I spent some of yesterday at Sir Paul Getty's cricket ground at Wormsley.

This panorama doesn't really do justice to the beauty of the place on an early English Summer's day.

The cricket was incidental to the fun and hospitality of the Wisden criicket day for advertisers, sponsors and contributors. I didn't play (saving myself for a needle match on Sunday) but did manage to suffer silly sunburn.

A controversy waiting to happen has just surfaced in the USA. It relates to an author's right to have the rights in her/his book revert if the publisher fails to keep the book in print. Simon & Schuster have eliminated this reversion clause from their boiler-plate contract. I can see their point. The existing clause refers to a simpler world where the definition of in print or out of print was clear. Today, publishing is global. If there is a copy in, say, an Australian warehouse, is the book still in print? If a book is immediately available by print on demand, is it in print? If a book is available digitally or by chapter, is it in print? However, I can understand an author's legitimate desire to ensure that a publisher does not simply 'sit on' the rights to a book. We need a new approach to rights reversion which recognises the new world in which we operate but which also recognises the decencies and fairness (in both directions) of the old. Some of the complexities are elaborated by Peter Brantley. This one will run and run.

We heaved a sigh of relief yesterday when the Crown Prosecution Service issued its press release and where Sir Ken Macdonald stated:

"I have today concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrey Lugovoy with the murder of Mr Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning.

"I have further concluded that a prosecution of this case would clearly be in the public interest.

This was the same  suspect as Martin Sixsmith had fingered in his book The Litvinenko File which we published about a month ago. Goodness knows where the diplomatic stand-off between Russia and Britain will end but one side-effect is that the book's sales have already accelerated in the 24 hours since the announcement.

I asked yesterday whether anyone objected to the ads on this blog which have earned (I had pointed out to me) $254.12, not the figure I gave which was just the latets instalment. Nobody seems to mind and so I'll continue. The money will, I promise, be put to good use.

A little while ago I wrote about the differences in style between British and American dictionaries. British entries try to define a word as accurately as possible with as few words as possible. Analgesic febrifuge as a definition of aspirin in the COD is an extreme of Britishness. The American style is more discursive and descriptive and here is an extreme of American-ness from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged:

Main Entry: ¹ho·tel    Pronunciation Guide
Pronunciation: ()h|tel
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): -s
Etymology: French hôtel, from Old French ostel, hostel -- more at HOSTEL
1 archaic : a city mansion of a person of rank or wealth
2 a : a house licensed to provide lodging and usually meals, entertainment, and various personal services for the public : INN b : a building of many rooms chiefly for overnight accommodation of transients and several floors served by elevators, usually with a large open street-level lobby containing easy chairs, with a variety of compartments for eating, drinking, dancing, exhibitions, and group meetings (as of salesmen or convention attendants), with shops having both inside and street-side entrances and offering for sale items (as clothes, gifts, candy, theater tickets, travel tickets) of particular interest to a traveler, or providing personal services (as hairdressing, shoe shining), and with telephone booths, writing tables and washrooms freely available

Invariably when there is discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of print versus digital delivery of books, someone says: 'Ah, but you wouldn't want to read an e-book in the bath.' I am therefore most grateful to New Yorker Chris Steib who has undertaken a controlled scientific experiment comparing his Sony Reader and a print copy of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. The Reader won!

I must thank Jeff Gomez and his Print is Dead blog for stimulating the experiment in the first place and then bringing it to my attention. Jeff's book (in print and digital editions)with the same title comes out in November.

I had a meeting yesterday with the person responsible for the OUPBlog. They manage approximately two postings a day, which puts me to shame - and they are very interesting. My only defence is that most days the blog is written by one of their illustrious authors while I'm pretty much a sole trader with the occasional and much-appreciated support of some Macmillan colleagues.

I've just seen the latest account from Google ads, a majestic $122.78. Here's my question. Do the ads upset any of you in any way?

We published The Literary Tourist by Nicola Watson in October 2006 as a scholarly book. It has received first-rate reviews and has been a moderate commercial success albeit with a short print run and a high price.

Susan Hill has issued a challenge on her blog for us to produce a cheaper edition in order to garner more sales through general-reader purchase. Her opening line is 'Great book, pity how it's published'.

This is an old chestnut. I cannot think of an academic author (or interested reviwer) who doesn't think that their book will find a wide audience if only it were priced and marketed like the latest Jilly Cooper (£3.99 for 1000 plus pages from Waterstone's). Sometimes the author is right but it is very rarely the case that a book written for scholarly reasons becomes a best seller. We shall be issuing a paperback of this excellent book in due course and, given the interest and potential market, I am sure it will do well. It may sell several thousand copies but I'd be amazed (and delighted) if it sold the tens of thousands that would have justified original publication as a general book.

