Novelist MacKenzie Bezos (wife of Jeff) posted her first book review on Amazon.com since 2001, saying she “wanted to like” Brad Stone’s The Everything Store, but she didn’t. “Everywhere I can fact check from personal knowledge, I find way too many inaccuracies, and unfortunately that casts doubt over every episode in the book.” But her larger issue is “techniques which stretch the boundaries of non-fiction, and the result is a lopsided and misleading portrait of the people and culture at Amazon.” Particularly a misleading portrait of the ceo. She writes: “One of the biggest challenges in non-fiction writing is the risk that a truthfully […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Danish Publisher First to Issue House of Cards Revision
Denmark’s Gyldendal announced that they will be the first publisher to issue a revised edition of British politician and author Michael Dobbs’ novel HOUSE OF CARDS. The house says it was their “encourage[ment]” that prompted Dobbs to create a new ending — and then a complete revision — following renewed interest prompted by the Netflix series. Dobbs says in their statement: “I hadn’t re-read it since I typed ‘The End’ twenty-five years ago. When I did read it once again, I thought it was still a great story but showed some signs of being a ‘first effort.’ I’ve learned a […]
People, Etc.
Associate publisher of Thomas Dunne Books Pete Wolverton has taken on the the additional title of editor-in-chief. St. Martin’s publisher at large Dan Weiss is resigning on October 30 after 4 years with the company. He can be reached at dweissco@gmail.com. Weiss will focus on consulting, strategic investment and philanthropy. Also at St. Martin’s, marketing manager Eileen Rothschild has been promoted to associate editor. She will also be the content coordinator for SMP’s e-originals. David Adams has joined Open Road Media as an associate acquisitions editor. Previously he was a literary scout with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, and before then an […]
The Mysteries of Morrissey
After one of the strangest paths to publication we’ve seen, British musician Morrissey’s memoir AUTOBIOGRAPHY sold 20,000 trade paperback units in its first day on sale, Penguin UK reported. A spokesman for Waterstones Jon Howells explained to the AP, “In Britain, he is one of our icons. His is the great untold story from the ’80s generation of music heroes.” The author launched the book at a signing…in Sweden. Reviews in the UK newspapers have ranged from high to low. For a quick overview, the Daily Beast has already culled the “juiciest bits.” Though rights had not been sold previously […]
Over Government Objections, ATF Whistleblower Book Set for December
ATF agent and whistleblower John Dodson was in the news earlier this week because of moves by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to delay or block entirely his book, THE UNARMED TRUTH: My Fight to Blow the Whistle and Expose Fast and Furious — and support registered for Dodson from the ACLU. But on Friday, Threshold Editions officially announced the title for publication, and moved up planned publication from the January 14, 2014 date currently listed on bookselling sites to December 3. The book is billed as “a hard-hitting account that offers, for the first time, the inside story […]
Brad Stone’s Theory of Everything Jeff Bezos
Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Brad Stone‘s THE EVERYTHING STORE is excerpted on the cover of his employer’s upcoming issue. While the abridgment does not deal directly with Amazon and ceo Jeff Bezos’ relationship with the book trade — presumably such details are best left for the book itself, which will be released on October 15 — it offers a sense of the company’s “notoriously confrontational” corporate culture (which “begins with Bezos, who believes that truth shakes out when ideas and perspectives are banged against each other”), some insight into Bezos’ early childhood (Stone tracked down his biological father, Ted Jorgensen, who […]