Using Alan Greenspan's new book as an example, today's New York Times looks again at the issue of embargoed books and prepublication leaks thereof. A producer at 60 Minutes, which was partially scooped by a slew of newspapers before it aired its Sunday interview with the former Fed chairman, indicated the show might do exclusive interviews on embargoed books less frequently "unless the publishers do something different in the way that they distribute the books, making it more difficult for people to get copies of the books before 60 Minutes broadcasts."

Antoinette Ercolano, v-p of trade book buying at Barnes & Noble, summed up the consensus view on leaks of embargoed books, telling the Times, "If the author has a lot to say and the leak is only a portion of it, then it works in our favor. But if everything is in the leak, then it works against it."

An interesting, ancillary if puzzling but not definitive trend indicator, as the chairman might say: Newsweek apparently paid just $1 for rights to its excerpt of the book, although it did grant the publisher free ad space.

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"Sprechen Sie Potter?" asked the Guardian in an article speculating that "Muggle, quidditch and house elf are quickly becoming part of German schoolchildren's English vocabulary thanks to huge sales of the original language Harry Potter book."

Bloomsbury announced recently that its English-language edition of HP7 "has sold as many copies overseas as in the U.K. In Germany alone 1m copies were sold in the last month. Pre-orders in China were more than 200% higher than those of the previous book."

According to the Guardian, Bloomsbury chairman Nigel Newton expects the Potter franchise to generate revenues indefinitely. "'The main thing to remember is that Harry Potter will be a big book for many years,' he said, comparing the series with the Chronicles of Narnia and Winnie the Pooh. 'The world loves British children's classics and they last for decades.'"

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"They say my first word was book," Ken Gloss told the Hanover, Mass., Mariner in an article about his upcoming talk, "Treasures in Your Attic: Old and Rare Books," sponsored by the Hanover Historical Society. Gloss is a renowned antiquarian book collector/appraiser, guest on PBS' Antiques Road Show and owner of Boston's legendary Brattle Book Shop.

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Good news, bad news about the holidays.

Holiday sales should rise 4% to $475.5 billion this year, less than last year's 4.6% gain and the lowest gain since 2002's 1.3%, the National Retail Federation predicted. The Federation's chief economist told the Wall Street Journal that lower-income customers continue to be hurt by rising food and gasoline prices while middle-income customers are being hurt by the deflating housing market. "This could spell trouble for discounters and some department stores whose shoppers may be looking to trade down." She noted, however that luxury retailers "appear to be a bright spot."

Sales of holiday gift cards will jump 25% to $35 billion this year, an Archstone Consulting study quoted by the Wall Street Journal predicted. The cards are proliferating in part because more retailers are selling them at other locations, such as in supermarkets and drug stores, and retailers have better equipment for processing the cards at cash registers.

Another reason for the growth: "increasing cultural acceptance," meaning more people feel comfortable giving them as gifts.

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In October, Borders Group will sell the Sony Reader in more than 500 of its stores, up from 270 now, and Borders will launch an online store with support from Sony to sell digital downloads of more than 20,000 e-books, a site that eventually will be part of the revamped Borders.com.

The moves are part of a new agreement between Sony and Borders that also aims to expand the number of e-titles available to consumers. As an announcement put it, "Through collaboration with publishers, the companies plan to broaden the number of e-books offered including more backlist titles by popular authors, expansion of the e-book format among small and mid-sized publishers, and by working toward the development of enhanced content that will provide added incentive to purchase books in traditional and digital formats."

Borders CEO George Jones said that the efforts with Sony are an element of the part of the company's strategic plan calling for "embracing technology . . . to differentiate Borders" and to make Borders a "true cross-channel retailer."

Borders has been one of the few non-Sony retailers to offer the Sony Reader, whose sales levels remain a mystery. Sony has been promoting the e-book reader heavily again recently.

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Headed to the Ukraine? The Kyiv Post affectionately explored the ever-increasing number of bookstores in the city that are available for those afflicted with "book mania."

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The War, the seven-part series about World War II from the point of view of soldiers and civilians from four cities and towns in the U.S.--Waterbury, Conn., Mobile, Ala., Sacramento, Calif., and Luverne, Minn.--begins airing this Sunday evening on PBS. Directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, the series has a tie-in volume that is typically lavish for a Burns work: The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945 by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (Knopf, $50, 9780307262837/0307262839). The book is already No. 34 on USA Today's bestseller list.

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This morning on Good Morning America: Thomas Friedman, author of The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (Picador, $16, 9780312425074/0312425074).

Also on GMA: Courtney Thorne-Smith, author of Outside In: A Novel (Broadway, $23.95, 9780767927499/0767927494). She will also appear today on Live With Regis & Kelly.

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This morning on the Today Show: Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (Doubleday, $27.95, 9780385516402/0385516401). He will also appear tonight on the Colbert Report.

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Alan Greenspan, author of The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World (Penguin Press, $35, 9781594201318/1594201315). The former Fed chairman is also on Charlie Rose tonight.

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Today on Oprah: Art Smith, restaurateur, Oprah Winfrey's personal chef and author of Back to the Family (Thomas Nelson, $29.99, 9781401602895/1401602894).
 
