Your Gmail sponsored link that will make you hate Democrats of the day: "Mama Voted For Obama." It's precisely the idiotic indoctrinating garbage you think it is, except for this awesome scene of cartoon Obama reenacting the My Pet Goat incident as, presumably, the nation burns. Good work, Mama. The terrorists won. [Little Democrats]
It's the best blog-to-book news yet. Remember the self-explanatory blog Hot Chicks with Douchebags, which was turned into a photo book (with commentary)? First, three of the hot chicks in question sued, and now one of the douchebags is suing the author and publisher, the Smoking Gun reports. "The plaintiff has been, and continues to be, the object of ridicule in that he... continues to be called a Douchebag by friends, acquaintances, coworkers, employers, and strangers alike." And here's his photo after the jump, as shown in the book. You be the judge.
In yet another sign that the entire media industry is completely Obama-dependent, the President-elect's magic touch is being felt in book sales. Obama's mere mention on Sunday's 60 Minutes that he was reading a book about FDR without "specifically naming a title or author," reports the New York Times, caused all hell to break loose. Which book could it be? Publishers have gone insane, re-printing FDR books that they'd published and scrambling to see if theirs was really the book that Obama had mentioned. He's being compared to the new Oprah for his new influence on the book-buying habits of middle America, which is normally hard-pressed to read the back of a cereal box. Can a Presidential Book Club be the bailout the book industry is looking for?
Between the recession and the weakened state of publishing, nothing good has been predicted both for the industry and holiday book sales. But you'd never know it by the insane advances that celeb books—some submitted to publishers without so much as a proposal—are getting. In the wake of Tina Fey's $6 million advance for a book of humorous essays, Sarah Silverman's $2.5 million dollar advance for the idea of a collection of comedic essays, and a sure-to-be-huge advance for a Jerry Seinfeld book on the horizon (some estimate $7 million, which would put him on par with Tom Wolfe's last advance), many in publishing are railing against huge book advances that Galleycat sensibly points out will never earn out. Dan Strone, however, who is Seinfeld, Silverman, and Tori Spelling's literary agent, tells the Observer today about the celeb-book pissing matches amongst publishers: "I don't make people spend the money." No, but he does happily collect his 15% cut!
The names of the most recent crop of people who passed the New York bar exam were made public today, and guess who's not on it? Prozac Nation author Elizabeth Wurtzel, who decided to enroll in law school after she felt powerless on 9/11 (and her subsequent books Bitch and Now, More Again: A Memoir of Addiction were literary duds). Wurtzel, who graduated last May at the age of 40, doesn't sound like she's the best test-taker.Wurtzel was seen taking the July exam at the Javits Center, a tipster tells us, but, as you can see below, the pass list is Wurtzel-less.
Vanity Fair editor and Spy founder Graydon Carter reviewed a biography of Paris Review editor George Plimpton in the New York Times Book Review this Sunday. ("I could have been a contender [to be a Great Male Author]," Plimpton once said, "If I hadn't done the Paris Review...) Carter revealed both his admiration for "George," as well as the fact that that when casting agents are scouting around for a "patrician type to play an editor ," Plimpton also had him beat—the secretly Canadian Carter was only the third choice for such a character:
Our friend Nate Silver is already making canny career moves! The baseball stat superfan-turned political pollster blew everybody's mind by calling the presidential election results down to a tenth of a percent. We advised him to pursue a career in corporate consulting in order to become a wealthy power player who works for the forces of good. Well he didn't start "Silver Consulting" just yet, but he is positioning himself to become the next Malcolm Gladwell-esque overpaid business idea guru. Just as good!: The Observer breaks the news that you will soon be able to buy Nate's book(s)!
Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground radical kid in the 60s whose relationship with Barack Obama was the single most important issue facing America during the presidential campaign, has finally spoken to the intrepid journalists at Good Morning America (Click to watch a highlight). He kept his mouth shut like a good boy throughout the entire campaign, and now it's time to sell a few books! So Ayers has smartly added a new afterword to his 2001 memoir and reissued it, with this stunning addition: he may have been a "family friend" to Obama, rather than just "a guy in the neighborhood." Grab your guns, patriotic Americans! Ayers told GMA that, yes, he knew Obama from way back, and yes, he was on a board, and all of this is public, and thousands of other Chicagoans knew Obama just as well as he did, and that the entire issue is bullshit, all of which is patently true. Still... It's now clear that Hussein Obama is little more than a Manchurian Candidate who has squirmed his way into the White House only to take direct orders from radical latte-sipping college professor Ayers! Even more clearly, Ayers is a canny businessman for someone so opposed to the capitalist power structure. Instead of selling 35 copies of his book a year to his own students as required reading, he's now poised to sell thousands to various right wing lunatics who will buy it just to "preserve the evidence" of his Obama ties for use in the coming race war. Good for him.
