The Roundup with PW

 

Can Amazon Change Books?: The Kindle changed the book business—and the next decade of Kindle is likely to be even more disruptive than the last.

The Top 10 Copyright Rulings Of 2017: Law 360 selects Penguin Random House et al vs. Colting, among others, as one of its top 10 copyright law cases of the year.

Clifford Irving Dies at 87: The prankster who wrote a phony autobiography of billionaire Howard Hughes and fooled a major publisher in 1971 has died.

Richard Avedon Biography Disputed: According to the photographer’s foundation, a newly released biography “is filled with countless inaccuracies” and should be pulled.

The Scrooges of the Trump Era: Could the three ghosts of Christmas even save them? Why ‘A Christmas Carol’ is especially poignant in 2017.

VIEW ALL »

Bologna Children's Book Fair News

 

Bologna – Shangai: a new important chapter in the activities of BolognaFiere around the world From 2018 Bolognafiere will be the co-organiser of the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF). The Book Fair, the fifth edition of which was held last November, is the only event on a global level with a similar profile to that of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, focused exclusively on children’s publishing and with a format designed primarily for professionals. From illustration to literature, from print to digital world, from copyright trading to the opportunities of cultural exchange: the China Children’s Book Fair 2018 will be held from 9 to 11 November 2018 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre. Find out more

 

 

BolognaRagazzi Award The BolognaRagazzi Award is open for submissions once again. With prestigious prizes and recognition for the best books in terms of graphic and editorial design, the award will feature 5 sections: along with the traditional Fiction, Non-Fiction and Opera Prima categories, a special prize will be assigned to books dealing with the themes of nutrition and the natural world (Books & Seeds) and with the themes of Art, Architecture & Design for this new special category. Exhibitors are kindly requested to send in their submissions by the 10th of January. Find out more

 

 

BOP - Best Children’s Publishers of the Year Six children’s publishers will be nominated and receive the BOP – Bologna Prize for Best Publisher of the Year, established by BolognaFiere in collaboration with AIE - the Italian Publishers’ Association. The aim of the Award is to acknowledge the creative and publishing excellence, the courage and intellectual quality of publishers’ work. The winners are chosen by the publishing houses exhibiting at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, based on the nominations they send in, along with those of Publishers Associations and book institutions throughout the world. All the Exhibitors participating in BCBF 2018 are invited to send in their choices: nominations must be made by 13rd January 2018 by filling in the prize application form available in the Exhibitors’ reserved area of our website. Find out more

 

 

Bologna Illustrators Exhibition At this time of the year, our Illustrators office overflows with submissions for the 2018 llustrators Exhibition. We are pleased and surprised of seeing such astounding works coming from all over the world. Next month the huge BCBF Opera Hall will be hosting all the illustrations that will be judged by Allyn Johnston (USA), William Grill (UK) Peggy Espinosa (Mexico), Anastasia Arkhipova (Russia) and Bernd Mölck-Tassel (Germany). The international jury will spend three days (8 – 10 January) to select the best artists for the new Exhibition and the 2018 Illustrators Annual. Read the judges profiles

 

 

 

www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com

 

Off the Shelf

15 Favorites Your Book Club Must Read This Winter December 21, 2017 By Off the Shelf Staff

 

It’s officially winter which means most of our activities will take place in the warmth of our homes, likely beneath layers and layers of sweaters and blankets. But to keep us from catching the winter blues, we’ll be spending most of our winter days doing what a book lover does best: reading books and talking about them. If you’ve yet to join a book club, winter is the perfect season to join one or start one. And the books on this list are the winter book club picks we’re recommending. From dysfunctional family dramas to inspiring cultural movements—these books + wine + good conversation will keep you warm this winter. READ MORE

 

Words with Douglas McLennan

WORDS

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Letters To His Children As Father Christmas      from The Guardian

 

The Best Of The Best Books Of The Year Lists For 2017      from Melville House

Latest from The Bookseller

Private equity firm Aurelius buys Connect Books Private equity firm Aurelius has bought wholesaler and distributor Connect Books from distribution company the Connect Group for £11.6m.

The Good Agency secures ACE grant worth half a million Nikesh Shukla and Julia Kingsford's new literary agency, The Good Agency, dedicated to championing under-represented voices in publishing, is receiving a grant for over half a million pounds from Arts Council England.

Amazon planning physical stores in Germany The announcement that Amazon is getting closer to opening physical stores in Germany has put a dampener on the Christmas spirit among many booksellers and retailers in general.

Waterstones Aberdeen to move to new premises Waterstones in Aberdeen is to move to a new premises in the Bon Accord shopping centre in spring 2018.

Roupenian's debut goes to S&S US in 'seven-figure deal' Scout Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster US, will publish the debut short story collection of Kristen Roupenian, the author of "Cat Person" in America.

