The Times “obtained” a copy of the forthcoming TRUE COMPASS, set for release on September 14, and shares generously and broadly: “The book does not shy from the accident [on Chappaquiddick in 1969], or from some other less savory aspects of the senator’s life, including a notorious 1991 drinking episode in Palm Beach, Fla., or the years of heavy drinking and women-chasing that followed his 1982 divorce from his first wife, Joan. “But it also offers rich detail on his relationships with his father, siblings and children that round out a portrait of a man who lived the most public […]
Archives for September 2009
Amazon Bought Two Locks to Keep LOST SYMBOL Secure
The New York Times won’t be obtaining any copies of Dan Brown’s new book from Amazon, where the e-tailer’s home page carries a note promoting the new release from Jeff Bezos–who insists that “even inside Random House, only a half dozen employees have been allowed to read The Lost Symbol in its entirety.” (Is it supposed to be reassuring that almost no one at the publisher worked with the author on preparing his book for publication?) Amazon has “agreed to keep our stockpile under 24-hour guard in its own chain-link enclosure, with two locks requiring two separate people for entry.” […]
More Objections from Europe, and Amazon Of Course
Yesterday a variety of Dutch publishers filed objections to the Google Books settlement agreement with the Federal District Court, in similar letters from Leopold/Ploegsma; Querido; SWP; Athenaeum – Polak & Van Gennep; and Nijgh & Van Ditmar, citing many of the same objections as other European publishers that we reported on yesterday. Holland’s Unieboek and Spectrum departed from that form letter and sent a different list of objections, including an assertion that “the division of any income between publishers, authors and translators is currently still unclear to us.” New objections were also filed by Czernin Verlag, Sweden’s Liber, and the […]
Ridge Keeps Trying to Explain What He Wrote; Disavows Flap Copy
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge’s book THE TEST OF OUR TIMES: America Under Siege…And How We Can Be Safe Again (Thomas Dunne Books) has drawn attention primarily for a single passage–and Ridge has been making the press circuit trying to explain that he didn’t mean what people think his words say. Ridge wrote of discussions right before the 2004 presidential election, following the release of a new video from Osama Bin Laden, in which “a vigorous, some might say dramatic discussion ensued. Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level, and was supported by Rumsfeld. There was […]
People and Bookselling
Two editors at Pocket, including editorial director Maggie Crawford, and an editorial assistant at Simon Spotlight Entertainment were laid off last week, the Observer reports. At Little Brown UK, David Shelley has been promoted to the new position of deputy publisher. French-language bookstore Librairie de France will close at the end of September after 74 years in business at New York’s Rockefeller Center. The store faced a tripling of its rent.NYDN
Europe Objects
It’s a quiet week in most of book publishing but a busy one in the offices of Federal District Court Judge Denny Chin as Friday is the deadline for filing objections to the proposed Google Books settlement agreement. (September 4 is also the deadline for opting out of the settlement entirely.) Until recently, despite the noisy public debate about the sweeping and complex settlement, very few objections of substance had been filed with the court. The most detailed legal objections, covered here previously, were raised by attorney and author Scott Gant in his August 20 filing, while support has come […]