Booksellers New Zealand publishes a monthly magazine which is provided to booksellers and publishers as part of their membership but it is also available to others on a subscription basis and I for one subscribe to it as it is a great way of keeping in touch with everything that is going on in the New Zealand book trade. From memory the sub is $60 p.a.

In the latest issue (June) there is a most interesting editorial by Robyn Bargh of Huia Publishers talking about the accelerating world of bookselling and publishing with the onward rush of the digital age.

Other items that caught my eye include:

1. A whole page from Allen & Unwin, distributors of the Harry Potter books, reminding booksellers of their embargo obligations regarding Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, e.g.

*You are to keep your copies of the book secure in the sealed cartons in which they arrived until the On-Sale Date & Time (11.01am NZ TIme on July 21.

*You must not tell the public where your cartons of stock are stored.

*You must not allow your cartons of stock to be filmed or photgraphed prior to the On-sale Date & Time.

2.The full, illustrated list of Montana NZ Book Awards finalists with synopses.

3.An interesting report on last months London Book Fair by Kevin Chapman, MD/Publisher, Hachette Livre NZ.

4.The usual yapping from the book trade gossip Beverley Baskerville including an account of Tony Fisk , (CEO Harper Collins NZ), attending the launch of Tolkien's The Children of Hurin held in a function room high in Marble Arch.