I'll be the featured guest on Stirring the Cauldron with Marla Brooks (the acclaimed Hollywood personality) to talk about ghosts, my favorite investigations, animal communications, my books, publishing in general or anything else you'd like to chat about. Just go to the link: and follow it thru Listen Live option - the chat room at 9 pm EST tomorrow night-Thursday, June 26th to hear me make a fool of myself! DINAH ROSEBERRY Editor at Large and her Radio show
Hungry Media Dragon Zell Aide on Book Pages Reminding the world to get a little CREATIVE
A memo from Tribune chief innovation officer Lee Abrams is being widely quoted. This snippet speaks to his view on book pages in newspapers: This is seriously the craziest Lee Abrams post ever.
Heard a conversation about how Book reporting doesn't generate revenue and may have to go away. WAIT! Maybe Book reviews and coverage are one of those things that don't generate revenue right now, BUT--are trademarks for newspapers and elicit high passion from readers. At XM, we had Opera channels. Low listenership...HIGH passion...AND--it was one of those things that even if people didn't listen or even like Opera, it was one of those things you had to have for completeness. Maybe Book sections in newspapers are just dated. Not the idea...but the look and feel. Maybe they're modeled after a book store in 1967 whereas we're in the Borders, Amazon, B&N era. Maybe they are too scholarly. Maybe they avoid genres like Christian books, Celebrity books and Popular novels, opting instead for reviews of the Philippine Socialist Movement in the 1800's. The point here is maybe Book sections need to be as dramatically re-thought as Borders re-thought retail. Not dumbing down--but getting in sync with the 21st Century mainstream book reader."
• Zell Aide on Book Pages ; [; ]
• · Not surprisingly, yesterday's news that former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil has agreed to buy PFD from CSS Stellar generates more attention in the UK news media. Neil, the current chief executive of the Spectator, explained his decision to buy the troubled literary agency, which is only just recovering from last year's mass defection that created United Agents, stemmed from its back catalog: "If you were an asset-stripper you would be prepared to pay this price to close the company down and live off its back book, though that is absolutely not what we want to do." Michel attempts to draw line at PFD; The PFD Saga Continues
• · · · · Tragic Novel Hopes For Happy Ending Today's advance spotlight is on Andrew Davidson, a Manitoba native whose debut novel THE GARGOYLE has attracted considerable attention since Doubleday signed North American rights for $1.25 million last year. (The book publishes here in August, and also in 22 countries, including Davidson's native Canada.) Despite planned "title star treatment" from Borders and B&N (is the newspaper not allowed to use the term "co-op" in an article?) some doubt readers will want to turn past the first 75 pages of apparently explicit content. "It's too graphic, too sexual," said Rainy Day Books' Vivien Jennings, speaking of readers in the vicinity of the bookstore's Fairway, KS home. "It's not going to float here." But Davidson brushes off such concerns: "I am no more concerned about readers in the Midwest embracing the book than I am about readers at either coast, or abroad." Another Potential Debut Fiction Bestseller Preview from the WSJ ; Poets & Writers prints an extended version of Jofie Ferrari-Adler's interview with former Houghton Mifflin publisher Janet Silver, now at Nan Talese/Doubleday as an Editor-at large. Agents & Editors: A Q&A With Editor Janet Silver
• · · · · · The Wall Street Journal looks at how David Wroblewski's debut novel THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE (Ecco) benefited from being championed by Amazon.com. The 566-page literary novel has already gone into its seventh printing -- a reported total of 90,000 copies -- a week after its publication. Driving that unexpectedly heavy demand has been strong reviews and promotional support from Amazon.com, which chose the book as one of the best books of June, kept it on its home page for two weeks at a 40% discount before the book hit stores, and posted an essay written by the author at Amazon's request. "We also had a preorder banner in May, which is something we do for books that we think will have significant interest for our customers," says Tammy Hovey, an Amazon spokeswoman. Amazon's Clout Helps Debut Novel ; Amazon's enthusiasm, combined with strong reviews in national newspapers, has helped other retailers take notice. "It's doing fabulously well and we've already reordered," B&N fiction buyer Sessalee Hensley told the WSJ, and Costco increased its initial order to 18,000 copies from 3,000 Amazon Shows Its Clout: Written exclusively for Beautiful Minds and Hearts