Brontë-inspired short story collection to Borough The Borough Press is publishing a short story collection inspired by Wuthering Heights, to be edited by Kate Mosse.

Bodleian reveals Tolkien's 'Father Christmas' letters The Bodleian Libraries in Oxford are unveiling a series of previously unseen letters that J R R Tolkien wrote to his children “from Father Christmas” every winter for 23 years.

Publishers Lunch

Today's Meal

People, Etc.

Sean Murray has been promoted to executive director of sales for Sourcebooks, where has worked for 17 years.

Chin-Yee Lai will join Basic Books as creative director starting January 2. She has worked as a freelance art director at Norton for eleven years, and designed jackets for publishers including Penguin Random House, Grove Atlantic, FSG, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Jess Brallier will leave his position as vp and publisher of Abrams Plus business group at the end of the year.

Bloomsbury Publishing group finance director Wendy Pallot will leave the company after a 12-month notice period to join Euromoney Institutional Investor. A search is being conducted for her replacement.

Harassment Files
After an internal inquiry into allegations against reporter Glenn Thrush, the NYT decided that when he returns to work in late January, he will "be removed from the team covering the White House after he faced allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior."

A book deal was announced in September for Thrush and NYT correspondent Maggie Haberman to look at the first years of the Trump administration for Random House. The publisher said in an emailed statement it "is planning to move forward with the book, but it will not be with Glenn Thrush attached."

Authors
Farrar, Straus is looking to rally support for Patrice Nganang, Cameroonian author of the novel Mount Pleasant (2016), who teaches at SUNY Stony Brook. He was detained two weeks ago trying to board a flight and has been imprisoned, charged with having issued a death threat in a Facebook post and other minor charges. FSG president and publisher Jonathan Galassi said in part in a statement: "We at FSG are extremely concerned about Patrice Nganang's situation, and join PEN America, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others in calling for his immediate release and safe return to his family."

Also Noted
On Wednesday, Wiley celebrated the company's 210th anniversary with new ceo Brian Napack and seventh-generation family member Jesse C. Wiley ringing the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange. Wiley's share price has risen over 16 percent in the last month, close to an all-time high, perhaps fueled by the new tax law.

Apparently Lexis-Nexis's Law 360 has a list of the Top 10 Copyright Rulings of 2017, with the case brought by Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster and various author estates against Fredrik Colting and his KinderGuides coming in at No. 6. As District Judge Jed Rakoff memorably wrote in his opinion, "Fair use ... is not a jacket to be worn over an otherwise infringing outfit. One cannot add a bit of commentary to convert an unauthorized derivative work into a protectable publication."

Bookselling
Co-Lab Books, a new bookstore with a focus on architecture and design, opened in the Old Goucher neighborhood of Baltimore. Owners plan a grand opening for January.

Wednesdays with Bob - A unique portrait of Australia’s longest serving Labour prime minister

Wednesdays with Bob

Derek Rielly

1 December 2017, RRP $32.99, 

Macmillan Trade Paperback

 

 

A unique portrait of Australia’s longest serving Labour prime minister

On Wednesdays this past year the longest serving Labour prime minister – he won four elections between 1983 and 1991 and maintained a 75% approval rating with the Australian people – has welcomed writer Derek Rielly into his home for animated conversation and indecently fine cigars. On a sun-soaked balcony the irreverent young writer and the charismatic old master talk life, death, love, sex, religion, politics, sport, fatherhood, marriage and everything in between. The result is an extraordinary and unique portrait of a remarkable Australian eloquently, emotionally, and humorously reflecting on his past, present, and future as never before.

Interspersing these chats with Hawke are Rielly's interviews with Bob's contemporaries - former nemesis John Howard, Labor allies Gareth Evans and Kim Beazley, lover and wife Blanche D'Alpuget, good mates John Singleton and Col Cunningham, diplomat Richard Woolcott, economist Ross Garnaut and more - all painting Hawke's enigma from the outside and paying tribute to a man who strode the world stage with aplomb and won the hearts of millions in Australia and worldwide.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Derek Rielly is a journalist born in Perth and based in Sydney. He is the son of a pro wrestler father and diplomat mother and the co-founder of Stab magazine. Derek worked as a blackjack dealer and bartender before becoming a full-time writer. Wednesdays with Bob is his first book.

Bob Hawke is the 23rd prime minister of Australia. Born in Bordertown, SA, he joined the Labor Party in 1947 and became leader in 1983 after a decade as ACTU president. As Prime Minister 1983-91, Hawke won four elections, becoming the longest serving Labor PM in history. At 87, Bob is Australia's oldest living prime minister – and still its most popular.

