Bachman Book Deal

In the Works

A book deal could be in the works for congressional representative Michele Bachmann.  Following a rally at the South Carolina statehouse Monday, the Minnesota congresswoman said she is "in the early talking stages" of doing a book. Bachmann, who told The Associated Press she's received several book requests, said she's considering whether she has the time to work on a book.

Many of Bachmann's likely rivals for the Republican nomination have written books, an opportunity for a potential candidate to define themselves without the filter of the media or the interference of critics. Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty and Mike Huckabee, among others, have all recently written campaign-style tomes.

Seattle PI

Brave New World

Top-Ten American Ban

Huxley's vision of a totalitarian future comes third on American Library Association's list of 2010's 'most challenged' books

Banned in Ireland when it first appeared in 1932, removed from shelves, and objected to ever since, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is still making waves today. The novel of a dystopian future was one of the most complained about books in America last year, with readers protesting over its sexually explicit scenes, "offensive" language and "insensitivity".

The American Library Association (ALA) has just released its list of the 10 books which Americans tried hardest to ban last year. Topped yet again by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell's And Tango Makes Three, a picture-book telling the true story of a chick adopted by two male Emperor penguins at New York's Central Park zoo, the list is a compilation of complaints made to libraries and schools requesting a book be banned because of its content. Dozens of attempts were made to remove And Tango Makes Three from library shelves, said the ALA, with those seeking to ban the title protesting at the "homosexuality" of the two penguins and its "religious viewpoint".

Guardian

Lagerfeld To Create

Books Fragrance

The book-aholic has found the cure for everyone who misses the smell of paper in these digital times: a perfume that smells of books, thanks to a "fatty" olfactory mark.

According to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Lagerfeld - who is known for his love of books and says he stocks more than 300,000 of them in his famous personal library - is already working on the fragrance with his publisher of choice, Steidl, which distributes most of the designer's photography books.

FAZ reports that Paper Passion, which will be sold inside a hardcover book with the pages hollowed out to hold the flacon, will be developed with Berlin perfumer Geza Schön, who told the paper that "the fragrance will have a fatty note," probably along the lines of linoleum, and that he was taking his inspiration from the smell of printed and unprinted paper.

For those who can't wait until the perfume comes out, there are several paper-inspired fragrances already on the market, including Demeter's Paperback, Zadig & Voltaire's Tome 1, or Hammam Bouquet by Penhaligons.

Independent

Goon Squad

To HBO

It has been some week for Brooklyn-based author Jennifer Egan. Her novel A Visit From The Goon Squad won the Pulitzer Prize, and she cited the HBO series The Sopranos as her inspiration. Now, Egan has closed a deal with HBO to develop her sprawling tale into a TV series. Groundswell's Michael London will be executive producer and Jocelyn Hays Simpson will be co-exec producer. Egan will be a consultant. The network hasn't yet set a writer to draft the series pilot, but it will happen quickly, I'm told.

The book was published last summer by Knopf and slowly built a head of steam. It focuses on a coterie of characters first introduced as they orbit the world of punk rock in 1980s San Francisco. Their lives are explored for the next 30 or so years, with interlocking stories that deal as much with changes in the lives of the characters as it does changes in technology. Egan uses unorthodox methods to tell her tale. One chapter is about how, in 2015, babies use touch screens to download music they like. Another chapter is written as a PowerPoint presentation by a 12-year-old girl, and the subject is famous rock songs that have pauses in the middle. During the chapter, the teen reveals much about her life. The Pulitzer committee described the book as "an inventive investigation of growing up and growing old in the digital age, displaying a big-hearted curiosity about cultural change at warp speed."

The deal was in the works before Egan won the Pulitzer, but her reps at ICM just closed with HBO. It's the first big TV project for Groundswell.

Deadline New York

A Daughter Remembers William Styron

by James Campbell

Martin Amis, son of Kingsley, once remarked wittily that he had been name-dropping “ever since I first said, ‘Dad.’ ” The Amis family, which counted Philip Larkin and Anthony Burgess among its regular guests, had nothing on the Styrons. “My parents were invited on a day cruise out of Edgartown harbor with President and Mrs. Kennedy on the Patrick J,” Alexandra Styron writes. “My father and the president ­talked about ‘Nat Turner,’ which my father had just begun.” Truman Capote urged William Styron to marry Rose Burgunder (he would have anyway). Peter Matthiessen attended the wedding. James Baldwin stayed with the family in Roxbury, Conn., while writing “Another Country.” Alexandra — called “Albert” by her father — remembers Frank Sinatra “lathering up” in the outdoor shower at their summer retreat on Martha’s Vineyard. When James and Gloria Jones, “drinkers and swearers,” came to visit, Gloria wouldn’t let her husband pass the room where little Albert was watching television without snapping, “Give her a twenty!” Edward Kennedy risked his dignity on Vineyard dance floors. Nothing if not eclectic, Styron also counted Fidel Castro among his acquaintances.

