April Issue
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BooksBeat
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Mega-Books Latest Parody Targets
The Hunger Games among the latest to be spoofed.
•On sale Tuesday is A Game of Groans: A Sonnet of Slush and Soot (Thomas Dunne, $9.99) by George R.R. Washington (Chicago-based writer Alan Goldsher). It's a parody of George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, the first book in the epic A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series. It's perfectly timed, too: The second season of HBO's Game of Thrones miniseries premieres April 1.
•Published last year, The Girl With the Sturgeon Tattoo (St. Martin's Griffin, $9.99), by the pseudonymous Lars Arffssen, was inspired by The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.Stieg Larsson's computer hacker heroine, Lisbeth Salander, is called Lizzy Salamander in the parody.
The Hunger Pains opens: "I awake to the sound of a growling stomach. It's not mine. It's the cat's. 'Shut up, Butterball,' I moan, as I push him off the bed. He hits the ground with a thud." Hunger Games fans will recognize the nod to "hideous-looking" Buttercup, Katniss' feline nemesis.
"We thought the idea of a teenage death tournament was very funny and not at all psychotic," says Lampoon editor Jonathan Adler.
Paltrow Steamed Over Recipes Charges
by Lindsay Goldwert, N. Y. Daily News
“Love @nytimes dining section but this weeks facts need checking,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “No ghost writer on my cookbook, I wrote every word myself.”
The Times article, titled “I Was a Cookbook Ghostwriter,” stated that Paltrow worked with food writer Julia Turshen on “My Father’s Daughter” as well as on an upcoming book.
Turshen, who maintains an online resume, lists “My Father’s Daughter” as one of her books, although she does not list exactly what her role was in the writing and conception of the cookbook.
According to the LA Times, Tershon gets a “thank you” in the dedication but again, it’s not mentioned what she contributed to the book.
If Turshen’s resume to is to be believed, she and Paltrow have worked together on many culinary projects before “My Father’s Daughter, including “Spain: A Culinary Road Trip” which Paltrow co-authored with chef Mario Batali.
Calls to Grand Central Publishing were not returned.
She also includes contributions to Paltrow’s lifestyle newsletter GOOP among her accomplishments.
Paltrow isn’t the only chef who’s burning over being accused of not writing her own cookbooks.
Talk show host and celeb chef Rachael Ray is also steamed over the Times article, which states that writer Wes Martin writes some of her cookbooks.
“In well over a decade of writing recipes for many cookbooks, television shows, and magazines, I have not now nor have I ever employed a ghost writer," she told Eater.com.“I simply don't use them.”
Sourcebooks Starts Romance eBook Club
While the initial hook is value, Sourcebooks sees the long-term appeal as discovery and community. Editorial manager Deb Werksman says in the announcement, "Readers have a hard time figuring out what they should try next. It's an issue of discovery—finding great new authors with amazing stories."
Members get access to online author "parties," and participation in special offers and contests. Sourcebooks promises "the opportunity to be part of romance publishing process," including focus groups, voting and feedback on titles and covers, the chance to get pre-publication copies for review, and more.
The program launches with Sourcebooks' own titles, which are provided DRM-free (which enables direct selling from their own site without worrying about format compatability). The company is making the club open to other publishers, though recognizes the lack of DRM may be an obstacle to broad participation. Many of the titles are available worldwide as well.
Rowling's Adult Novel Due Sept. 27
The full teaser provided reads:
"When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
"Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the town’s council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations? Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults."
And, if the writing is anywhere near as bad as the teaser, it may be her last. Building on the success of Pottermore, Rowling has launched a new, buggy (slow loading) author website at JKRowling.com.
Ben Heckmann, 14, Author or Fluke?
by Elissa Gootman
Ben reading from one of his books at his school in Farmington, Minn. As the camera rolled, Ben described how “the first time I held my own book, it was just this amazing feeling.” Then he shared a lesson for others his age, saying, “You can basically do anything if you put your mind to it.”
But his two “Velvet Black” books, depicting the antics of a fictional rock band, were not plucked from a pile of manuscripts by an eagle-eyed publisher. They were self-published, at a cost to Ben’s parents of $400 — money they have more than made up by selling 700 copies.
Over the past five years, print-on-demand technology and a growing number of self-publishing companies whose books can be sold online have inspired writers of all ages to bypass the traditional gatekeeping system for determining who could call himself a “published author.”
They include hundreds of children and teenagers who are self-publishing books each year — a growing corner of the book world that raises as many questions about parenting as publishing.
The mothers and fathers who foot the bill say they are simply trying to encourage their children, in the same way that other parents buy gear for a promising lacrosse player or ship a Broadway aspirant off to theater camp.
But others see the blurring of the line between publishing and self-publishing as a lost opportunity to teach children about adversity and perseverance.
