The big news south of the border is that with Judith Regan gone, HarperCollins is sweeping out the corners – cancelling that controversial Mickey Mantle bio, shutting down the L.A. ReganBooks office, and renaming the imprint “HC” for the remaining yet-to-be-published titles under contract. (The HC would have been cooler, but probably too much to hope for.)

The Los Angeles Times has one of many reports, noting that several high-level staffers will relocate to New York, while 10 lower-level staffers will be laid off. And the Times also notes that ReganBooks had failed to make much of a splash on the L.A. scene since opening its office. “They made a big deal of coming to L.A. but no one I know had been to their office or dealt with anyone there,” agent Bonnie Nadel is quoted as saying. “If they had left quietly, no one even would have noticed.”