Long Summer Weekend
Shelf Awareness is taking a long weekend so this will be our last issue of the week. See you again on Monday!
(Apologies for the delay sending out today's issue. There was much last-minute news.)
Shelf Awareness is taking a long weekend so this will be our last issue of the week. See you again on Monday!
(Apologies for the delay sending out today's issue. There was much last-minute news.)
We've heard sad news, although it's not been confirmed, that Grace
Paley has died at age 84. A feminist, peace activist and teacher, Paley
has been renowned for short stories in which some readers say nothing
happens and others say everything happens.
Paley's work includes three short story collections, The Little Disturbances of Man, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute and Later the Same Day. All of these volumes have been assembled in The Collected Stories
(FSG, $17, 9780374530280/0374530289), which was reissued in paperback
in April as an FSG Classic. She also wrote poetry and nonfiction.
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The Borders Rewards program, which launched in February 2006, now
has more than 20 million members and is adding 150,000 new members a
week. In a statement, Borders CEO George Jones commented, "As
membership builds, so does our capability to leverage
the Borders Rewards database as a distinct advantage in introducing
customers to new and important titles and promoting them."
Among other things, members receive the company's Shortlist weekly e-mail, which in part offers access to Borders's online video book club and to
Borders Live at 01, author and artist events filmed at the Borders
store in downtown Ann Arbor.
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Today's New York Times
takes a surreal trip with Laura Albert aka JT LeRoy. At one point
Albert says of life with her alter ego: "I'm totally aware it sounds
wacky, but I never really thought of it in terms of right or wrong,
truth or lie. It was more like two computer programs running in my
head. There was him, and there was me."
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The BBC
investigates new trends in crime fiction, including a new series of
Agatha Christie comic books and the subgenre of exotic fiction.
One example of "those seeking to reinterpret crime fiction is Welsh
author Matt Beynon Rees," BBC wrote. "The Middle East correspondent for the
Scotsman and Time magazine has turned novelist with stories of an aging
Palestinian teacher turned amateur sleuth," who makes his first
appearance in The Collaborator of Bethlehem (Soho Crime, $22, 9781569474426/1569474427).
The BBC continued, "Detective stories can provide insight into an alien
society, Rees says from his home in Jerusalem. 'I wanted to put across
the reality of Palestinians' lives in a genre that would reach a lot of
people, and not be based all around politics. Crime fiction is perfect
to focus on the reality of life inside someone's head, which journalism
can't show.' "
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Magdalen Nabb, British crime writer and author
of children's books, died last Saturday, August 18, following a stroke.
She 60 years old.
Nabb's most popular character was Sicilian-born police detective
Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia. Soho Press will publish the most recent
title in the series, Death of a Dutchman, in November and Vita Nuova next June.
She also published 13 books for children and young adults, including The Enchanted Horse, which won the British Smarties Book Prize in 1993.
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Tor Books will offer its first podcasts--from
the 65th World Science Fiction Convention in Yokohama, Japan, August
30-September 4.
Tor publisher Tom Doherty and senior editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden will
send daily podcasts during the convention that will include interviews
with authors and editors. The podcasts will be available for download
from iTunes, Yahoo and Google, through RSS, and on Tor's website.
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If you're still working on that novel, you're in good company. According to the Guardian, a new YouGov poll reported that more Britons "would rather be a writer than anything else." The Guardian even offers a bit of helpful advice for would-be authors: "So, by all means, write, if you enjoy it. But, if you value your sanity--and that of any readers--keep it to yourself. Keep the dream; just don't give up the day job."
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Effective
next Monday, August 27, Silverback Books and its imprint, Fitway
Publishing, will be distributed exclusively by Ingram Publisher
Services.
Silverback Books, which has headquarters in San Francisco, Calif., and
a backlist of more than 200 titles, publishes books on food,
cooking, lifestyle and wellness topics and offers a custom publishing
service for authors. Last year Silverback acquired Fitway, which
publishes architecture and design, biography and passion titles.
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Tantor Media,
which specializes in unabridged audiobooks, has moved to a larger
location in Old Saybrook, Conn., as part of an expansion of its list
and sales efforts, including a new library sales force. Tantor plans to
open a U.K. branch this year to oversee international sales.
The new headquarters is next to the company's production and warehouse facility.
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Randall
McKenzie has been named national sales manager at AtlasBooks, a
division of BookMasters. He formerly worked at BookWorld, Meredith, and
Health Communications and has managed national accounts for more than
20 years. Besides overseeing the sales force, he will be responsible
for new marketing strategies.
Founded in 2001, AtlasBooks, Ashland, Ohio, distributes small- and mid-sized publishers.
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This morning on the Today Show: Susan Spicer, author of Crescent City Cooking: Unforgettable Recipes from Susan Spicer's New Orleans (Knopf, $35, 9781400043897/1400043891).
