New York Magazine shares some short anecdotes from Dan Menaker’s forthcoming book MY MISTAKE, which releases tomorrow. “Financial success in frontlist publishing is very often random, but the media conglomerates that run most publishing houses act as if it were not…. Let’s say you publish a fluky blockbuster one year, the corporation will see a spike in your profits and sort of autistically, or at least automatically, raise the profit goal for your division by some corporately predetermined amount for the following year. This is close to clinically insane institutional behavior.” Also: “I think it’s impossible to do an editor-in-chief’s […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Coming Soon
Two non-standard publication announcements of note today: – Simon & Schuster Children’s has announced a December 10 publication — with an announced first printing of 250,000 copies — of WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?, a picture book by the Norwegian comedy due Ylvis, based on their viral novelty music video hit The Fox. (They say in the announcement, “We actually started the process with the illustrator before we even uploaded the video to YouTube.”) – Author of our four novels including TIME OF MY LIFE, Allison Winn Scotch is self-publishing her novel THE THEORY OF OPPOSITES. “After a terribly discouraging experience […]
Malcolm X Heirs Sue to Block Publication of A Diary One Daughter Authorized
Several of Malcolm X’s family members are reported to have filed a lawsuit last Friday to block publication by Chicago-based Third World Press of a diary the civil rights leader wrote in the last year of his life. The reproduction of a private diary kept as he travelled to the Middle East and Africa immediately before his assassination was scheduled for publication this week and lists daughter Ilyasah Shabazz as one of the book’s co-editors. The lawsuit, obtained by the NY Post and other publications and apparently filed in “Manhattan federal court” (but not yet listed on any federal docket) […]
Threshold Withdraws Book by Debunked Benghazi Attack Eyewitness
Threshold Editions said on Friday that it has “withdrawn from publication and sale all formats of” THE EMBASSY HOUSE, written by “Sergeant Morgan Jones” — now revealed to be independent security contractor working for the State Department Dylan Davies, and Damien Lewis. The publisher said in a statement they were taking action “in light of information that has been brought to our attention since the initial publication of THE EMBASSY HOUSE.” They are “notifying accounts that they may return the book to us” and recommending they withdraw it as well. On Friday morning 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan issued an apology for her […]
Still Going: Amazon Rebuts Line in Brad Stone’s Statement
After The Everything Store author Brad Stone responded on Bloomberg Businessweek to MacKenzie Bezos’s one-star review of his book at Amazon.com, Amazon spokesman Craig Berman took issue with Stone’s post. Referring to Stone’s line, “Bezos said that he married MacKenzie after searching for someone tenacious enough to break him out of a Third World prison,” Berman calls it, “Entertaining, and inaccurate. Mr. Bezos says ‘resourceful’ – not ‘tenacious.’ Mr. Stone knows that. He also knows that the correct word doesn’t work quite as well for his purpose. “Resourceful” and “tenacious” mean different things. They also have subtle connotations. You might […]
MacKenzie Bezos and Brad Stone Debate Accuracy of Everything Store — Online, Naturally
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 […]