The young authors themselves, raised in an era of blogging and equal-opportunity Twitter feeds, take the notion of self-publishing in stride.
“The world is changing — it’s possible for people to do almost anything they set their minds to,” said Elizabeth Hines (pen name: E. S. Hines), a high school junior from Annapolis, Md., whose debut novel, “The Last Dove,” was recently released by the self-publishing imprint Xlibris.
She has other projects going, too. “The Black Panther,” part two of what she is calling the Trilogy of Aeir, will be published soon (at a cost to her parents of $2,700 per title). She has also written the first two books in a separate fictional quintet and begun a work of historical fiction set in 1500s Scotland.
New Book: O.J. Is Innocent
by Cynthia R. Fagen
The real killer is the gridiron great’s troubled oldest son, Jason, theorizes the Texas gumshoe in his latest book, “O.J. Is Innocent and I Can Prove It.”
Dear has spent 17 years de-constructing the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman on the night of June 12, 1994.
Digging through his prime suspect’s trash and abandoned storage locker, Dear says a treasure trove of circumstantial evidence points to the 41-year-old son.
According to Dear, among the items he found in the locker were a hunting knife, owned by the “overlooked suspect,” that forensic experts believe is the murder weapon never found by investigators and photos of Jason wearing knit caps similar to one at the crime scene that failed to be linked to his dad.
Dear questions why his suspect was never interviewed by police nor his fingerprints or DNA compared to unidentified ones at the crime scene.
Jason battled with “intermittent rage disorder” and assaulted his girlfriend two months prior to the murders, Dear claims.
He also contends that Jason confesses to having a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality and heavy drug use and cryptically declares “that this is the year of the knife for me” in his diary.
Jason Simpson, a chef who lives in Miami, couldn’t be reached for comment. His phone was disconnected.
Read more:
Bug-Bucks Audibility
by Michael Cader
The new author services that the fund rewards enrollment in are meant to "to foster direct relationships with more authors" and "encourage authors to promote their audio versions at the same time" as they promote their written work. The program will help authors use social media and "and will offer other awareness and audience-escalation services." It provides links to their Audible product pages (and encouragement to post a review there) and audio samples they can post, along with a free copy of their audiobooks. Authors are not required to do anything other than enroll to earn the bonus payments, but Audible hopes the tools will help authors promote sales of their audiobooks and their work in general. Participants will also get connected to Audible's "team that sees to awareness-generation inside and outside of Audible."
Katz says "we will launch by hoping to learn together and escalate the services piece as the program grows and learning is available. Our listeners love direct contact – a simple Sherrilyn Kenyon guest editor spot boosted her sales by 200% over the next two weeks. Gary Vaynerchuk, the wine maven, did a video chat and Twitter/Facebook thing pushed him to the top of our sales list."
Katz notes, "I have seen our ACX.com authors drive a sale for every Twitter follower, and others work with us on internal merchandising to our large base to escalate sales in ways only the author can achieve." He adds, "I am hoping this effort rewards authors because writing a book is one of the hardest and most meaningful things anyone can do. I hope it builds their audiences and our sales by working together. And I hope it wakes up authors who would like to participate and gets them motivated to getting these rights turned into audio."
To that end, through their ACX initiative, Audible is in the process of expanding the pool of authors to whom that service is available and has been reaching out directly to some successful self-published authors. The company expects to formally open the program to self-published authors in the next week or so, to be announed on their blog. Authors can learn more and enroll here. Bits & Bytes Get Thousands of Additional Listings for AmSAW PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS Today FICTION Inspirational Rebecca DeMarino's A LOVE OF HER OWN, based on the true story of the author's ancestors, Mary and Barnabas Horton, an Anglican bride and her Puritan husband, who must cross an ocean to help found a colony in the wilds of Southold, Long Island, before she wins his love, HEATHER FLOWER, book 2, of the Blue Slate series, and PURE PATIENCE, book 3, to Vicki Crumpton at Revell, in a nice deal, for publication in 2014, by Barbara Scott at WordServe Literary Group (World).
Mystery/Crime Curt Wendelboe's DEATH UPON THE GREASY GRASS, the third novel in the Spirit Road mystery crime series featuring an FBI agent in which he is thwarted by historical tribal animosities that turn deadly after a Big Horn re-enactment plunges him into investigating a case that could rewrite Western history, to Tom Colgan at Berkley, for publication in Summer 2013, by Bill Contardi at Brandt & Hochman (NA).
Paranormal Jenna Kernan's BEAUTY'S BEAST, featuring a Native American shapeshifter who must recruit the son of her enemy to defeat the Ruler of Ghosts, to Ann Leslie Tuttle at Harlequin Nocturne, in a nice three-book deal, by Pamela Harty of The Knight Agency.