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Today on NPR's Morning Edition as part of the Crime in the City series, Laura Lippman, whose latest book is What the Dead Know
(Morrow, $24.95, 9780061128851/0061128856), introduces listeners to
Baltimore, Md., the city in which her mysteries are set.
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This morning on Fox & Friends: Mark Schapiro, author of Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Chelsea Green, $22.95, 9781933392158/1933392150).
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Today on KCRW's Bookworm: Michael Ondaatje, whose most recent book is Divisadero
(Knopf, $25, 9780307266354/0307266354). As the show put it: "Michael
Ondaatje's novels come together through a combination of obsession and
intuition. He works in the dark, not knowing where he is heading,
juxtaposing disparate materials, noticing echoes and recurrences. We
explore the mysterious convergences in this novel--convergences that
link a family ranch in contemporary California with the life and works
of a forgotten French poet and novelist. How does Ondaatje come to know
what his work is ultimately about?"
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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Jonathan Kozol, author of Letters to a Young Teacher (Crown, $19.95, 9780307393715/0307393712).
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Today on NPR's Fresh Air: Jamie Tarabay, NPR's news bureau chief in Baghdad and author of A Crazy Occupation: Eyewitness to the Intifada (Allen & Unwin, distributed by IPG, $17.95, 9781741146509/174114650X).
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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Lt. Col. John Nagl, co-author of The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual (University of Chicago Press, $15, 9780226841519/0226841510).
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Tonight on the Colbert Report: Joe Klein, whose most recent book is Politics
Lost: From RFK to W: How Politicians Have Become Less Courageous and
More Interested in Keeping Power than in Doing What's Right for America (Broadway, $12.95, 9780767916011/0767916018), recently released in paperback.
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Tomorrow morning on NPR's Morning Edition: Michael Connelly, author of
The Overlook (Little, Brown, $21.99, 9780316018951/0316018953).
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Saturday on Face the Nation: Elizabeth Edwards, wife of presidential
candidate John Edwards and author of Saving Graces: Finding Solace and
Strength from Friends and Strangers (Broadway, $14.95,
9780767925389/0767925386).
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On CBS Sunday Morning: Pattie Boyd, author of Wonderful Tonight: George
Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me (Harmony, $25.95,
9780307393845/0307393844). Boyd was married first to Harrison and later to Clapton.
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On Weekend Edition Sunday: Tim Green, former NFLer and author of the YA
novel, Football Genius (HarperCollins, $16.99,
9780061122705/006112270X).
Book TV airs on C-Span 2 from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and
focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry.
The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more
information, go to Book TV's website.
Saturday, August 25
4:30 p.m. History on Book TV. Dan Kurzman, author of A Special Mission: Hitler's Secret Plot to Seize the Vatican and Kidnap Pope Pius XII
(Perseus, $26, 9780306814686/0306814684), contends that a deal was
struck with the pope to remain silent about the Holocaust in return for
the safety of the Vatican.
6 p.m. Encore Booknotes. In a segment first aired in 1997, Frank McCourt discussed Angela's Ashes
(Scribner, $14.95, 9780684842677/068484267X), which chronicled the
author's childhood in an impoverished section of Limerick, Ireland, as well as the gift for storytelling he inherited from his father .
8 p.m. Yuri Felshtinsky, author of Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror (Encounter
Books, $25.95, 9781594032011/1594032017), argues that Russian president
Vladimir Putin is using the Russian secret service to preserve his
power and transform Russia back into an authoritarian state. (Re-airs
Sunday, August 26, at 11 a.m. and Sunday, September 2, at 12 a.m.)
9 p.m. After Words. Peter Prichard, president of the Newseum, interviews Scott Gant, author of We're All Journalists Now: The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age
(Free Press, $26, 9780743299268/0743299264). Gant asserts that bloggers
and others he terms "citizen journalists" follow in the tradition of
early pamphleteers such as Thomas Paine and should be afforded the same
legal rights and privileges as traditional journalists. (Re-airs Sunday
at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.)
Sunday, August 26
6:30 a.m. Roosevelt Reading Festival. Elizabeth Borgwardt, author of A New Deal for the World
(Belknap, $35, 9780674018747/0674018745), argues that under the New
Deal, for the first time, the interests of the people were placed
before the interests of national government.
9:30 a.m. Glenn Greenwald, author of A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency
(Crown, $24.95, 9780307354198/0307354199), argues that President George
Bush's good vs. evil world view won him supporters after 9/11
but has since backfired in Iraq, Iran and on the domestic front.
(Re-airs Monday at 6:30 a.m.)
12 p.m. In a discussion with Rick Kogan of the Chicago Tribune at Maxim's in Chicago, Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul
(Random House, $25.95, 9781400065301/1400065305), recounts the history
of Chicago's Everleigh Club, a brothel operated by sisters Minna and
Ada Everleigh from 1900 to 1911.