In recording a family history as rich and fascinating as this, as any privileged author is entitled to do, the trick is to tell the tales without seeming to be showing off. Alexandra Styron has no difficulty in this respect. For her purpose in “Reading My Father,” by turns brilliant and shocking, is to play the high-society tune in counterpoint with another, harsh and discordant one: life with Father was practically unbearable.

Take Christmas morning, sometime in the early 1970s. “Any excitement I felt about the Suzy Homemaker oven I asked for, the Crissy doll and the banana-seat bicycle . . . was cauterized by the looming, glowering pet my father was getting into.” It began with an obscenity. Then: “My GOD. You should all be shot! (Daddy always thought that everybody ‘should be shot’ or ‘put away.’) . . . With a slam of the door, he’d disappear.” Daddy wasn’t only getting mad; he was going mad. To a child (Alexandra was born in 1966), compassionate understanding is apt to come gradually; the immovable memory is of “petty despotism,” how “the sound of him coming down the stairs signaled that our revels would soon be ended.” On another Christmas morning, Styron hauled the festive wrapping paper onto the lawn and set it alight: “Who ARE you people?”

NYT

Amazon Introduces

Author Interviews

SEATTLE, Apr 25, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Amazon.com today introduced "Author Interviews@Amazon," the new author interview series that will be available in a new content destination called The Backstory (www.amazon.com/thebackstory). Author Interviews@Amazon launches with five video interviews, including celebrity chef and James Beard Award-winning Tom Douglas, New York Times bestselling debut author Joshua Foer, young adult authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, and Gossip Girl producer John Stephens. New author interviews will be announced via the Amazon.com Books Facebook page and on Omnivoracious.com, the Amazon.com Books blog. Customers will be able to post questions for visiting authors that will be incorporated into each interview. All edited videos will be available on the book's detail page and accessible from archives in The Backstory.

"We're extremely lucky to have fascinating and talented authors gracing our hallways here at Amazon and taking time to chat with us," said Mari Malcolm, Managing Editor, books at Amazon.com. "We love these conversations so much that we wanted to share them with our customers. We hope that customers will take the opportunity to submit questions on our Amazon Books Facebook page or through our blog, Omnivoracious. They can also contact us at authorinterviews@amazon.com with questions for visiting authors."

The Backstory will feature Author Interviews@Amazon interviews and other exclusive author content such as guest reviews, interviews, authors' favorite playlists, recipes and more.

Amazon PR Release

Levi To

"Set Record Straight”

by Stephen Lowman, Washington Post

Simon & Schuster isn’t going to let the clock run out on Levi Johnston’s 15 minutes of fame.  The publisher announced on April 25 that its Touchstone imprint had signed a deal with the father of Sarah Palin’s grandson to release his memoir this fall. In “Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin’s Crosshairs,” Johnston promises to “set the record straight” about the Palin family.

“I want to tell the truth about my close relationship with the Palins, my sense of Sarah, and my perplexing fall from grace — how I feel about what I learned,” Johnston said in a press release.  I’m doing this for me, for my boy Tripp and for the country.”

Johnston’s rocky teenage relationship with Bristol Palin was a sideshow event of the 2008 presidential election. Last year, he posed for Playgirl magazine and she appeared on “Dancing with the Stars.”

“This is a sweet and funny book with a touch of irony; a fascinating tale of a misunderstood boy figuring out how to be a man and father after being thrust into the spotlight and subsequent media circus at a very young and vulnerable age,” said Stacy Creamer, vice president at Touchstone.

Bristol also has a memoir coming out. “Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far” will be released on June 21.

Deepak Chopra To Helm

New Crown Imprint

Deepak Chopra will work with his longtime publishers at the Crown Publishing Group to create a Deepak Chopra Books imprint housed within Harmony Books, launching in 2012. The goal is to publish "important, innovative non-fiction books by visionary authors who are committed to enhancing people's lives"--so books from other people, initiated and recommended by him. Chopra says in the release "together we will build a vibrant new publishing home for thought leaders who are committed to transforming people's lives and who are on the cutting edge in providing new perspectives and solutions to the challenges that all humans face."

