Walter Isaacson has a short essay at Time.com about the genesis of his Steve Jobs biography. Key portions are at this open link at Poynter. Jobs called Isaacson in the summer of 2004 to arrange a meeting in Aspen: “It turned out that he wanted me to write a biography of him…. Because I assumed that he was still in the middle of an oscillating career that had many more ups and downs left, I demurred. Not now, I said. Maybe in a decade or two, when you retire. But I later realized that he had called me just before […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
S&S Moves Up Isaacson’s Steve Jobs Bio to October 24
Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, 56, died Wednesday evening from complications of pancreatic cancer. “We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” the company said in a brief statement. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.” Soon after the news was released, Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of Jobs – whose publication date had already been pushed up to November 21 – went to No. 1 on Amazon and No. 3 on BN.com. Thursday morning Simon […]
Strong Start for O’Reilly’s Lincoln Book
Holt is celebrating strong first-day sales for Bill O’Reilly’s KILLING LINCOLN, a departure for the television host and his first book for the house, reuniting with his publisher from Random House, Steve Rubin. The publisher says the opening day sales alone were in excess of O’Reilly’s first-week sales on his last two hardcover releases, indicating combined print and ebook sales in excess of 30,000 units, and day two sales “are keeping apace.” Rubin says “contemporary times makes it something people really want to read. He feels like Lincoln was a great leader, and what we lack now is leadership.” O’Reilly […]
Palin Accuses McGinniss of Defamation and “May” File Claim
Sarah Palin’s Anchorage attorney has written to Crown, saying that Joe McGinniss’s book THE ROGUE “defamed” the Palins and that both the publisher and author “clearly knew the statements were false [and] admitted they had no basis in fact or reality.” The letter advises “that a claim may be brought against you.” (Or national attention for the threat may turn out to suffice.) It also lays out an argument that would have to be made before a court that McGinniss somehow “waived the attorney client privilege” when he made a casual reference in an email to what the Random House […]
The Next Question on Assange Autobiography
After all of last week’s media attention–and ethical questions–over Canongate’s publication of their Julian Assange book against the author’s wishes, driven by the publisher’s admitted “financial imperative,” the serial fees from the Independent may turn out to be among the title’s leading sources of income. After its first three days on-sale, BookScan UK reports the book has sold just 644 copies, making it the 50th bestselling hardcover and the 537th bestselling book overall for that week. At Amazon UK the printed book (ranked 681) and the Kindle edition (ranked 1,176) continue to slide. That reception may also influence international publishers […]
Assange Says Canongate Is “Profiteering” from “Unfinished Draft”
Julian Assange issued a lengthy statement via WikiLeaks last night, saying that Canongate’s publication Thursday of the early draft of his book over his objections is “old-fashioned opportunism and duplicity — screwing people over to make a buck.” He says the house is “profiteering from an unfinished and erroneous draft.” Assange says the manuscript that became the basis of publication–which Canongate has acknowledged was a first draft–is rather “a narrative and literary interpretation of a conversation between the writer [Andrew O’Hagan] and me.” Assange says it was never submitted to the house at all; instead, he says O’Hagan’s researcher provided […]