1 p.m. From FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Richard Viguerie, author of Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus
Books, $24.95, 9781566252850/1566252857), asserts that President Bush
and other "big government Republicans" have betrayed conservative
policies and describes how conservatives can take their party back.
1:50 p.m. Mike German, former FBI undercover counterterrorism agent and author of Thinking Like a Terrorist: Insights of a Former FBI Undercover Agent (Potomac
Books, $26.95, 9781597970259/1597970255), describes the mindset of the
terrorists he has encountered and suggests ways for the U.S. government
to more effectively fight them.
3:30 p.m. Public Lives. Steven Bach, author of Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl
(Knopf, $30, 9780375404009/0375404007), explores the life of the German
filmmaker, whose best-known works, Triumph of the
Will and Olympia, were produced during the Nazi era.
Spud by John Van De Ruit (Razorbill, $16.99 Hardcover, 9781595141705, October 2007)
The top-selling sex guide at AbeBooks.com this year is not out of print, as we inadvertently stated yesterday. Intended for Pleasure: Sex Technique and Sexual Fulfillment in Christian Marriage by Dr. Ed Wheat and Gaye Wheat (Revell Books, $19.99, 9780800717360/0800717368) is in its third edition! Our apologies.
Carl Lennertz, v-p, independent retailing, at HarperCollins whose blog is publishinginsider.net, reports from this year's Denver Publishing Institute.
Rocky Mountain high?
More like Rocky Mountain hot and dry. Yes, my week teaching marketing
at the Denver Publishing Institute coincided with a major heat wave,
and one had to drink a lot of water. Rumor is that the angles of the
cool new Denver Art Museum make you dizzy; I just needed more aqua.
I enjoyed both the museum and a pilgrimage to buy some vintage vinyl at
Wax Trax the day before I was to start yakking away. This was my second
time taking on, with his most generous blessing, Richard Hunt's famous
weeklong marketing gig, so I was calmer this year but still nervous
enough to rewrite all my notes. I also had to allot more time for
e-marketing: blogs, e-cards, MySpace and Facebook, and ebooks, as well
as increase the time to discuss the changing retail and media world as
well as the rise of the paperback original.
The Denver Publishing Institute was started 30
years ago by Elizabeth Geiser, a marketing exec from Macmillan, Gale
and Bowker, and she is a dynamo!! She oversees a four-week course for
100 college grads looking to get into publishing, mostly in editorial,
but some are also considering sales, marketing and publicity. The first
two weeks are hands-on editorial-heavy, from acquisition to line
editing, kicked off by keynoter Larry Kirshbaum, always a treat. (Week
four involves interviewing with visiting HR folks from small and large
publishers, plus a visit to the offices of Fulcrum.)
The third week is marketing week, and I go on all day Monday, poor
kids, to lay the groundwork and to get the students started on creating
marketing plans on a budget for a list of 10 books. Guest speakers appear the rest of the week. Carolyn Schwartz of BDD and
Kathleen Spinelli of Brand-to-Books teach ad/promo Tuesday morning, and
Pete McCarthy of Random does online marketing Tuesday afternoon.
Wednesday morning means publicity led by Scott Manning, and in the
afternoon, the students get to witness an actual sales call, albeit on
stage, between Cathy Langer of Tattered Cover and David Waag, a
commission rep for Karel/Dutton. Thursday involves the future of
libraries and online.
Friday is marketing plan presentation day, along with the introduction
of a surprise guest author--the author of one of the 10 books the
students have been working on. This year, we brought in Gordon
Campbell, an attorney whose debut thriller, Missing Witness, was
discovered by Betsy Burton of the King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah,
and is being published this fall by Morrow. Gordon was smuggled into
the back of the auditorium halfway through the morning and then sprung
on the class, who went nuts. They loved his book and were so flattered
he would show up just for them. We had an impromptu ARE
signing on the spot.
The highlight for me is the enthusiasm of these
students for publishing, and they are the faces of the future,
especially as they are so tech-savvy and hear about books themselves in
all the new ways. There is plenty of time to talk in class during
breaks and--flashback--over lunch in the cafeteria. (The food is better
than in my time. They have salad now!) The students are both realistic
and idealistic about the business, but they want to be in it, which is
great.
A highlight of this year--and a point of sadness--was the impending
retirement of Elizabeth. She is handing over the running of the
Institute to Joyce Meskis of the Tattered Cover. Joyce runs the Institute
next year, along with co-director Jill Smith (who is also a museum
administration expert) and administrator Sandra Bond (who is also a
literary agent), two wonderful, smart presences for the students and
teachers the entire month.
Elizabeth, thank you so much! There are hundreds of students in your debt. You guided them into publishing positions these many years, giving them the big picture and not just the view of their chosen areas. It should be noted that Elizabeth is the editor of The Business of Book Publishing, a basic text on publishing, and, in 1988, she was honored for the accomplishments of her professional career and for "her role as an industry educator" by being inducted into the Publishing Hall of Fame. THAT is cool!