Royalty Retreat
The Frankfurt Book Fair last week was a thanda affair, according to all accounts. While publishers and booksellers insist that the meltdown won’t affect book sales (in fact, book sales are reported to rise during economic slumps because people have less money to go out and get more house-bound, taking cold comfort between the covers of a book for a change). But all ye aspiring writers hoping for that big, fat advance, take heed. Publishers won’t be so eager anymore to bid huge sums as advance royalties.
Collins’ Spice Trade
Among the ten hottest book deals—all non-fiction, mostly memoirs—struck in Frankfurt is a cookbook by a US food blogger, Mallika Basu. Mallika, who has been writing a Quick Indian Cooking blog for some time now, has been bagged by Collins in the US to write a handbag-sized Indian cookbook and lifestyle guide. Miss Masala will be out in 2010 and has been bought by Collins for "an undisclosed sum."
Turbaned Tartan
Those who attended the Booker prize dinner in a London club were bemused at how Oscar Awardish the book prize has become, with the shortlisted authors and judges spending as much time and effort in choosing their TV-genic outfits for the evening as in worrying about the prize itself. The best-dressed person, according to several eyewitnesses, was not the bow-tied winner Aravind Adiga or shortlisted Linda Grant (The Clothes on their Backs) but one of the three judges, broadcaster/writer Hardeep Singh Kohli, in a pink turban and kilt.
