How Much Proposal Press Will It Take to Sell Canseco’s Book? Jose Canseco is generating a lot of ink for an unsold book proposal, ostensibly to drum up interest though it’s starting to feel like they’re using all of their ammunition long before the proposed book ever comes out. Today’s WSJournal says he is “making a hard pitch to sell book editors on a proposed expose — promising to implicate the major leagues, and further implicate himself, in a widening steroids scandal.” They also note, “All this salesmanship is designed to boost the market for a book proposal that is […]

Moore’s Next Two to New Publisher Michael Moore has sold two untitled books to Warner for a reported $3 million, according to Variety. The first book will look to the 2004 presidential election, scheduled for publication in 2003, and the second will be a memoir. In a clear reference to Moore’s travails in getting Stupid White Men to market in the aftermath of 9/11, Larry Kirshbaum tells Variety, “Michael is a man with a mission. All he wants is a publisher who will give him support.” But HarperCollins spokesperson Lisa Herling tells us, “The Michael Moore books were presented to […]

S&S Children’s Imprints Realigned; New Paperback Publisher to be Named Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Publishing Division announced a restructuring of their imprints into three distinct lines. The biggest change is the creation of a paperback publishing group, comprising the Aladdin and Simon Pulse imprints. For the now the paperback line will report to division president Kristina Peterson, with a publisher expected to be named shortly. Ellen Krieger remains as vp and associate publisher of paperbacks. The move is positioned as the natural outgrowth of the group’s acquisition of the Pocket paperback lines over a year ago, and spokesperson Tracy Van […]

Farkas to BKWU Judi Farkas has left AMG to join Broder Kurland Webb Uffner as a feature literary agent. One of the leading agents in shepherding books to film producers, Variety cites such clients as Colson Whitehead and Leif Enger. Recently, also subsequent to the sale to The Firm, agent Noah Lukeman left AMG/Renaissance to reestablish his independent literary agency. Variety on Farkas Gruner + Jahr Shopping Bertelsmann-owned magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr has an “ambitious plan” for expansion in the US, the WsJournal reports. Potential targets have included BusinessWeek and Primedia, and the company’s “wish list” is said to […]

Goodwin Quits Pulitzer Board After having withdrawn as a judge for this year’s Pulitzer prizes earlier in the year, Doris Kearns Goodwin finally resigned from the Pulitzer Board. In what the NYTimes characterizes as a “terse letter of resignation” she says, “As much as I have enjoyed working with all of you on the Pulitzer Board, I believe that after the controversy earlier this year surrounding my book… and the need now to concentrate on my Lincoln manuscript, I will not be able to give the board the kind of attention it deserves.” The newspaper implies that the resignation was […]

Big Deals: The Church, Science, Basketball, Fiction, and More Another book on the crisis in the Catholic Church from a high-profile theologian, a splashy new look at the frontiers of physics, a scientific history of noise and its effects on all of us, an NBA All-Star’s story, a new bio of Dylan, a number of big fiction sales, three major CEOs on why being good to the environment and addressing social problems is also good business, and still more — plus new deals live during the day. Isn’t it time to stop missing out and join PublishersMarketplace.com? And our searchable […]