Jonny Geller

Sitting down? Good: There are more than 7,800 exhibitors from close to 100 countries listed for the 2013 Frankfurt Book Fair (October 9-13), the world’s largest publishing trade show, and the one that doubles as a showcase for the financial capital of Europe’s railway service.  You'll want to sit down and rest your feet before heading to Frankfurt to try to cover the show!

The merger of Penguin and Random House is expected to close in July, creating—with sales of £2.5bn—the largest trade publishing business ever. Ahead of any announcements about its forthcoming plans, The Bookseller asked a range of industry insiders what the new management team should do:

Dennis Johnson, publisher and co-founder, Melville House

If I were the CEO of Random Penguins, I would...
1. Join those b******* at Apple in standing up to the American government's persecution of the publishing industry, and to its protection of Amazon's monopoly.

U.K. literary agency Curtis Brown (which operates independently from the literary agency of the same name in the U.S.) will publish over 200 titles exclusively through Amazon, in a program designed to break U.K. authors into the U.S. market.

Curtis Brown is running the new program with Amazon’s “White Glove” service (not to be confused with the company’s “white glove delivery” option for TVs and other high-priced goods). While Amazon hasn’t publicly promoted the service, it is aimed at literary agents representing well-known authors who control their own digital rights on backlist titles.