Publishing Tidbits, or there’s more to life than James Frey

By Carmen 

Because there’s more to publishing than one powerful woman’s smackdown of her formerly pet author on live TV…

Remember the “secret summit” between UK agents and publishers? Well, it happened, and the Bookseller has a few choice details about the proceedings.

Hilary Spurling’s Whitbread win has bumped up the print run on her Matisse biography because of availability problems. Penguin pledges 10,000 copies in stores by early next month. Meanwhile, her next project might well be a biography of Anthony Powell, dance critic and author of DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME.

Michael Cairns, the President of Bowker (or what I like to call Planet ISBN) has resigned in a surprise move, effective the end of the month.

A new boss, Gerry Connolly of Blackwell’s, understands the whole e-book craze but still feels optimistic about the printed word.

Peter Straus is the Managing Director of literary agency Rogers, Coleridge and White after a year where he created bidding wars for the upcoming novel LONDONSTANI.

Helen Dunmore doesn’t want to hear any more nonsense about bookstores’ declining fortunes — they are doing just fine, thank you.

And to celebrate Mozart’s birthday, USA Today’s Deirdre Donohue picks the best of the recent crop of Amadeus-related books.