Apart from this specific case, the challenge raises the question of pricing of academic books in general. Susan's commentators are horrified at the idea of paying £45 for a 250 page book. Compared to discounted Harry Potter of course £45 seems expensive. But is it? Try comparing the price with a shirt, a meal in a London restaurant, a ticket to a major sporting event, a train ticket, an hour of a lawyer's time. I think academic books are amazingly good value. They are permanent. They are valuable. They are great value for money. They are the fruit of extensive research and application. They are fundamental to the scholarly process. They reach a global audience and are readily available through libraries for those who cannot afford to purchase. They are fit for purpose and worth every penny. Thank goodness academic publishers have worked out a way of continuing to publish academic works commercially in spite of library budget constraints and falling print runs.

Lastweek I wrote about an article about Nature in Der Spiegel. I couldn't link to the article becaquse it was 'subscriber only' and so a gave a brief quote in German. Adam Hodgkin kindly sent me this Google translation:

'Timo twin errs easily orientationless over the beach, then zigzag the slope up. „Well finally, I knew nevertheless that it is here somewhere “, says the man in the red T-Shirt. Over an extensive place prangt largely like a building sign the Logo of its enterprise, knows on red Reason: „Nature “. Timo twin arrived in its new realm, on an island in on-line game of roles „Second Life “. The name of the island is program: „Second Nature “. The Avatar sees only far away similar to the Timo in the material life - this is a large man end of thirty also easily roundish Harry Potter face. It is called Timo Hannay. And it is like that something like the representative that Science magazine „Nature “in the virtual world.'

The piece is now open to everyone in English on Spiegel Online International. Here is a flavour. As a colleague remarked, it's hard to decide whether this makes much more sense than the Google version.

'Twin has arrived in his new realm, on an island in the online role-playing game Second Life. The name of the island is fitting: Second Nature. The avatar bears only a vague resemblance to the real-life Timo, a tall man in his late 30s with a slightly round, Harry Potter-like face. His real name is Timo Hannay, and he is something like the representative of the scientific journal Nature in the virtual world.'

There was a mini-debate on the meaning of independent publishing here a couple of weeks ago. I think it's a fairly meaningless (but sometimes helpfully self-serving) concept. Independence doesn't come from size or type of publication or ownership structures. It comes from the minds of people. On Friday I attended a birthday party at the Stationers' Hall.

It was to celebrate forty years since the formation of Kogan Page, 'Europe's largest independent publisher of business titles'. There is a story in The Times where they interviewed its Chairman, Philip Kogan. There's a letter from him in their latest catalogue but no pictures on Google Image Search.

I am a huge admirer of Philip and the company he founded. Not because of the books he's published. I'm sure they are good but it's just not my field. Not because he hasn't sold the company. I'm sure if someone had offered enough...

I admire him and the company because they have never ceased to innovate in order to stay in business and never ceased to enjoy the business we're in. Philip's daughter, Helen, is now in charge and it seems that the company is in great shape for now and the future. If that's what is meant by independent publishing, I'm all for it but I prefer to think of it as simply a matter of independent-minded publishing.

At Macmillan I think we're still pretty independent-minded too. Here is our most recent innovation - a blog for teachers of English. Everyone is welcome to contribute, so please do. Just in case you can't find them (or me for that matter) they've published a helpful photo of King's Cross from the air. Here it is.

And of course, congratulations to my local team, Chelsea Football Club, on winning the FA Cup thanks, as so often this season, to the magnificent Didier Drogba. The celebrations in Chelsea last might were long and noisy and I think we can expect more today.

I was doing a little research in the fascinating Macmillan News Archive and came across the 10 February 1987 issue which is all about HM's death - his funeral in Westminster Abbey, reminiscences and obituaries from around the Macmillan world. It's worth a look. As is this is interview with Peter Cook who is almost better than the real thing. A wonderful Cook as Macmillan quote from a description of a summit meeting with JFK:

"We talked of many things, including Great Britain's position in the world as some kind of honest broker. I agreed with him when he said no nation could be more honest, and he agreed with me when I chaffed him and said no nation could be broker."

Back to the present and an irresistible parable about advertising today from a superb blog - Logic+Emotion - about marketing and design which was brought to my attention by Ann Michael.

I cannot resist posting this entry on the Future of Publishing from The Millions - a blog about books because it is entirely sensible in its review of Macmillan New Writing and because it helpfully lists all the titles available in the USA even though no American publisher was interested in the series.

