The stakes couldn't be higher....

So, the world waits and expects and hopes. I say hopes because, surely, few in the book world wish to see John McCain elected, personable chap though he seems. One UK publisher who will be staying up tonight is Canongate’s Jamie Byng. The house has two Obama titles: The Audacity of Hope and Dreams from my Father. “We’ve been reprinting these pretty much the whole time,” Byng says. “We now have more than 300,000 in print of the two titles. We’ve reprinted Audacity eleven times, and Dreams eight times. Should Obama win, we’ll put through a serious reprint of both: perhaps 40,000 of Dreams and 20,000 of Audacity. But I won’t just be watching tonight as a publisher. I’ll be watching as a citizen of planet earth. The stakes couldn’t be higher – there has never been such an important election.”