Chopra will "initiate, recommend, and submit exclusively to Crown approximately six nonfiction book projects each year." Crown tells us there is no specified initial term for the imprint, and their "expectation is that it will be an enduring partnership." Chopra will also advise harmony publisher Tina Constable "on a wide range of publishing opportunities" and work with Harmony senior editors Julia Pastore and Gary Jensen. Constable adds, "We are thrilled to expand our 20-year relationship with him with the launch of Deepak Chopra Books, an imprint that will be informed by his deep wisdom, discerning eye, and incredible commitment to creating positive change in the world."

In addition to the new imprint, Chopra will continue to write his own books for the Harmony imprint.

JA Konrath Sells

Quarter Million eBooks

Thriller author Joe Konrath posted on his blog on Sunday that he has now sold a total of 276,112 ebooks.  Around 245k of these were sold at Amazon’s Kindle Store. By Christmas he expects to have sold half a million ebooks.

In just one month, March, he earned over $68,000 from his ebooks.

Konrath is an award-winning novelist who has written mysteries, thrillers and horrors under the names J.A. Konrath and Jack Kilborn.

For years he struggled to find a publisher for his novels. Then in 2003 he finally sold a novel Whiskey Sour. But until that sale he had written nine unpublished novels and amassed 500 rejections from agents and publishers.

Fast forward a few years and the e-publishing revolution is changing the industry. Now Joe Konrath is one of the leading advocates of ebook self-publishing.

If there is one critical ingredient to self-publishing success it is that authors must be very proactive when it comes to marketing their books. This was never a problem for Joe Konrath anyway. For example, since selling Whiskey Sour he has visited more than 2,200 bookstores around the U.S. for book signings. He works hard at connecting with his readers, and he’s reaping the rewards, big time.

Publish Your Own eBooks

Vet Defends Auschwitz

Heroics Story

LONDON (Reuters) – A British World War Two veteran and his publisher have defended his account of smuggling himself into Auschwitz concentration camp to witness first hand the horrors of the Holocaust after doubts surfaced about the story.

Denis Avey, 92, wrote "The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz" about his time as a prisoner in a nearby labor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

The book, published by Hodder & Stoughton, generated significant media coverage, including by Reuters. But a subsequent investigation by the Daily Mail quoted historians, Jewish groups and former Auschwitz inmates who said they had serious misgivings about some of its content.

The main point of contention was Avey's account of how he twice swapped places with a Dutch Jew in order to smuggle himself into Auschwitz III camp following weeks of planning including bribes to a guard.

Piotr Setkiewicz, head of research at the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum, told Reuters that while it was impossible to prove or disprove Avey's swap story due to the absence of survivors personally involved, it was a problematic account.

"Theoretically it is possible to do such a thing, but for practical reasons it would be extremely difficult," he said.

"It is a question of confirmation, and I can't see any way to confirm Mr. Avey's story. Nevertheless, privately, I don't think this (the swap) happened."

He said it was almost certain the swap would have been detected even if a guard was bought off and a handful of fellow prisoners kept informed.

Setkiewicz added that the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign under which Avey said he marched almost certainly did not exist at Auschwitz III, although he did not have conclusive proof.

Hodder & Stoughton issued a point-by-point rebuttal of the Daily Mail article by Guy Walters, while Avey and co-author Rob Broomby stood by their story.

"I am certainly not distancing myself from the book at all," said Broomby. "I stand by everything in the book."

Broomby, a journalist, said he saw Avey shortly after the Mail article appeared and he made the following statement:

"I am disappointed and sorry that they have doubted my word. This sort of thing is deeply unpleasant ... I did what I did and that is it. In war everything you do is more extreme. I stand by my account. It is a fact."

Yahoo News

Rushdie on Pakistan:

No Way!

Are we really supposed to believe that Pakistan didn’t know Osama bin Laden was living there for five years? Salman Rushdie on why it’s time to declare the country a terrorist state.

Osama bin Laden died on Walpurgisnacht, the night of black sabbaths and bonfires. Not an inappropriate night for the Chief Witch to fall off his broomstick and perish in a fierce firefight. One of the most common status updates on Facebook after the news broke was “Ding, Dong, the witch is dead,” and that spirit of Munchkin celebration was apparent in the faces of the crowds chanting “U-S-A!” last night outside the White House and at ground zero and elsewhere. Almost a decade after the horror of 9/11, the long manhunt had found its quarry, and Americans will be feeling less helpless this morning, and pleased at the message that his death sends: “Attack us and we will hunt you down, and you will not escape.”

