CIA Asks Author/Agent to Tone Down the Talking The author of IMPERIAL HUBRIS — revealed to be Michael Scheuer, but still called anonymous by the NYT — has “been ordered to sharply curtail his interviews with news organizations in connection with the book, his publisher said on Wednesday.” Editor Christina Davidson tells the paper that the agent is now, “Prohibited from taking part in more interviews without prior written approval,” which must be sought at least five business days ahead of time. NYT piece VF Seeks Regan; Publisher Seeks Silence Vanity Fair writer Judith Newman is said to have told […]
Lunch for Wednesday, August 4
Fall Book to Skewer Musical Greats Herbert Breslin, longtime publicity agent or manager to the likes of Plácido Domingo, Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Itzhak Perlman, Leonard Slatkin and Georg Solti, has an autobiography coming in October from Doubleday that the Washington Post is ready to call, “Likely [to] be one of the most talked-about musical books of the fall season; it will certainly be one of the nastiest.” Called THE KING AND I: The Uncensored Tale of Luciano Pavarotti’s Rise to Fame by His Manager, Friend and Sometime Adversary, the portrait of former client Pavarotti is judged “devastating.” The paper […]
Lunch for Tuesday, August 3
Author Tommy Franks, Reporting for Duty General Tommy Franks gave a number of interviews for his just-released book AMERICAN SOLDIER, in which he indicates he expects the U.S. will need to maintain soldiers in Iraq for up to five years. Franks says that President Bush’s appearance on an aircraft carrier under a “Mission Accomplished” banner six weeks into the Iraq campaign started with a suggestion of his to thank the troops at a public event. “That was not so everyone could have a victory lap,” Franks tells an interviewer. “We’d been given to believe that once major hostilities were over, […]
Lunch for Monday, August 2
Lagardere Gets Hodder Lagardere has indeed made the winning bid for Hodder Headline, paying $406.4 million (which includes the assumption of about $24 million in debt). The unit is Britain’s fourth largest trade publisher, and its second-largest educational publisher. With 2003 sales of $263 million, the multiple is about 1.5 times sales. Over half of the sale proceeds will be added to parent company WH Smith’s undercapitalized pension fund. Bloomberg story Also in the UK Profile Books celebrated a banner year, driven by EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES, in which sales more than doubled to over $9 million. And Curtis Brown […]
Lunch for Thursday, July 28
Please Note Tomorrow is the gala visiting day at my son’s camp, so I’ll be forsaking publishing news for displays of athletic skill and a seven-year-old rendition of a 70s-style performance of “Love Train.” Lunch will resume Monday. Quarto Buys Again, Adding Aurum The Quarto Group announced their second acquisition of the month, purchasing the Aurum Press. Managing director Bill McCreadie and editorial director Piers Burnett will stay on with the unit and both retain minority stakes in the company. Jacqui Small Editions will remain as a 50-50 joint venture between Aurum and Jacqui Small, with Aurum handling UK sales. […]
Lunch for Wednesday, July 28
Yes, Virginia, Norton Will Make Money on the Book The success of Norton’s authorized edition of the 9/11 Commission Report continues to cause befuddlement far and wide. At least today’s NY Times article clears up the notion that the — given their reported sales figures — publisher was going to lose money on the project. Company president Drake McFeely admits that now it’s only a question of whether it, “Will pay something like normal profits or above-average profits.” (Of course Slate’s Explainer still maintains, “There’s no guarantee that Norton will ever make a dime off this particular deal.” Does anyone […]