Oprah Winfrey finally commented on the Herman Rosenblat Holocaust fraud romance on Friday, saying she is “very disappointed.” She told her audience, “That’s what happens with lies. They get bigger and bigger and bigger.” Winfrey said that Rosenblat was going to appear on her show again to “explain himself,” but said that his lawyers stopped the booking. Oprah’s friend Gayle King is disappointed that the media is blaming Oprah: “I called Oprah and I said, ‘I’m so tired of you being the whipping boy for this hoax because he didn’t just dupe you – he duped a lot of people.'” […]
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Cornwell Plugs Forthcoming Book in Scarpetta
The NYT notes that Patricia Cornwell’s latest bestseller SCARPETTA briefly mentions Philipp Meyer’s forthcoming AMERICAN RUST on page 333. Cornwell tells the paper, “I look through his book even now because I admire his writing so much. The same way, frankly, that I do Hemingway.” They share the same agent, Esther Newberg at ICM, who sent the manuscript to Cornwell.NYT
Macmillan Adds Speakers Bureau
Following some of their peers, Macmillan has formally announced the launch of their own speakers bureau representing the house’s authors, with representation already for over 100 speakers and “growing rapidly.” Participants include William Shatner, Emily Giffin, Senator Lincoln Chafee, Rick Atkinson, and investment guru Michael Lipper. The venture is run by Ellis Trevor, formerly a publicist at St. Martin’s, and was founded by Trevor and Thomas Dunne Books editor Kathleen Gilligan. There is more information at their site.
Don't End that Era, Yet: Third-Party Release Misleads on Book Club Plans
The press release we cited earlier today regarding changes at the US book club giant was an “erroneous press release issued by a vendor with whom we have an arm’s length relationship,” Bookspan editorial director Sharon Fantera reports. That release has been pulled from PR Newswire. Bookspan underscores that there has been no change in the company’s name (our erroneous inference from the release) or primary strategy. They do operate on the web under the URL BooksOnline.com but the company itself remains Bookspan. While “positive option has made up a small portion of book club membership for years,” (that’s the […]
End of An Era: Book Clubs Abandon "Negative Option"
The book club giant comprising Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Guild, the Doubleday Book Club and all the rest of the former Bookspan–now renamed Booksonline, so I guess you know the new owners’ strategy–has given up the practice of shipping books to members who forget to tell them not to. “No books are shipped to members automatically anymore,” the announcement declares. “In this day and age of commercial overabundance and enlightened consumers armed with access to a boundless pool of information, it just couldn’t fly anymore.” The clubs now operate from www.bookclubs-online.com.Release
What Oprah Will Promote In January
Starting Monday January 5 Oprah Winfrey will “get back on the wagon” with a variety of her lifestyle experts. Lunch already reported the featured Suze Orman appearance and free ebook giveaway; an Amazon page now highlights the author books and authors. They include Bob Greene’s Bob Greene’s The Best Life Diet Cookbook; Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz’s You: Being Beautiful; Michael Bernard Beckwith’s Spiritual Liberation; Elizabeth Lesser’s Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow; and and Laura Berman’s Real Sex For Real Women. The week of new broadcasts will be followed by a week of related webcasts.