The publishers of the Man Booker shortlist contribute £3,000 towards marketing for each title. No one has declined to pay. But there is a threat of revolt over the Crime Writers Association’s decision to charge for shortlistings for its Dagger Awards. The sums, including £500 for the main award, the Duncan Lawrie Dagger, are modest. But so, critics say, is the promotional effort. Maxim Jakubowski, of the Murder One bookshop, says that last year the only publicity apart from press releases was a small sticker.
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The marketing department at Headline has issues with the name of the thriller writer Colin Bateman. The surname it likes; but not the Christian name. So Colin is out. Now the name on his covers will be simply “Bateman”. “I’m quite attached to Colin, but I have to admit that it’s not a very ‘action’ name,” he says.
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Abebooks, the online used-book seller, is cashing in on the blockbuster Snakes on a Plane by advertising books bound in snakeskin. Among them is Oliver Wendell Holmes’s Elsie Venner, bound in python at $2,100 (£1,111).
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How do you promote a novel called The Fighter? A publicist at Penguin Canada decided to send his author into the ring. Craig Davidson, whose previous book was Rust and Bone, has challenged readers on his blog and received an eager response. The fight, against an unconfirmed opponent, will take place in Toronto in October, in a series of events aptly titled This Is Not a Reading. Tempted? Davidson is 31, 6ft 1in and weighs 15st 5lbs (97kg). Picador will publish The Fighter in Britain next spring.
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The novelist, publisher and blogger Susan Hill proposes a Book Bloggers’ Prize. She will put up £ 1,000 for the best novel of 2007 as voted by authors of book-related blogs, and possibly by their readers. She has yet to work out the details and invites suggestions.