Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’s DUTY: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, has been announced by Knopf for publication January 14, 2014. (It’s the first in a two-book deal announced in 2011.) Gates writes in the introduction that “this is a book about my more than four and a half years at war” but “also about my political war with Congress each day I was in office and the dramatic contrast between my public respect, bipartisanship, and calm, and my private frustration, disgust, and anger. There were also political wars with the White House, staff, and occasionally with the […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Musicians’ On-Again Off-Again Stories
Billy Joel‘s one-time co-author Fred Schruers is reportedly writing a biography of Joel for Crown. Newsday reports Joel saying in a statement, “Fred Schruers is free to write whatever kind of book he wants based on the firsthand information he gathered during the time he spent with me.” Crown did not reply to a query for confirmation yet. In 2011 Billy Joel cancelled his planned memoir with HarperCollins THE BOOK OF JOEL about two months before publication, saying, “It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I’m not all that interested in talking about the past, […]
People, Etc.
Crown is designating specialized vertical marketing teams for the imprints that comprise Crown Archetype, to create “even more focused, specialized teams with expertise within our respective core categories.” Meredith McGinnis has been promoted to director of marketing for Harmony Books, focused on health, wellness, spirituality, and self-improvement, with marketing manager Christina Foxley working only on Harmony titles. Julie Cepler moves over to serve as director of marketing for Archetype, Crown Forum, and Three Rivers Press, while Tommy Cabrera is promoted to marketing associate for those imprints. VP, director of marketing and publicity for Crown Business Tara Gilbride will continue in […]
Forthcoming: Rubio, More Hogarth Shakespeare, and Maybe Ray Kelly
Florida Senator Marco Rubio has a second book on the way from Sentinel, “about the future of the country and the future of the Republican Party,” due after the 2014 mid-term elections. Cindy Adams says that NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly has “met” with Bob Barnett and has decided Barnett is representing Kelly for a book deal, though the NY Post headlines the story as a rumor. Two more authors were announced for The Hogarth Shakespeare line, which launches in 2016. Margaret Atwood will write a prose retelling of The Tempest, and Howard Jacobson will retell The Merchant of Venice. “For […]
Simsion Tops October Indie Next List
Graeme Simsion’s THE ROSIE PROJECT is the No. 1 pick on the ABA’s October Indie Next List. You can start reading it right now in our free ebook Publishers Lunch Buzz Books 2013: Fall/Winter — and that makes 5 out of the last 7 months that one of our Buzz Books selections has topped the Indie Next list. (You’ll find substantial excerpts of 40 big forthcoming fall releases to enjoy there.) The full Indie Next List: The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion The Tilted World, by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri Quiet Dell, by […]
Books In the News
The NYT Magazine has a big profile of Norman Rush, running in advance of the September 10 release of SUBTLE BODIES. The AP provides an advance look at the work of their own reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman included in the forthcoming September 3 release ENEMIES WITHIN: Inside the NYPD’s Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden’s Final Plot Against America.” They lead: “The New York Police Department has secretly labeled entire mosques as terrorism organizations, a designation that allows police to use informants to record sermons and spy on imams, often without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Designating an […]