Bibliofile

By A Hatchet Man

That old saw about there being no such thing as bad publicity is proving true. Ex-publisher David Davidar’s new book Ithaca is up for a world-wide auction and judging by the bids (which crossed the Rs 10 lakh figure), it far exceeds the advance for his two novels. The bidding is hotting up for an insider’s tale of the industry, a sure bestseller. At least four publishers had put in a bid, of which one opted out—and it had nothing to do with the sexual harassment scandal, Bibliofile was told. That leaves three serious contenders, including HarperCollins and Hachette, both of which employ at least four or five Davidar shagirds in senior positions.

Masterly Table Talk

Literary agent Andrew Wylie’s selling prowess is well-known. When he auctioned Kiran Desai’s four-page book proposal for her next novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, publishers had to put down $1 million on the table even before reading it. So when he closed a multi-national, multi-language deal with Random House for Salman Rushdie’s memoir last week, it was a record-breaker. The book, about Rushdie’s student years, his evolution as a writer, his relationships and years under the fatwa, will be Random’s most ambitious project.

Made For India

It’s a tribute to both Ram Guha’s lively, erudite lecture as well as Penguin’s marketing skills that the launch of Guha’s new book, Makers of Modern India, was a mega success. Never before in booklaunch-weary Delhi had 700 people queued up so eagerly to get a seat at the auditorium for Guha’s Penguin annual lecture. Even Vikram Seth couldn’t easily find a seat, and eventually occupied the chair that Guha vacated for him.