This comes to you from the offices of Scientific American on Madison Avenue.

'SciAm' has been part of the Holtzbrinck group since the 1980s and has grown every year since. The big challenges now are to maintain our print subscribers and advertisers while building for an Internet future. Fortunately, wherever technology leads editorial standards will drive reader loyalty and we have the best editorial team around - unsurprising perhaps given that SciAm is the world's leading scientific magazine for the general reader.

Apart from publishing every month SciAm is also involved in major awards such as SA 50 (for the 50 researchers, businesses and policy leaders who have made a difference) and the Weizmann Women and Science award won by Dr May Berenbaum pictured here (centre - n.b. British spelling).

And I've been reminded to mention the fast-growing magazine Scientific American Mind. More on New York and other things later.

This is a plug. In the office this morning before leaving for New York I tore my trousers. Staples could only hold the seat together on a very temporary basis. Arrived at Heathrow Terminal 4 just in time to buy a new pair.

Went to the first shop (after deliberately avoiding Harrod's)to catch my eye, Hackett. Rita Vittorio (who has worked for Hackett for eight years) served me and rapidly found some appropriate corduroys. Unfortunately they were too long in the leg and there was no way I could find time or tailors in NY to fix them. Without hesitation and with a great smile she pulled out some needle and thread and shortened them on the spot. I'm posting this in the hope that Hackett realize that Rita is the tops at customer service; that the sort of thing she did makes a company great and profitable; and that they reward her.

If she is typical of Hackett employees then they deserve as much business as possible and I'll certainly be buying trousers there next time I have a similar disaster!

I've been reading proofs of a book close to my heart. It's called Beyond authority and was commissioned by the business editor at Palgrave Macmillan, Stephen Rutt. It is written by a brilliant leader, Julia Middleton, the CEO of Common Purpose (of whose UK trustees I am chair). You can hear and watch Julia talking about the book at the Meet the author website.

The book is about the real-life situations where leadership, reporting lines, ability to command or control simply don't exist. We may think we have authority but the truth is that rarely, if ever, is that the case. Traditional management theories relate to a world which doesn't exist, where organograms actually reflect power lines, where job titles are thought to reflect reality and so on. To lead successfully in the real world we all have to use other techniques - of influence, of example. of understanding, of belief but rarely of diktat.

I strongly recommend the book but the reason for mentioning it is that I'm recovering from the humiliation of both England's rugby and cricket teams' defeats over the weekend. In recent times both were triumphant. They are well funded, well trained, talented, committed. The main thing that has changed in both cases is the leadership. The captains of the teams are great players and great people but somehow they're leading losing teams. Perhaps I should send them (or more likely their successors) copies of Julia's book when it comes out in February.

Getting it right is as much about many small things as grand strategies. I probably irritate the hell out of colleagues with messages about apparently trivial matters.

A little while ago I did a presentation on the technological changes which have affected the dictionary business - relational databases, XML, on-line and CD delivery, voive recognition, corpus searching etc. I had picked up a small Langenscheidt dictionary as a prop and realised that the single most important advance from a casual user point of view was none of these things. It was the rounding of the corners of the plastic cover so that you didn't suffer cuts from the sharp edges. A small matter in some ways but a significant publishing decision.

One of the most important devices which has enabled the web to develop is the stapler. Imagine the chaos if we didn't staple documents printed from the web.

Similarly I've just been given a brilliant new cookbook, A year in my kitchen by Skye Gingell who is head chef at Petersham Nurseries. You can find some recipes from the book here but you might also buy the book. I have yet to test the recipes myself but I assume they all work. The design of the book is great as one would expect from Quadrille Publishing. But what really struck me was that the book has three silk bookmarks so that one can index three recipes (starter, main, dessert presumably) simultaneously. Clever.

And finally a novelist who is steadily moving up the charts - C.J.Sansom. Winter in Madrid is just out in paperback - start there and then work your way back through the rest of his historical novels. The 'small thing' here is that his success has been achieved by long-term editorial commitment and attention to to every detail of his publication. The 'big thing' of course is that C.J. can write and entertain.

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.