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Today on KCRW's Bookworm: Marianne Wiggins, author of The Shadow Catcher (S&S, $25, 9780743265201/0743265203). As the show put it: "With its fascinating combination of history, biography, memoir and essay, is The Shadow Catcher a novel? 'Yes!' asserts Marianne Wiggins, as she embarks on a passionate celebration of the form she loved when young and loves still--more than ever."

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Today on Talk of the Nation: John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, authors of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (FSG, $26, 9780374177720/0374177724).

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Tonight on the Late Show with David Letterman: Senator Joe Biden, author of Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics (Random House, $25.95, 9781400065363/1400065364).

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Bill Clinton, author of Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World (Knopf, $24.95, 9780307266743/0307266745).

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At Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, Calif., after Bill Clinton signed copies of Giving: (back row, l. to r.) Robert Popoff, Joel Sheldon, Michael Tuck, Anne Edkins, Allison Hill, Alanna Kirby, Justin Junge, Alison Keyes, Natalie Esser, Clark Mason, and Rebecca Flick; (front row, l. to r.) Jennifer Ramos, Sherri Gallentine, Laura Payne, President Clinton, Martha Ramirez, Guinevere Platt, Rosalee Velasco, Marie Du Vaure, Robyn Kamimura and Brenda Ramirez.

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From Carl Lennertz, v-p, independent retailing, at HarperCollins whose blog is publishinginsider.net:

I have every reason to dread the fall regional trade shows.

First, they consume seven beautiful fall weekends.

Next, the planning consumes a lot of time all summer long.

Last, dozens of people here in the office and in Scranton are packing and tracking books to go hither and yon, checking schedules for 75 or so authors, and scrambling to get galleys hot off the press for signings Fed Ex'd to reps at hotels. And that's happening at every publishing house, small and large.

And guess what--IT IS WORTH IT!

I confess I was pretty down on the shows about 10 years ago, feeling the model had grown tired. But to the credit of the regional execs and their boards, they reached out to their members and to publishers, as well as conferring with each other, for ideas to revive the shows. Result: We now have a truly interesting, changing and highly productive string of meetings around the country, one that leaves all concerned jazzed for the fall, up on the best gift books, set with essential backlist, and also primed for the winter lists in order to get next year off to a good start.

There have been some wonderful adjustments to the schedule for every show, from author signings not up against booth time to cutting back on the second day of the booth, both pet peeves of mine. We also asked for more rep pick sessions, and the regional execs have rearranged many of the seated meals to be more interactive receptions and movable feasts. To Hut, Susan, Jim, Eileen, Steve, Lisa, Wanda, Thom and Jennifer--thank you. (And for every person at a publishing house sweating the details, each show has a person or two sweating just as much; thank you Kyle, Larry, Nan, Joyce, Katie, Rita and others!)

There are other cool new things this year. NAIBA's Joe Drabyak and his "regional show as sales conference" push. (To paraphrase: "Tell us more that we can use when we go back to our stores book and theme-wise.") SIBA's 5-10 p.m. booth time, with food, wine and authors. (I am a little worried about the 9-10 p.m. part of that!) MPIBA's Editorial Panel. (Editors at regional shows are one of the next evolutions.) NCIBA's Cookbook Celebration and a second booth day with a children's book emphasis. And PNBA, NEIBA, GLBA and the Show Formerly Known as UMBA (sorry, Susan, I had to) have either new locations or the new author reception format, as well as Book Award Ceremonies . . . and those award-winning books ARE selling, which is not always true of some national awards. And all the shows are making efforts to attract more floor staff, which is my No. 1 wish for the future along with digital education.

I didn't feel it was just up to the regional execs to make things better. With our reps' guidance, we have been sending more galleys of a midlist nature and of the reps' choosing. We also make a special effort to rush out copies of any art/photo/gifty books fresh from the bindery, sometimes stuffed in suitcases. We have had some planned and spontaneous author signings at the booth, and we added raffles; anything to add some extra serendipity and zest to the proceedings.
    
But there are three even more important things than those key activities noted above:

• Talking books and business trends face-to-face; absolutely essential.
• The day of education at each show continues to give booksellers the latest tools to be better booksellers, which keeps more stores thriving, selling more books. The seeds of innovations for next year are planted this year, and it is easy to think back 15 or more years to the first discussions of reading groups, cafes and staff pick displays! There isn't an aspect of bookselling today that one bookseller didn't bring to the fore at a regional show years ago. (I am still in awe of retail competitors sharing ideas, giving away their best stuff! So cool.)
• And the big kahuna: AUTHORS! I know that's assumed, but it should not be taken for granted by anyone, nor undervalued.
  

I can't say this more emphatically: Booksellers meeting authors and authors meeting booksellers is THE most important aspect of the fall meetings. Each need each other and should understand each other better for the long term careers of both, as well as the pragmatic short-term benefit of the book of an author at the show getting read and handsold over one not there.

In a world of digits, bytes, terms, sidelines, turn and all other necessary matters of efficient business, it is still the human element that matters most. The seller and the writer coming together. We help plan the party and watch the partygoers mingle, talk, rant about the written word and more.

A closing note: This fall is the first season without our friend Rusty Drugan. I can still see him smile at the beautiful chaos of a trade show, knowing full well that good things happen when smart people meet to talk about good books.

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