File it under smart people who do dumb things. Instead of ignoring, or laughing off, the book ON HER MAJESTY’S SERVICE by Ron Evans, who guarded Rushdie when he was in hiding, the knighted author is threatening to sue–which doesn’t really invalidate the book’s assertions. Rushdie tells the Guardian, “He is portraying me as mean, nasty, tight-fisted, arrogant and extremely unpleasant. In my humble opinion I am none of those things.” He gives them paragraphs of quotes and denials, culminating in this: “This is not a free speech issue, this is libel – there is a difference between those two […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Italian Publisher Overspends to Bring Bestseller to US
The IHT reports on Italian publisher Baldini Castoldi Dalai’s efforts to put out an English translation of Giorgio Faletti’s 2002 book I KILL, “an Italian thriller about a serial killer on a murder spree in Monaco [that] has been translated into two dozen languages and sold five million copies worldwide.” The IHT adds, “For Italian novels, even best sellers at home, the situation is particularly difficult. A few, like Umberto Eco’s Name of the Rose, have managed to break through. But Susanna Tamaro’s Follow Your Heart, the biggest selling Italian postwar novel, with more than 14 million copies sold, according to its […]
Bear Stearns Book Due Next Month
Brick Tower Press has generated finance world media for their just-announced BEAR TRAP, written by an anonymous senior director at Bear Stearns and marketer Andrew Spencer at Creative Management Group. The book is due September 22 and they say the author will reveal his identity at the time. It’s promoted as “describ[ing] what happened within Bear’s walls and on the trading floor that resulted in the most sensational financial crisis of our times. He recounts in detail the chain of events that led to the downward spiral-from both Bear’s point-of-view and from the overall world financial marketplace’s.” But Fox News’s […]
Trade Version of Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" Coming
J K Rowling’s TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD–the book of wizarding folk tales referred to in the Deathly Hallows se she wrote by hand and illustrated herself, producing only seven copies, one which was bought at auction by Amazon for $4 million–will be issued in a trade edition after all, on December 4. Rowling will also add “notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by generous permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters’ Archive.” Amazon will produce up to 100,000 facsimile “collector’s editions” (at $100/50 pounds) and Scholastic and Bloomsbury will print and distribute trade editions–all on behalf of the Children’s High […]
Speaking of Vetting Memoirs
The NYT takes an interest the forthcoming IN HIS SIGHTS, written under the pseudonym of Kate Brennan, “one of the first full-length memoirs of a stalking victim….The stalking, which continues sporadically today, is at once bizarre, terrifying and, owing to Paul’s deep pockets, maddeningly relentless and difficult to trace, according to the book. It led the author to move 16 times in 16 months, she writes.” The paper makes it clear that “her true identity and that of Paul were revealed to the New York Times so that the newspaper could confirm the outlines of her case.” Harper editor Jennifer […]
More Stephenie Meyer
USA Today insists, “Stephenie Meyer is the most famous writer you’ve never heard of. But not for long. Meyer’s growing popularity is like a flashing billboard on our pop culture landscape.” But Meyer says “I think that after 30 years of being the most normal person in the whole world, it’s really hard to become ungrounded. When I’m not out on tour or doing photo shoots, I tend to just forget about it all.” BREAKING DAWN goes on sale just after midnight on Friday, with a first printing of 3.2 million copies. (Her first, and bestselling, book, TWILIGHT, has 3.3 […]