Casey's Legal Team

Blasts Book Pitch

Casey Anthony’s legal team has accused her ex-fiancé Jesse Grund of “cashing in” for shopping a book detailing his relationship with the mother of tragic Caylee Anthony.

“I witnessed the devastating effects of severe dysfunction,” Grund writes in the proposal, being shopped by D.J. Snell at Legacy Management and a copy of which has been obtained by Page Six.

“I know what events in her life have molded her into the vilified Casey Anthony,” he adds.

Grund, the son of a Queens minister, started dating Anthony in January 2005 and that summer, she told him she was expecting Caylee in a text message, which allegedly read: “I am pregnant. It’s yours.”

He was present when Caylee was born, but a paternity test revealed he was not the father. They ended their engagement in June 2006, when “I watched Casey change into the infamous ‘party monster’ everyone else saw,” his proposal says.

The rest of his story covers Caylee’s disappearance, Casey’s defense and, he writes ominously, “The story played out ... has a deeper, darker unknown element to it.”

NY Post

Johnston Writes of

Bristol's Pregnancy

by Alikcia Rancilio, AP

NEW YORK (AP) — Levi Johnston writes in his upcoming book that his ex-girlfriend Bristol Palin was so angry about her mother's pregnancy with son Trig that she wanted to get pregnant, too.

Johnston says when Bristol found out her mother, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was expecting a baby she responded she should be having a baby, not her mother. He says she told him in March 2008, "let's get pregnant."

His book, "Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs," comes out Sept. 20.  In Bristol Palin's own book, "Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far," released last June, she says she lost her virginity to Johnston on a camping trip when she got drunk on wine coolers.

Johnston, who has feuded often with the Palin family, says in his book if that's when Bristol first had sex, he "wasn't there." He says they did camp with friends but it was "well after" the two, who began dating in 2006, were sexually active. He says he remembers an instance in which Bristol wanted to get alcohol but he was against it because she would "lose her judgment" when drinking.

Johnston says he had "been too dumb" to use protection while dating Bristol but knew having a baby was "what she wanted."

Bristol Palin, who has been featured on ABC's TV dance competition "Dancing With the Stars," became pregnant at age 17 and had their baby at 18.

Johnston says when Sarah Palin first learned of the teen pregnancy she laughed, thinking it was a joke. He writes it was her husband, Todd Palin, who really showed his anger, raising his voice and telling him he needed to quit school and get a job.

Johnston claims Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate, also had an idea to adopt Bristol's baby to "avoid a scandal" but the young couple wouldn't allow it. Their son, Tripp, was born in December 2008.

Google

Dog-Eared Paperback

Endangered by eBook

by Julie Bosman

These are dark and stormy times for the mass-market paperback, that squat little book that calls to mind the beach and airport newsstands.

Recession-minded readers who might have picked up a quick novel in the supermarket or drugstore are lately resisting the impulse purchase. Shelf space in bookstores and retail chains has been turned over to more expensive editions, like hardcovers and trade paperbacks, the sleeker, more glamorous cousin to the mass-market paperback. And while mass-market paperbacks have always been prized for their cheapness and disposability, something even more convenient has come along: the e-book.

A comprehensive survey released last month by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group revealed that while the publishing industry had expanded over all, publishers’ mass-market paperback sales had fallen 14 percent since 2008.

“Five years ago, it was a robust market,” said David Gernert, a literary agent whose clients include John Grisham, a perennial best seller in mass market. “Now it’s on the wane, and e-books have bitten a big chunk out of it.”

Fading away is a format that was both inexpensive and widely accessible — thrillers and mysteries and romances by authors like James Patterson, Stephen King, Clive Cussler and Nora Roberts that were purchased not to be proudly displayed on a living room shelf (and never read), but to be addictively devoured by devoted readers.

NYT

Frey "Done

Writing Books"

A couple of years after publishers decided they were through with con man/huckster James Frey, the so-called author at the launch party for Booktrack (the company creating soundtracks for books) announced, "I'm done writing books."  Frey also promised that he did not write the "Pittacus Lore" YA books. 

"The only books I've written," he said, "are the ones with my names on them, and I'm never writing another book.  I have other things to do in life.  I'm not bored with it—I'm still going to do television shows and movies and videogames.  I just like having other people write books for me, you know?" 

When Frey originally submitted I Am Number Four to publishers, it was reported to be a promising "collaboration between an unnamed New York Times best-selling author and a young up-and-coming writer."

CIA Demands

Scribe Cuts

by Scott Shane

WASHINGTON — In what amounts to a fight over who gets to write the history of the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath, the Central Intelligence Agency is demanding extensive cuts from the memoir of a former F.B.I. agent who spent years near the center of the battle against Al Qaeda.

The agent, Ali H. Soufan, argues in the book that the C.I.A. missed a chance to derail the 2001 plot by withholding from the F.B.I. information about two future 9/11 hijackers living in San Diego, according to several people who have read the manuscript. And he gives a detailed, firsthand account of the C.I.A.’s move toward brutal treatment in its interrogations, saying the harsh methods used on the agency’s first important captive, Abu Zubaydah, were unnecessary and counterproductive.

