Publishing News has a regular slot for strange book titles. Yesterday's one seemed appropriate - How You Can Bowl Better Using Self-hypnosis. I wish, I wish that the England cricket management had issued our team with copies. For a concentrated precis of the humiliation so far treat yourself to this scorecard.

Extraordinary scenes at Waterstone's Piccadilly last night where fans had queued to buy signed copies of Dirty Blonde by the previously-blogged Courtney Love. In spite of her reputation (or maybe because of it) she was utterly professional and took real trouble to talk to fans and to answer questions intelligently and honestly. She has undertaken a huge amount of promotion this week and this BBC link only shows a fraction of the media exposure. What is more, the book is a treasure.

Bondomania is rife since the release of Casino Royale. Who knows what the film's box-office takings. At a much lower level I was delighted to see an advance copy of our Casino Royale specially adapted (and with audio CDs) for learners of English. It's part of our Macmillan Readers which has annual sales of millions of copies and which has helped enhance literacy and English speaking throughout the world. I remember reading Casino Royale (illegally) under the bedclothes at boarding school. It's great to know the tradition continues.

The controversy which we discussed last week was subdued by Rupert Murdoch's intervention although I'm not sure there was any resolution of the principles being debated. Just in case you haven't seen it here is the cover of the book. The typography says it all.

I am adding a new blog to the blogroll. It is by Martyn Daniels and is hosted by the Booksellers Association. I am sure it will be interesting. In yesterday's entry he discusses the fairness or otherwise of royalties payable on digital delivery of books. It is at present a purely hypothetical issue but we are establishing the ground rules for the future which makes it important.

'If artists hold back on digital rights and publishers don’t equitably share the potential increased margin they potentially hold back the creation of the market which after all can’t be built in a vacuum.'

The problem is that no 'artist' or publisher has ever believed that he or she is receiving a fair share. I remember a high-level meeting about this issue where we (publishers) presented what we considered to be a very generous offer including a first principle that whatever happened in the future 'the author should not be disadvantaged financially'. This principle was immediately rejected as being unfair to authors. This argument will run and run.

This little boy was snapped on the Castillo stand at the recent Mexican Children's Book Fair. That's what this business is all about

The activities of a number of key people in the UK book trade have raised the profile of public library management issues in the UK.

The debate is complicated with conflicting statistics being bandied about, insults flying, platitudes being uttered and tempers being frayed. I honestly believe all the parties want to ensure the existence of a healthy library service but more effort is being expended on analysis, argument and preening than on action. While this is going on there was an announcement yesterday about library closures in Devon. Interestingly the search page had prior news stories - 'Library visitor numbers increase','Library improvements considered' etc. Ha! In response, the authority has closed five libraries. And here's an extract about Hampshire libraries:

I've been having technical problems inserting graphic attachments but have just managed (I hope) to crack it with the help of one of our IT stars in Oxford. So here belatedly is last month's visitor graph.

Later today I have a meeting in London's finest publishing headquarters, the Pearson building in the Strand.

It overlooks the Thames and has stunning views of the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, St Paul's Cathedral and much else. I couldn't find a picture of our headquarters in Basingstoke but I can show you a photo of a typical view of the Houndmills estate.

And here's the view from our Kings Cross office - courtesy of Justin Goring and his photo collection.

When Macmillan staff ask why we don't have offices in 'posh' locations the answer is clear. It is our customers who ultimately pay the rent, not us, and we don't think our customers want us to work in luxury. They'd rather have better books at better prices. Which may explain why there seems to be a strong correlation between publishing independence and ownership of freehold property. It doesn't work for ever but it seems to lengthen a publishing company's independent life - e.g. John Murray, Faber, Macmillan, Oxford University Press. Well, it's a theory anyway.

This is the last blog before the beginning of the Ashes series. May it be an unexciting, one-sided canter for the England team seeing us go into the fourth test 3-0 up. I somehow doubt it.

John Wiley's takeover of Blackwell Publishing has already generated much speculation about what it means for scholarly publishing. Will it stimulate further consolidation (a renewal of the Springer and Informa deal)? What are the implications for the open access movement? What does it mean for the two bsuinesses? The main impact for me is to remind me of the importance of exceptional people in publishing.

Per Saugman was not the founder of Blackwell Scientific Publishing but he joined in 1952 when sales were £27,000 and retired in 1990 when sales were £27,000,000. And it wasn't just the sales increase. He created a business and published great books, launched important journals, made the STM organisation relevant, hired and trained the very best publishing managers, and entertained and educated the medical publishing community.

I remember one day I was pitching to take over publication of an important society journal. On the way to make the pitch I ran into Bob Maxwell who had been bidding on behalf of Pergamon Press. On the way out I ran into Per Saugman pitching for Blackwell. I was in my twenties and duly overawed by competing with these two heavyweights. Sure enough I didn't win the contract. I was told by the society that I'd come second. They had eliminated Maxwell when he'd threatened to sue them if they didn't choose Pergamon. They'd liked my proposal very much but Blackwells won because Per had sent them a hand-delivered letter immediately after the meeting confirming in writing everything that had been discussed thus proving both his efficiency and his probity. A very important lesson for a young editor.

