Lee Child and publishing industry join April Fools' pranks

The publishing industry embraced 1st April this morning with a series of spoof announcements including a poetry tax and a new Jack Reacher "mashup" series.

Jack Reacher creator Lee Child went the whole hog for April Fools’ Day,

of his supposed new series, combining trademark action with classic literature.

He told followers: “It’s time for Jack Reacher to mix it up with various intellectual properties that have lapsed into the public domain. Have you ever wanted to read about Jack Reacher helping out Sherlock Holmes, or maybe punch Dr Watson in the face? Well thanks to US copyright laws now you can.”

Other titles on the list included The Wonderful Reacher of Oz, Moby Dick vs Jack Reacher and Little Reacher.

Over at the Poetry Society, there was news from the Treasury of a massive increase in the cost of poetry books, providing a “major boost” to the nation’s coffers. The society said collections would quadruple in price from £10 to £40 thanks to the "poetry tax".

Professor of English at Lincoln University Angela Runnelly said: “The average cost of a sonnet will be a pound! The only free poetry an ordinary person can get is either Poems on the Underground, if they are lucky to live in London, or from their local libraries… if they still exist!”

Online bookshop Wordery also

, promising a “bitesized books” breakthrough in the publishing world.

The company said “a combination of nano scaling technology with advanced vacuum packing” would allow people to reduce the size of their reading material by 70%, helping them cram more into suitcases when going on holiday.

Readers of The Bookseller might also be surprised to learn that Brexit is not the hot new children’s trend at Bologna after all, and That’s not my Brexit won’t be on sale any time soon.