Neither critique of the C.I.A. is new. In fact, some of the information that the agency argues is classified, according to two people who have seen the correspondence between the F.B.I. and C.I.A., has previously been disclosed in open Congressional hearings, the report of the national commission on 9/11 and even the 2007 memoir of George J. Tenet, the former C.I.A. director.

Mr. Soufan, an Arabic-speaking counterterrorism agent who played a central role in most major terrorism investigations between 1997 and 2005, has told colleagues he believes the cuts are intended not to protect national security but to prevent him from recounting episodes that in his view reflect badly on the C.I.A.

Some of the scores of cuts demanded by the C.I.A. from Mr. Soufan’s book, “The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against Al Qaeda,” seem hard to explain on security grounds.

NYT

Bits & Bytes

Get Thousands of Additional Listings for AmSAW PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS Today

FICTION

Debut

Liza Klaussmann's TIGERS IN RED WEATHER, about a family in Gatsby-esque Martha's Vineyard forced to reckon with what lies just under the surface when a murder disrupts their lives, to Judy Clain at Little, Brown, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Caroline Wood at Felicity Bryan Agency.

Children's: Young Adult

Debut author Lanie Bross's FATES, the story of an Executor sent to earth to bring about human destinies, who finds herself unaccountably experiencing human emotions, leading to an epic romance set across multiple worlds, to Wendy Loggia at Delacorte, in a significant deal, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Stephen Barbara at Foundry Literary + Media, on behalf of Paper Lantern Lit.

Foreign: hgordon@foundrymedia.com

UK Children's

SEAN GRISWOLD'S HEAD author Lindsey Leavitt's AUTHENTICALLY VINTAGE, about a girl who decides to go vintage - forswearing 21st century technology and accomplishing the goals her grandma set for herself at 16 - when she discovers her boyfriend cheating on her with a cyber wife in an online game, to Alice Swan at Scholastic UK, for publication in Spring 2013, by Sarah Davies at the Greenhouse Literary Agency.

Foreign: info@rightspeople.com

Canada

Linda Holeman's untitled book, pitched as 'Anna Karenina meets Downton Abbey', and set in 1861 Imperialist Russia in the aftermath of the Emancipation of the Serfs, a sweeping tale of how the political turmoil of the country affects one landowner's family, to Anne Collins at Random House Canada, in a very nice deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in spring 2012, by Sarah Heller at the Helen Heller Agency.

sarah@helenhelleragency.com

NONFICTION

Advice/Relationships

UCLA professors Thomas Bradbury PhD & Benjamin Karney PhD's LOVE ME SLENDER: How Smart Couples Eat Right, Move More & Live Longer, drawing upon twenty years' worth of couples research to show the reader that deciding to take action about our weight cannot be done in a vacuum, but rather must start with fundamental changes in how we communicate with our life partners and the shared life choices resulting from that communication, to Sharbari Bose Kamat at Free Press, in a good deal, by Rob McQuilkin at Lippincott Massie McQuilkin (NA).

rob@lmqlit.com

Biography

Author of Life in Opera Maria-Cristina Necula and Virginia Zeani Rossi-Lemini's THE DISCREET DIVA: The Life of Virginia Zeani, the renowned opera singer's authorized biography, to Jane Kathleen Kupersmith at Indiana University Press, in a nice deal, for publication in Autumn/Winter 2012/2013, by Paul Feldstein at The Feldstein Agency (World).

paul@thefeldsteinagency.co.uk

Cooking

James Beard Award winner Kathy Brennan and Glamour Books editor and creator of the blog devilandegg.com Caroline Campion's KEEPERS: Simple, Essential Weeknight Recipes and Tips to Savor and Share, a realistic, focused, and well-rounded cookbook for busy people who want to make good, nutritious meals during the week and don't want to spend two hours doing it, to Pam Krauss at Rodale, by William Clark at William Clark Associates (NA).

Humor

Megan B.'s BANGABLE DUDES IN HISTORY, a collection of historical hotties (princes, dandies, scientists, composers, assassins and more) and an exploration of what makes them so darn foxy, complete with photos, little-known historical facts, and charts and graphs, based on the blog of the same name, to Sarah Knight at Simon & Schuster, at auction, by Monika Verma at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (World).

Reference

C. Gregory Dale, Benjamin Herman, and Anne McBride's THE PLANNING COMMISSIONER'S GUIDEBOOK, a thorough and up-to-date overview of what to expect when you join a local planning commission, to Timothy Mennel at APA Planners Press, in a nice deal, for publication in spring 2013 (world).

Religion/Spirituality

Robert Morgan's next two books, to Jonathan Merkh at Howard Books, in a good deal, by Chris Ferebee at Yates & Yates.

Go PRO for PENNIES a Day!