Operation Playboy

Operation Playboy

Kathryn Bonella

1 December 2017, RRP $39.99,

Macmillan Trade Paperback

Sex. Drugs. Danger. Death. This is the adrenaline-pumping story of the world's most audacious drug runners and the police hunt, 'Operation Playboy', to track them down.

These drug-running playboys travel the globe: they ski in Europe, surf in Bali, hook up with celebrity models and live in five-star hotels. They are 24-7 party boys with brass balls, steely nerves and reckless ambitions. They pay for their high-risk, hedonistic lifestyle by trafficking cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana on international flights and through the world's biggest airports.

But to ride the wave you have to roll the dice. And in this game a bust means prison – or even a firing squad.

 Closely watching is a Brazilian cop determined to close the net. With a small team, he battles corrupt colleagues and bent judges to learn the secrets of the playboys and bring about their downfall.

Celebrated true-crime writer and journalist Kathryn Bonella has travelled the world to collect first-person testimony from an international network of mules and their bosses, as well as from the elite cops who are hot on their trail.

The result is a page-turning, white-knuckle thriller – the true story of a manhunt codenamed OPERATION PLAYBOY.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Since studying journalism at RMIT in Melbourne, Kathryn Bonella has worked as a journalist in television and print. She moved to London eighteen months after graduating and spent several years freelancing for 60 Minutes as well as numerous English and American television programs, magazines and newspapers. She returned to Australia in 2000 to work as a full-time producer for 60 Minutes. She moved to Bali in 2005 to research and write Schapelle Corby's autobiography, My Story, followed by Hotel Kerobokan and Snowing in Bali.

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump

 

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump

Bandy X. Lee

Macmillan, November 2017, RRP $49.99, Hardback

 

27 psychiatrists and mental health experts assess a president.

Since the start of Trump's presidential run, one question has permeated the observations of concerned citizens: What is wrong with him? Constrained by the APA's "Goldwater rule," which inhibits mental health professionals from diagnosing public figures they have not personally examined, many of those qualified to answer this question have shied away from discussing the issue at all.

In The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, mental health experts argue that, in Trump's case, their moral and civic "duty to warn" America supersedes professional neutrality. Philip Zimbardo and Rosemary Sword, for instance, explain Trump's impulsivity in terms of "unbridled and extreme present hedonism." Craig Malkin writes on pathological narcissism. Gail Sheehy, on a lack of trust that exceeds paranoia. Lance Dodes, on sociopathy. Robert Jay Lifton, on the "malignant normality" that can set in everyday life if psychiatrists do not speak up.

His madness is catching, too. From the trauma people have experienced under the Trump administration to the cult-like characteristics of his followers, he has created unprecedented mental health consequences across our nation and beyond. It's not all in our heads. It's in his. 

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div., is Assistant Clinical Professor in Law and Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. She earned her degrees at Yale, interned at Bellevue, was Chief Resident at Mass General, and was a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. She was also a Fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health. She's written more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, edited nine academic books, and is author of the textbook Violence.

 

THIS REALM OF NEW ZEALAND:

 

THIS REALM OF NEW ZEALAND:

THE SOVEREIGN, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL, THE CROWN

Alison Quentin-Baxter and Janet McLean

Auckland University Press
RRP $65.00
Paperback, 240 x 170 mm, 368 pages
ISBN: 9781869408756

Ground-breaking analysis of New Zealand’s constitution that explains the continuing role of the

Sovereign, the Governor-General and the Crown in our South Pacific democracy.

New Zealand is a democratic constitutional monarchy, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s sixteen realms. This Realm of New Zealand provides a comprehensive account of how the Queen, the Governor-General and the Crown interact with our democratically elected leaders under New Zealand’s unwritten constitution. The authors explain how these islands in the South Pacific were first brought within Queen Victoria’s dominions, the arrangements then made for their future government, and how those arrangements developed over time with the pressure for democracy and responsible government to become New Zealand’s current constitution. In an afterword, the authors examine some of the key issues to be considered should New Zealand become a republic.

About the authors

Dame Alison Quentin-Baxter is a distinguished public and
international lawyer. She lectured in constitutional history and
law at Victoria University of Wellington and from 1987–94 she was
the director of the New Zealand Law Commission. Dame Alison
has acted as a constitutional advisor in New Zealand and other
jurisdictions including Niue, Fiji, the Republic of the Marshall
Islands, and Saint Helena. She was appointed a Dame Companion
of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the law, and is a
Companion of the Queen’s Service Order.

Professor Janet McLean is a professor of law at the University of Auckland where she teaches constitutional and administrative law. She is the editor of Property and the Constitution (Hart, 1999) and author of Searching for the State in British Legal Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and has contributed numerous articles and chapters in leading books and journals.