Many of us didn’t believe in the image of bin Laden as a wandering Old Man of the Mountains, living on plants and insects in an inhospitable cave somewhere on the porous Pakistan-Afghan border. An extremely big man, 6-foot 4-inches tall in a country where the average male height is around 5-foot 8, wandering around unnoticed for ten years while half the satellites above the earth were looking for him? It didn’t make sense. Bin Laden was born filthy rich and died in a rich man’s house, which he had painstakingly built to the highest specifications. The U.S. administration confesses it was “shocked” by the elaborate nature of the compound.

We had heard—I certainly had, from more than one Pakistani journalist—that Mullah Omar was (is) being protected in a safe house run by the powerful and feared Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) somewhere in the vicinity of the city of Quetta in Baluchistan, and it seemed likely that bin Laden, too, would acquire a home of his own.

In the aftermath of the raid on Abbottabad, the old flim-flam (“Who, us? We knew nothing!”) just isn’t going to wash.

In the aftermath of the raid on Abbottabad, all the big questions need to be answered by Pakistan. The old flim-flam (“Who, us? We knew nothing!”) just isn’t going to wash, must not be allowed to wash by countries such as the United States that have persisted in treating Pakistan as an ally even though they have long known about the Pakistani double game—its support, for example, for the Haqqani network that has killed hundreds of Americans in Afghanistan.

Daily Beast

Three Majors

Launch Bookish.com

Three of the largest trade publishers--Hachette Book Group, Penguin and Simon & Schuster--have founded and funded an independently-run site launching to connect readers with books and authors, Bookish.com. The unit's predecessor Obikosh listed itself as having received between $10 million and $20 million in start-up funding.

The site intends to build community and information around books and authors from all publishers, and though downplayed in the release, it will also sell ebooks and print books directly--along with referring customers to other retailers. The announcement underscores "Bookish is dedicated to working closely with book retailers, and in the coming weeks will reach out to explore ways to complement the retailers' efforts and enhance all reader experiences."

Hachette CEO David Young says that key retailers were briefed earlier this week and they will have "dynamic discussions starting today with retailers about what we can do to help." He says "the role of the bookshop is going to be constantly emphasized and exalted" on the site, including comprehensive events listings and notifications. Simon & Schuster ceo Carolyn Reidy says the site is meant to be "complementary to the whole retail environment, not only competitive," and indicates one reason they have announced ahead of the actual launch is so that they can engage in conversations with retailers. In turn, Bookish ceo Paulo Lemgruber, who "developed and ran digital businesses for Comcast and Reed Elsevier," tells us that they are "in discussions with a third party that will do all the ecommerce for print, audio and ebooks." He says that vendor "will be setting all the prices." Lemgruber says he has been working on the project for almost a year.

Young says the venture was sparked by Reidy. Hachette Book Group joined quickly with "complete support" from Lagardere management and Penguin followed suit, at which point the partners had "enough money and commitment to make this happen." Young notes they relied constantly on advice and supervision from counsel to avoid any anti-trust issues, and he reinforces that the site itself will be independently run and make all decisions about pricing and promotion on its own.

Reidy herself says the idea "came out of discussions among publishers of the need...to create one-stop shopping for consumers to find everything they want to know about books in one place" and gather up all the sophisticated marketing and supplementary materials that publishers have been creating. She adds that they conducted consumer research which confirmed "consumers were frustrated that they couldn't go to one place," admitting that "no consumers wants to go around to dozens of publisher sites to find what they want." The second original objective was "to create a recommendation engine that was better than anything out there," drawing in part on what publishers and authors know about their own titles.

The consumer soft-launch is planned for mid-July or thereabout. Bowker is their data provider, so the site will have comprehensive book data from the start, and AOL is billed as a participant in a "strategic alliance." AOL will "provide advertising sales support for the new venture" and the AOL Huffington Post Media Group is "partnering with the site to engage users with Bookish content across the network's wide range of destination sites." Lemgruber says that advertising is envisioned as "our primary revenue" stream, which attests to their goal of attracting considerable consumer traffic. "The number one goal of the first year is to build as large as an audience as possible," he adds.

Lemgruber says the content will be a mix of aggregation, material supplied by publishers and authors, community-driven lists, and original material. But "the main editorial goal is to provide great recommendations" on what to read next. The site will also be "optimized for tablets and mobile." Editor-in-chief Charlie Rogers was EIC at NBC Universal and has worked at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and The Paris Review; CTO Andy Parsons was CTO for Outside.in and Digital Railroad. Current staff is a team of 14 people.

