Smatterings, the LBF Edition

One of these years I do hope I can swing a trip over to London in time for the Book Fair, which kicked off earlier today. Then again, considering how crap the US Dollar is against the Pound, this may happen later rather than sooner…
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The Bookseller_ has pretty much all your LBF News needs, but some of today’s more interesting highlights include Australia wanting to break away from Commonwealth rights, challenges for the Arabic book world, McSweeney’s landing a UK publisher, the buzz surrounding Fatima Bhutto’s memoir proposal, and Miss Daisy Frost’s amusing blog post. And if you look through the virtual edition of the Bookseller’s LBF Daily, don’t miss Brian Freeman’s back-page essay on the ten ways authors can make themselves useful at the Fair.
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Publishing News_ is already doing a bang-up job out of the LBF coverage gate, too, especially with regards to deals. Of note from a crime fiction standpoint: Eric Garcia’s REPOSSESSION MAMBO will not only be a movie starring Jude Law, but will be published by Arrow in 2009 (no US deal that I can find on it yet.) Also, Matt Hilton’s new police series has found an American home, just sold to David Highfill at William Morrow. And LBF’s official magazine, the Deal, is edited by Danuta Kean.

The BBC has video,while the Evening Standard previews the rest of the week’s offerings. And Kirsty at the OUP blog delivers her first impression of LBF: “Wow.”