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, has become a publisher too. Another free newspaper dropped through my letterbox. It's The Londoner and it is absolute rubbish.

After a bit of badgering I've discovered that each issue costs £288,000. I'm still trying to establish whether that is the full cost, including overheads and distribution, and how many issues are planned each year. The reason for the questions is that I am paying for this newspaper through taxation and the newspaper is totally dedicated to the glorification of the politician who happens to be its publisher. It's too much like the old Soviet Union. I cannot imagine the amount of paper wasted in producing enough copies for delivery to every household in London. Why not ask the great Ken if he would focus on being Mayor rather than wallowing in self-aggrandisement paid for by the citizens of London. His email is mayor@london.gov.uk.

I see from my calendar that the Picador publicity department is organising events for this week's visit to the UK of rock legend Courtney Love whose 'official' site doesn't seem to have been updated since 1975. So maybe better to check out the Wikipedia entry which reminds me that she has been described as 'the most controversial woman in the history of rock.' That's quite a reputation to live up to - what about Marianne Faithfull?

Picador has published Dirty Blonde and it's attracting enormous media coverage. If you want to meet Courtney in person she'll be signing copies at Watersone's in Piccadilly on Friday at 6pm. In addition do have a look at this poignant extract.

By an extraordinary coincidence another Macmillan author, Lisa Scottoline, has also published Dirty Blonde in September. There is of course no copyright in the title of a book and I don't suppose there could be much confusion - except in our order processing department. I'll be tracking the sales of both these titles to see whether they each help sell the other and to see which one wins in the long run.

On a commercial note you may be interested to know that our earnings from Google ads on this blog has now reached the dizzying heights of $65.44. However, the money is not remitted until we reach $100 - get clicking on those ads.

And for a bit of literary reviewing shenanigans I commend Susan Hill's blog today.

I've done a couple of blogs about the British Government's efforts to stop criminals earning money from publishing books about their crimes. There have been good comments in from various people (disappointingly few from Macmillan employees) mainly politely (or impolitely) telling the Government not to interfere. The dangers of legislation would almost certainly exceed any potential benefits. The risks of unintended censorship and reduction of freedom of speech are inherent in any such legislation.

However, the case of O.J.Simpson's latest efforts highlights another angle. Maxim Jakubowski in his Guardian blog argues that booksellers should refuse to sell Simpson's book (which evidently tells the story of how he would have committed the double murder but which, of course, he did not). Maxim is owner of Murder One which is London's leading crime bookshop and he knows a thing or two about true crime and criminals (not personally you understand). Now, I'm not sure that any sort of censorship is appropriate but the irony of this case is that, under the proposed legislation, O.J.Simpson would fall outside the recommendations because he was found not guilty of the crime.

Regan Books (part of HarperCollins USA) are publishing If I Did It in the USA but HarperCollins UK say they will not. Presumably the UK were offered the rights and declined on grounds of taste. Certainly the only Simpsons mentioned on the UK site are Bart and his family (presumably no relation). I'm sure that both Maxim and HarperCollins UK will sleep more soundly for not being involved but censorship....?

A main purpose of this blog from my selfish point of view is to learn how to generate traffic from the blogosphere by testing theories and then measuring results. A little while ago I was disappointed that having a title containing the names Paris Hilton and Jeffrey Archer didn't seem to have any impact. On the other hand, recounting the story of the Oxford poker school resulted in a 35% uplift in traffic mainly from gambling sites. More recently I blogged about an excellent mushroom book - its position on the Amazon bestseller list rose from 347 to 71 but it may be that the blog and the sales increase coincided with the beginning of the UK mushroom season. Apart from crude visitor numbers I also monitor the routes people have followed to reach this blog. The bulk come from links from other websites and blogs, quite a few from searches for charkin or charkinblog, but the most interesting ones are those referred from search engines where you can see what people were searching for. Here are some of the searches this morning (excluding the charkins etc). I rather feel most of them will have been disappointed when they got here.

John Marsden

Copies sold inheritance of loss

The great war

Not quite ripe

Dutch rugby association

Schappelle Corby

Yes but is it good for the jews

Waterstones returns

Racist jelly babies

Farewell speeches online

On the publishing side the big news of the day was of course the takeover of Blackwell Publishing by John Wiley for £572m. It is an indication of how times have changed that the bookshops have declined while publishing has dramatically increased in value over the last ten or twenty years. When I started Blackwell was principally a retailing name. I do hope that some of the profits from this sale might be ploughed into rebuilding Blackwells Bookshops as the leading college bookstore chain in the UK. It can and should be done.

And finally a sad moment. Sheldon Meyer of OUP USA died last week. I leave to others tributes about his great editorial skills. I'll remember him for giant dry martinis at lunchtime and for commenting when he received his honorary MA at Oxford that it was thoughtful of them to name the Theatre after him.