Bookend
Bookbuyer
A temptation for any new publisher is to launch his imprint on the strength of one or two really good titles, and hope that these will attract similar books in the future. Talmy Franklin Ltd really got off the ground with an excellent novel by Luke Rinehart, The Dice Man. To date it is their most successful book, with about 6,000 copies sold in Britain of the hardback; but they are hoping to surpass this figure during the summer and autumn with a work of historical fiction entitled, unsurprisingly, Cry God for Harry. The American edition carries the author's original title Fortune Made His Sword, taken from Shakespeare's Henry V, but the more familiar quotation might be recognised by the discerning buyer over here, and help sell a few more copies. It is also believed that the word cry in a title has the same attraction for romantic old ladies in libraries as ' promiscuous ' has for commuters browsing at railway bookstalls. Booksellers, though, remain of all traders the most morally upright. Another of Talmy Franklin's new novels, The Terminator, was not accepted by many bookshops because it happens to be about an abortionist. And Granada Publishing, who are just about to bring out The Dice Man as a Panther, have had their four-page advertisement for it rejected by The Bookseller on the grounds that the centre spread consists of a board game including various loosely-drawn nymphs and a few vaguely suggestive instructions. Promotion seems to be as aleatory a business there days as successful authorship.
One business which can only profit from the publicity attending its opening is Snare Rib, the latest magazine for the liberated woman. The organisers of its inaugural party optimistically believed that they could welcome three separate sets of guests: the Press from 6-7pm, associates of the magazine from 7-8pm, and assorted friends from 8-9prn. Needless to say, the Press outlasted its welcome and at a late stage had to be refused drink by the offended organisers. Alan Brien arrived two hours late to find material for his diary column •in a Sunday newspaper. He was accosted by four youths from the Gay Liberation Front who requested him to join in an erotic dance with them. Red-faced, Mr Brien was heard to protest, "No, no, no, no, don't ask me. I'm only a journalist." Bookbuyer hopes Mr Brien's natural fluency will have returned to him when he comes to rehearse the occasion in print.
Urban Guerilla Warfare by Robert Moss, reviewed last week by Michael Howard, is published by Maurice Temple-Smith, not Chatto and Windus as stated.
Previous page
