Speculation, Fact and Fiction

Waterstone's firmly denied selling favours yesterday. A spokesman said that its "recommended" titles were picked by its own experts and that only then were publishers of those titles approached and asked to make a contribution to the cost of promotion.

The company said: "A publisher cannot buy a promotional slot at Waterstone's: books are chosen by our expert booksellers and buyers based on what they believe our customers will want to read and buy."

Anthony Cheetham, chairman of Quercus Books, said: "It's not a system you can opt out of. If retailers offer you one of these slots and you say no, their order doesn't go down from 1,000 copies to 500 copies - it goes down to 20 copies."