I was cheered up on the way to work this morning to hear about about a BBC6 competition to establish the worst pop song lyrics of all time. The one that stands out and deserves everything it gets is from a song by ABC with the same title as this posting. Here is the last verse for your Friday enjoyment.

More Sacrifices than an Aztec priest,
Standing here straining at that leash,
All fall down,
Can't complain, mustn't grumble,
Help yourself to another piece of apple crumble

There's a bit of momentum in the UK book world at the moment in support of independent publishing. Both Waterstone's and Borders have announced schemes to support independents such as free window displays, front-of-store promotions at no cost etc. There are, however, a couple of problems.

First, what is an independent publisher? Is it defined by membership of the Independent Publishers Guild? If so, what would happen if, for instance, Random House were to join the IPG? Is the word 'independent' a euphemism for 'small'? If so, is Faber, as an example, small enough? If it means 'privately owned and funded' can Macmillan benefit from these excellent opportunities? If it means 'free to publish non-mainstream books' then Picador should be a candidate.

Second, assuming that there is a finite amount of money and prime retail space then a benefit to one sector of the industry must be a disbenefit to the rest. In other words a publisher such as Hachette Livres is being forced to subsidise some of its competitors by one of its distributors. Is that a sustainable or acceptable situation? I hope UK booksellers either recognise that Macmillan is an independent publisher and warrants the same generous treatment as the officially-designated independent publishers or allow us to negotiate lower discounts in view of our having less-favoured treatment.