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Carol Berg's two books in the SANCTUARY series, to Anne Sowards of Roc, in a nice deal, by Lucienne Diver of The Knight Agency (world English).
Steven Harper's THE HAVOC MACHINE, fourth novel in the steampunk Clockwork Empire series, to Anne Sowards of Roc, in a nice deal, for publication in 2013, by Lucienne Diver of The Knight Agency.
Women's/Romance Alison Kent's THE KITCHEN AT SECOND AND CHANCES, a contemporary romance about a woman who returns to the small Texas town where she lived as a foster child to buy the old Victorian she called home and turn it into a cafe with the help of a carpenter who mentors ex-cons, to Lindsay Guzzardo at Montlake Romance, in a nice deal, in a three-book deal, by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.
Children's: Young Adult Director, writer, and producer of such movies as About a Boy, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and The Golden Compass, Chris Weitz's debut young adult book THE YOUNG WORLD, the first in an epic, post-apocalyptic trilogy, set in a post-apocalyptic New York City in which only teenagers were spared, the heirs to a world brought back to the Stone Age, and now they must learn to master it in order to survive, to Alvina Ling at Little, Brown, at auction, for publication beginning in Spring 2014, by Suzanne Gluck at William Morris Endeavor (NA). Rights to Little Brown UK, and publishers in 11 other territories.
NONFICTION Advice/Relationships From the coauthors of the classic Difficult Conversations, Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone's PULL: THE SCIENCE AND ART OF RECEIVING FEEDBACK WELL (Even When It Is Off-base, Unfair, or Poorly Delivered, and When, Frankly, You're Not in the Mood), a guide to learning to accept challenging professional or personal advice, and using it to fuel genuine change, to Rick Kot at Viking, by Esther Newberg at ICM (NA).
Biography Author of BOMBER COUNTY: The Lost Airmen of World War Two Daniel Swift's THE VISITORS' BOOK, examining the encounters that Ezra Pound had with other leading poets of the period -- including Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore and John Berryman -- while incarcerated in the Washington hospital to which the US justice system confined him after declaring him unfit to stand trial for treason on his return home in 1945 from Italy, to Jonathan Galassi at Farrar, Straus (US) Philip Gwyn Jones at Granta (UK/Commonwealth), for publication in 2016, by David Godwin at David Godwin Associates. david@davidgodwinassociates.co.uk
Health Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics spokesperson Marjorie Nolan, R.D. with "Chopped Champion" Chef Christopher Thames's GHRELIN: The Master Hormone That Rules Your Weight, revealing how Ghrelin, the "hunger hormone," affects every body system, including the part of the brain that gets pleasure from eating, and showing readers how to control it for superior weight loss and many other health benefits, to Anne Egan at Rodale Books, for publication in 2013, by Claire Gerus at Claire Gerus Literary Agency (world).
Lifestyle Andrea Robinson and Gloria Appel's BEAUTY TRUTHS, an irreverent and fun guide for middle-aged women with tips and strategies about how to maximize and celebrate their natural beauty and god-given assets rather than buying into an industry working tirelessly to make aging women feel bad about themselves, to Brooke Warner at Seal Press, in a very nice deal, for publication in fall 2013, by Andrea Barzvi at ICM (NA). brooke.warner@perseusbooks.com
Memoir Father and coach of tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams, Richard William's memoir BLACK AND WHITE: The Way I See It, with co-author Bart Davis, in which he recounts the inspirational and timely story of his insurmountable life in the South when faced with, prejudice, segregation, and racism, and his emergence to raise his daughters as stars in the predominantly white world of professional tennis, to Judith Curr, with Malaika Adero editing, at Atria, by Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media Group (NA).
Science Neuropsychologist, teacher and author of Buddha's Brain and Just One Thing, Rick Hanson's BRAIN CHANGER, translating the insights of the latest brain science into practical tools and showing readers how to use everyday positive experiences to build stronger, healthier, and happier brains, to Julia Pastore at Crown Archetype, in a major deal, in a pre-empt, by Amy Rennert at the Amy Rennert Agency (world). Rights: lkaplan@randomhouse.com
True crime Washington Post reporter and Pulitzer finalist Dan Morse's THE YOGA STORE MURDER, an account of Brittany Norwood's brutal killing of her fellow lululemon athletica employee Jayna Murray, a moving and mesmerizing story about homicide investigators, the ambitions of decent families, what can lie beneath the surface of an ostensibly successful life, and astonishing "overkill" in one of the most placidly suburbanized, commercial, affluent, and safe neighborhoods in America, to Shannon Jamieson Vazquez at Berkley, by David Patterson at Foundry Literary + Media (NA). Foreign: sabou@foundrymedia.com
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