I'm not sure how many readers of this blog understand German (beyond the title above) but I think this pdf courtesy of Der Spiegel is saying some pretty nice things about Nature, its commitment to innovation and the quality of the team.

Later comment by editor:It turns out that this pdf link will not work outside the Nature firewall and Spiegel Online understandably charges for articles, so here is a taster within 'fair usage':

'Timo Twin irrt leicht orientierungslos über den Strand, dann zickzack den Hang hinauf. „Na endlich, ich wusste doch, dass es hier irgendwo ist“, sagt der Mann im roten T-Shirt. Über einem weitläufigen Platz prangt groß wie ein Bauschild das Logo seines Unternehmens, weiß auf rotem Grund: „Nature“. Timo Twin ist in seinem neuen Reich angekommen, auf einer Insel im Online- Rollenspiel „Second Life“. Der Name der Insel ist Programm: „Second Nature“. Der Avatar sieht dem Timo im realen Leben nur entfernt ähnlich – dieser ist ein großer Mann Ende dreißig mit leicht rundlichem Harry-Potter-Gesicht. Er heißt Timo Hannay. Und er ist so etwas wie der Vertreter der Wissenschaftszeitschrift „Nature“ in der virtuellen Welt.'

The British Department of Trade and Industry has just released figures for 2006 exports of books and a comparison with previous years. It makes fascinating reading on the soon-to-be-revamped Publishers Association website. In spite of all the changes in the global economy and the growth of the English language the traditional English-speaking and Commonwealth markets still dominate. And for all the hooha over China we sell ten times as much to the Republic of Ireland with a population of 4 million as to China with a population of 1.3 billion.

Clearly, however, markets such as China and India will grow and I was delighted to read in the Economic Times of India that territorial protection of copyright has been upheld by a Delhi High Court injunction preventing re-export of low-priced Indian textbooks. Whilst this restricts Indian export sales it allows publishers to produce low-cost editions for the very poor without fear of those editions entering the more affluent American market. In time, of course, global prices will equalise but in the meantime territorial copyright protection is vital for the development of publishing and education in emerging economies. Supporting these developments is the International Publishers Association whose new website has just been launched and where it is good to see that annual Freedom Prize has been awarded to a Zimbabwean publisher.

This is the first Waterstone's bookshop at 99-101 Old Brompton Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded by Tim Waterstone in 1982 with the redundancy money he received when he was sacked by W.H.Smith. The chain has developed extraordinarily to become Britain's largest bookseller and Tim tells some of the story in his book Swimming against the Stream.

Yesterday evening Waterstone's and its current owners HMV threw a fabulous party to celebrate 25 years of bookselling and to honour our top authors of the last quarter century and the twenty five for the next quarter century. I was delighted that Macmillan scored a 12% 'market share' of the future with Emily Gravett, Charlotte Mendelson and C.J.Sansom being selected. For more on the list follow this link.

Who knows what the next twenty-five years of retail bookselling will bring (as evidenced by the debate on this blog) but Bill Gates seems to think he knows:

 "Reading is going to go completely online. We believe that as we get the smaller form factor, the screen has gotten good enough. Why is reading online better? It's up to date, you can navigate, you can follow links. The ads in the online reading are completely targeted as opposed to just being run-of-print, where many of the readers will find them completely irrelevant. The ads can be in new and richer formats. In fact the only drawbacks of the digital form are the things associated with the device: how big is it, heavy is it, how many hours of power does it have, how much do I have to spend to buy it? But those are things that once you achieve that threshold, in terms of the convenience and the cost, then you see a dramatic change in behavior. Today, for people who read newspapers and magazines, even the most avid PC user probably still does quite a bit of reading on print. As the device moves down in size and simplicity, that will change, and so somewhere in the next five-year period we'll hit that transition point, and things will be even more dramatic than they are today."

So now we know.

Today sees the beginning of Summer in England. It is grey, rather damp and not very warm but it is also the first day of the first cricket Test Match of the season and England take on West Indies at Lord's Cricket Ground.

The other event to take place today will be the announcement of Gordon Brown as Britain's next Prime Minister. I am no political expert but it does seem surprising that someone can take over the leadership of a country (the mother of parliamentary democracy I believe) without a ballot of the people, the parliament or even his own political party. I have nothing against Brown but I hope his self-appointment doesn't encourage any other country to impose democracy on us by invading what is a country with a huge armoury of weapons of mass destruction, a danger of splitting (Scottish Nationalists now govern in Edinburgh), a strong breeding ground for militant Islam, strategically placed geographically and with extraordinarily valuable assets - and an unelected leadership.