any other rookie, offers "a glimpse of the true NFL" and "an incredibly fascinating read for football fans." Read on »

Blogs

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: More Simple Rules; Henry Winkler; Richard Zoglin
This morning on The Early Show, W. Bruce Cameron offered 8 Simple Rules for Marrying My Daughter: And Other Reasonable Advice from the Father of the Bride (Not That Anyone Is Paying Attention) (Fireside, $23). Tomorrow he’ll be on Fox & Friends Weekend. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Zach & ‘Ernie’
Last week Ernest Borgnine, author of ERNIE: The Autobiography (Citadel Press, August), visited the Kensington offices. Borgnine (r.) is pictured here with the founder of Kensington, Walter Zacharius. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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