You Know What They Say: Big Print Run, Big…

So Bill’s initial print run will exceed Hillary’s. In the end, it’s all about what’s remaindered, right? If Knopf is smart, they’ll keep the cover price below $25 so people will have to buy one more book to get the free shipping from Amazon. The book will be called My Life. Word is that Bill thought of the title himself. Yeah, with that kind of creative thought, I can’t wait to crack the binding. Bill’s book set to top Hillary: Print 1.5M copies for June debut

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Sex and the Bible

According to a helpful tipster who received the detailed guidelines, Changeling Press will be publishing erotic inspirational fiction. Okay, maybe erotic is the wrong word. They’re looking for novellas (12,000 – 18,000 words) that include characters coming to terms with their own sensuality. The usual rules (what is it with people and their aversion to vanilla sex?) apply. Check out the website and contact the publisher for more details. Changeling Press

Publishers and Editors

From the Synergy Desk

The cynic inside sees this as a marketing ploy, the tip of the iceberg, that sort of thing. Why does the world now need The Yellow Submarine: The Book? Wasn’t a song, an album, and a movie enough? I guess it’s the convenient marketing tie-ins: Paul McCartney will also pen a children’s book while the movie, remastered for your viewing pleasure, will be rereleased. Beatles’ Cult Cartoon to Become Book

Books/Mags/Blogs

Punctuation Reigns

Following up on our previous wide-eyed story about Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss…it appears the book is destined to be an international bestseller. Sure, it may never achieve the status of, oh, Elements of Style, but a modern book for modern times? I’m waiting for my copy. For authors out there who watch trends: there is now a market for the well-written book on punctuation. A worldwide British success story. Full stop.

Books/Mags/Blogs

Lit Gone Too Far

Supposing I accept the concept of hip Canadian writers (and, as I’m not sure I accept the concept of hip American writers, this is a stretch), I still have to wrap my brain around the concepts of: a) CanLit (Canadian literature), and b) HipLit (should not require explanation). And now it turns out the young CanLitters (you can see where this is just too much) are going Prairie, abandoning the drugs and excess that defined their predecessors. Are you with me? Yes, right, better to read the article. Lost in transition: Young Canadian writers of urban fiction are moving on.

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Culture Shock

Today’s PW Newsline is reporting that the New York Times Book Review is looking at ways to increase volume (by making reviews shorter) and to add more mass market (i.e., the stuff people buy and read) reviews. Sam Tanenhaus, the section’s editor, spoke at PW’s annual summit in Manhattan. Publisher’s Weekly

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In Which We Have A New Trend

I don’t know about you, but I can’t keep up. Chick lit, mum lit, hen lit (not, alas, about chickens), lad lit (in which men prove they haven’t forgotten the lessons of Alan Alda). And, of course, the hottest trend in the market: gossip lit. I think this quote from the New York Times article says it all: “there is the thrill of witnessing the workings of a surreal, ostentatious universe where rich people spend $350 on blue jeans.” Yeah, and it’s pretty funny when they break the heels on their Manolos trying to steal cabs from hardworking people. Authors

Books/Mags/Blogs, Square Pegs

Depends on What the Meaning of Publication Date Is

Publisher’s Lunch has scooped Drudge!!! Today’s Lunch reports that the publication date for Bill Clinton’s long-awaited (okay, I admit it — I hardly even give the book a passing thought) memoirs has been set. The book will precede the national conventions. Bill is apparently scheduled to meet with his publisher’s salespeople. Oh well, the scoop is less scoopy. The cat is out of the bag. Bill’s book will be published in late June 2004. He’ll speak (and, I suppose, sign or take photo ops) at this year’s BookExpo America. Expect large crowds and men in black. Publisher’s Lunch Clinton’s memoirs

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How To Get Published, III

And finally, for those of you who don’t head major corporations or have unique insight into the nineties, there is another option for publication: the hanger-on. In this case, Kevin Spacey’s brother (a Rod Stewart impersonator. Go figure.) will spill the dirt on the brother he affectionately calls a “weirdo.” Yeah, with family like this, who needs paparazzi? The good news is the bidding war has only just begun. My Brother Kevin Spacey’s a Lying Weirdo

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How To Get Published, II

Nothing like Monday morning for celebrity book deals, huh? Tina Brown, late of Vanity Fair and Talk and, I think, still a host of her own television show, was given beaucoup bucks to publish a story of the heady, crazy nineties. Set in a time where the poor grew rich and then poor again, The Icarus Complex will lay bare our greatest follies. Tina Lands a Random Book Deal

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