BOOK NEWS

The bookseller Magazine reports that many author's are not happy with Random House's new contract definition of out of print. It seems the publisher wants to hang onto rights indefinitely even when print copies are exhausted and only issue the book as an electronic print on demand. Author's are not happy as their rights could be held for years and years with no actual books out there but available as E-books should anyone want them.

Best-selling thriller writer, Gerald Seymour has moved to the literary agency Curtis Brown. The author will not comment on why he left his long term agent, PFD.

We could soon see the day of certificates on books as publishers draw up what they are calling, Publishers Age Guidance Certificates. Understandably author's and publishers are worried about this move as it could limit sales. After all we have seen some bizarre certificates on movies and if this carries over to books it could see the Harry Potter series being 15+ because of mild fantasy violence and anything with a sex scene being 18.

The total UK book marked for the week ending 19/07/08 was worth £30.1 million which is down 47% on the same week last year. However this is because last year we had a new Harry Potter which shifted an incredible 2.5 million copies in its first week. And the overall book sales are up 3.0% on the same time last year so the book industry is looking healthy.

Good news for Trainspotting fans - author, Irving Welsh has signed for a sequel with Jonathon Cape. The book entitled Skagboys will feature all of the Trainspotting characters and will follow their lives after the original ground breaking novel.

A report in this month's Writer's Forum states that books are starting to follow DVD's in that many new books now contain extras. These can be a list of the author's favourite books, essays that put the story in context and preview chapters from the author's next book.

The Creme de la crime website is holding an interesting crime short story competition that aspiring writers should check out. Prizes are seeing the winning story in print in an high profile anthology.