Bookbuyer's Bookend
It is now no secret that Smith's Trade News, (Bookend, April 20) has been sold to IPC and that from May 4 it will be incorporated into one of their own magazines CTN (standing for Confectioner, Tobacconist and Newsagent). What none of us quite knows is the identity of the tantalisingly billed individual who is to, write "a new weekly 'Inside Publishing column, written by an author acknowledged as a leading authority" — promised in Trade News dated April 20. Many thought it had to be Fred Nolan, veteran publicity man turned verY successful author, and unquestionably one of the best-informed publishing pundits around. By Monday he had received several telephone calls asking him whether it was true, and he had to reply that it was news to him• °II Tuesday, April 23, he received a telephone call from CTN asking him whether he would write a new weekly 'Inside Publishing' column, since he was an author and already acknowledged as a leading authority. Nolan said he wouldn't, since he was a very successful author (his thriller, The Oshawa Project, has just aPpeared) and did not need cigarette moneY because he didn't smoke. So the trade is still wondering who is the man behind a new weekly inside pub.. . .
Meanwhile, let no one accuse the American book trade of being out of touch with popular fad. The magazine Publishers Weekly reports on a bookshop in Michigan which held a 50 per cent discount sale between the hours of one and two on a Monday lunchtime . • • fc/cri streakers only. An expectant crowd gathere _ just before one o'clock and after a couple of minutes the first streaker arrived, greeted by a round of applause. He walked quickly up to a large display table, picked up The Art of Wal,t Disney (published in Britain by New Englis" Library at £15, for those who have similar ideas) and, blushing, returned to the cas,!! register where he handed over the money. ",I, believe you'll find this to be the exact change', he said, and departed to a louder round 01 applause. His visit was followed by three coeducational streakers and a gentleman AO° went outside to remove his clothing after tie, learned that he would get the book he wants at half price. Meanwhile, back in respectable New York, Ballantine are publishing The Joy °I Streaking. . . This may not have much to do with literature but then neither, it appears, does th, e American public. Among the top ten non-f1c; tion titles in Publishers Weekly's bestseller lisl are You Can Profit From a Monetary Crisis (at number two), followed by How to be Your Best Friend (three), Management (four), TI71 Joy of Sex (six), Creative Divorce (eight) all., lastly, a book called How I Turned °retina' i Complaints Into Thousands of Dollars.
Previous page
