Paul Erdman, who popularized what he liked to call fi-fi--financial
fiction--died on Monday at his home in Healdsburg, Calif. He was 74.
His best-known novels include The Billion Dollar Sure Thing, which won an Edgar Award, The Crash of '79 and The Panic of '89. Today's New York Times
noted the unusual circumstances that led to the beginning of Erdman's writing career.
Sitting in a Swiss jail--a dungeon built in the 1600s--after his bank
collapsed in scandal in 1970, he wanted to write a nonfiction book
about economics. But because he couldn't do research from his cell, he
decided to write a novel. A fellow inmate, a French safecracker, told
him how an amateur could crack a safe, which "became the first scene in
the first chapter in my first novel," he told the Times.
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"Mommy books" are generating a lot of discussion online, on playgrounds
and around office water coolers, but they are not nurturing expected
sales, according to Motoko Rich in today's New York Times.
Among "Mommy titles" published in the last year: The Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennetts, Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World by Linda R. Hirshman, Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and To Hell With All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife by Caitlin Flanagan.
Rich focuses on Bennetts's book, which was published earlier this month
and "argues that mothers who stay at home with their children are
financially, emotionally and medically at risk." Citing Nielsen
BookScan, which measures an estimated 70% of a book's market, she said
the book has sold 5,000 copies. But while Cathy Langer of the Tattered
Cover in Denver said, "I really expected more [sales] than what we're
seeing," Mike Ferrari, a director of merchandising at Barnes &
Noble, said the book is "selling extremely well."
Ellen Archer, publisher of Voice, which published The Feminine Mistake,
told the paper: "This is a book that's going to build over time through
word of mouth." The title is in its fourth printing and has 42,000
copies in print.
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Effective May 1, Independent Publishers Group will distribute Search
Press's full line of arts and crafts titles. Search Press, which has
headquarters in the U.K., has been distributed by Midpoint since 1997.
Founded more than 30 years ago, Search Press specializes in beading and
jewelry, calligraphy and lettering, needle crafts, painting and
drawing, paper crafts and textiles crafts titles. Its backlist
bestsellers include Terry Harrison's Brush with Watercolour, Beginner's
Guide to Goldwork, Chinese Knots for Beaded Jewellery and Tea Bag
Folding. Fall titles include Art of Drawing: The Nude, Janet Whittle's
Watercolour Flowers and Handmade Embroidered Purses.
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Net sales by publishers in February rose 12.6%, as
reported by 81 houses to the Association of American Publishers. Net
sales for the year to date have risen 10.2%.
Among the strongest categories:
- E-books rose 44.7%, with sales of $2.5 million
- Adult hardcovers rose 43.4%, with sales of $111.9 million
- Children's/YA hardcovers also rose 43.4%, with sales of $37.4 million
- Religious books jumped 31.8% ($39.5 million)
- University press hardcovers were up 6.8% ($5.4 million)
- Children's/YA paperbacks increased 5.7% ($34.1 million)
- Adult paperback were up 3.2% ($97.6 million)
- Higher education rose 3.2% ($10.3 million)
Weaker categories were:
- University press paperbacks, down 0.2% ($4.5 million)
- Audiobooks, down 0.5% ($10.5 million)
- Professional and scholarly books, off 7.3% ($36.2 million)
- El-Hi basal and supplemental K-12 sales, off 10.1% ($79 million)