The site is just a placeholder for now, but here is the official description in the press release:

"Designed to answer the question 'What should I read next?' as well as to deepen the reading experience around books, authors and genres, Bookish will feature exclusive content covering a wide selection of titles and formats. It will also offer readers the convenience of purchasing print and digital books directly or through other retailers."

Bits & Bytes

Thousands More Listings for AmSAW PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS Today

FICTION

Debut

Alex Myers's REVOLUTIONARY, the story of Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man and served undetected for a year and a half in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, by Sampson's transgendered direct descendent, to Anjali Singh at Simon & Schuster, at auction, in a good deal, by Alison Fargis at the Stonesong Press (NA).

Women's/Romance

NYT bestselling author Maya Banks's next three Scottish historical romances, to Kate Collins at Ballantine, in a significant deal, by Kimberly Whalen at Trident Media Group.

Portuguese rights to Fran Baker's MISS FRANCIE'S FOLLY and MISS ROSE AND THE RAKEHELL, to Leonice Pomponio at Nova Cultural, in a nice deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in 2011.

DelphiBks@aol.com

General/Other

Chad Kultgen's THE AVERAGE AMERICAN MARRIAGE, a sequel to The Average American Male, to Cal Morgan at Harper Perennial, in a six-figure deal, in a two-book deal, by Alex Glass at Trident Media Group (World).

Children's: Picture book

Oscar-nominated actress and author of the NYT bestselling Freckleface Strawberry series Julianne Moore's next picture book, tentatively titled MY MOM IS A FOREIGNER, to Kelli Chipponeri at Chronicle Children's, at auction, by David Kuhn at Kuhn Projects (World).

Johan_almqvist@chroniclebooks.com

NONFICTION

Advice/Relationships

Author of Always Talk to Strangers, David Wygant's NAKED: HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT PARTNER BY REVEALING YOUR TRUE SELF, showing readers how to find their deepest truth and love themselves unconditionally while releasing fears and insecurities, and stopping self-sabotaging behaviors as the basis of finding their ideal partner, to Jill Kramer at Hay House, by Michael Ebeling at Ebeling and Associates.

Diet

The Atkins Nutritional Team headed by Colette Heimowitz's THE NEW ATKINS FOR A NEW YOU COOKBOOK: 200 Dellicious Low-Carb Recipes You Can Make in 30 Minutes or Less, a follow up to the bestselling 2010 update of the classic diet brand offering quick, tasty recipes for today's Atkins lifestyle including vegetarian options, to Michelle Howery for Touchstone, for publication in January 2012, by Joy Tutela at David Black Literary Agency.

How-To

Writing coach Laura Brown's HOW TO WRITE ANYTHING: A Practical Guide to Everything You'll Ever Have to Write -- at Work, at School, and in Your Personal Life, covering job advertisements, condolence letters, classified ads, online auction listings, notes to recover lost property, obituaries, eulogies and more, to Jill Bialosky at Norton, at auction, by James Levine of Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (NA).

efisher@levinegreenberg.com

Memoir

Psychotherapist Nancy Davidson's THE SCHOOL OF LOST CATS, in which the author collects lost cat posters from around the world, uncovering the nature of loss and love while contacting the owners and learning the humorous, sometimes heartbreaking, and always illuminating stories behind the posters, to Brenda Copeland at St. Martin's, by Stephen Barr at Writers House (NA).

Film/TV: BorowitzD@unitedtalent.com

Narrative

Jonathan Grotenstein and Storms Reback's SHIP IT HOLLA BALLA: How a Group of 19-Year-Old College Dropouts Used the Internet to Become Poker's Craziest, Loudest and Richest Crew, pitched as "part Social Network, part Tucker Max," the story of the early days of online gambling and how, inspired by accountant Chris Moneymaker's out-of-nowhere win of the world series of poker, a group of young internet poker upstarts became fast friends, moved into a Vegas mansion, and took on the old poker establishment, to Marc Resnick at St. Martin's, by Daniel Greenberg at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (NA).

efisher@levinegreenberg.com

Pop Culture

Journalist and longtime "Janeite" Deborah Yaffe's AMONG THE JANEITES: A Journey through the World of Jane Austen Fandom, to discover why so many people are drawn to Jane and her books and what they find in the companionship of others who love her, to Nicole Angeloro at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt by Jenni Ferrari-Adler at Brick House (NA).