Henry Blodget, the Wall Street analyst returned to journalism, wrote that Michael Lewis' (last?) Portfolio article on short-seller Steve Eisman and the collapse of Wall Street generally is "pure pleasure from start to finish." It's true; it's the sort of piece that will keep you up late, assuming you're remotely interested in the ongoing collapse of the modern financial system. But the article's most compelling section deals not so much with finance as with the eternal tension between writer and subject, i.e. fucking over your sources. '
JAP-y comedian Sarah Silverman, who used to be funny and fuck Matt Damon but is now mostly obnoxious, just sold a book to HarperCollins for $2.5 million, reports the New York Observer. Silverman, who dated equally unfunny Jimmy Kimmel and who would be so much more attractive if she stopped dressing like a teenage boy, will follow the Tina Fey book-writing formula by writing a "collection of comedic essays." Fey got $6 mil, by the way, and her proposal was modeled on the "humorous essays" of the also-unfunny Nora Ephron. "A collection of comedic essays" is the new phrase when you're a celeb who wants to sell a book for a lot of money, but haven't actually started writing one yet.
What's a really fast shortcut to addiction? Being a child star. Remember Full House, the lovably terrible situation comedy about the whitebread-dorky Tanner family, whose cast included infants Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen? Jodi Sweetin—the actress who played young Stephanie for eight years—went through meth-addiction hell and lived what she called a "double life." She's since gotten married, had a child, and acted in an indie TV pilot, Small Bits of Happiness. Today, reports the Observer, Sweetin signed with Simon and Schuster for an addiction memoir. The price was "in the six figures"—America loves a redemption/celeb combo! (Click for a video of Jodie's best work on Full House, which very well may have led to her urge to smoke just about anything.)
As we hear they're having lay offs right now, we're a little reluctant to kick Entertainment Weekly when it's down. But, meh, what the hell. Why is the magazine so ridiculously gung-ho about Twilight? You know Twilight, it's that book series and soon-to-be movie about a cloudy young woman named Bella and the irritatingly chaste relationship she has with a chiseled demigod of a vampire named Edward. Sure it's set a good deal of teen girl and sad lady shut-in poonani afire, but srsly EW? They've had some 50 mentions of the books or the movie in the past six months, including two, count 'em two!, splashy sexy covers.
Was the Page Six item about semi-famous, media-savvy retired escort Natalie McLennan—and the anonymous website that sprung up accusing her of informing on Spitzer's hooker Ashley Dupre—just a timely form of PR placement? After all, the former call girl has a book coming out November 25, The Price: My Life as Natalia, New York's $2000 an Hour Escort. And we've got a copy of the book proposal. The tone in the excerpts is a bit flip, low on any serious, raw introspection. But if anyone is interested in the economic breakdown of how a high-class call girl makes her living—she doesn't keep nearly all of the money herself—here's her explanation of the take-home pay of a two-grand girl.
Oy, chto budet! Sad young literary novelist Keith "Konstya" Gessen, self-exiled to his motherland of Russia, usually confines his rantings to n+1, little-read novels that we make fun of, and his Tumblr. But today, he wrote a Diary column about how the financial crisis is affecting Russia for the London Review of Books. And guess what—we can't even tease him for being pompous and self-important, as is the custom, because we know nothing about how the financial crisis affects Russia. So! We'll publish an excerpt, snark-free, because although we might have an understanding of advanced capitalism as it relates to blog networks or diminished tipping at strip clubs and dive bars, we have no idea about the ruble. Keith, consider this your lucky day.
Oh, good for Ryan Lizza. The campaign reporter was going to write a book about the 2008 election, but then David Remnick hired him and said "don't write a book, write for my fancy magazine instead," and so Lizza did. Now he's got a deal to write a book about the first year of Barack Obama's presidency, which ought to at least be a nice change of pace from all the books about the 2008 elections we're about to get, yowza. Of course, he's still not alone: also writing a book on Obama's first year is Newsweek's Jonathan Alter. Everyone else who's ever been published is, of course, finishing their 2008 election books. Let's take a look at the lineup: Newsweek's Richard Wolffe is writing Renegade: The Education of Barack Obama. He's got reporting from the trail, interviews with Obama and aides, and his sexy accent. Will Be Published: June 2009. Should Be Published: The day after inauguration, when Obama's terrible secrets can finally be revealed. Too late, America! Evan Thomas and the staff of Newsweek will release 250 pages on the campaign, based on the seven-part Secrets of the Campaign piece we all read on the internet. The title: Long Time Coming: The Historic, Combative, Expensive, and Inspiring 2008 Election and the Victory of Barack Obama. That is a terrible title. Will Be Published: Early January. Should Be Published: This week. Well, it basically was published last week, but whatever. Washington Post's Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson are working on their own untitled campaign book, "a narrative history of the entire campaign." Will Be Published: Fall of 2009. Should Be Published: Are you serious? Fall of 2009? We'll be reading books about the 2010 midterms by then guys! Get it done ASAP! New York's John Heilemann and Time's Mark Haperin are working on a book too, without a title or publication date. Should Be Published: Never, unless Heilemann dumps Halperin. Then publish it whenever you like. Historian Michael Takiff's book? We know nothing about it. He would like it to be called The Making of the President 2008. But no one has bought it yet, we don't think? Sad. Should Be Published: In July, like Theodore White's Making of the President 1960 book was, back when people read books. Not-Quite Campaign Books: Washington Post's Anne Kornblut is writing Rejection: Why America Isn't Ready for a Woman President PBS's Gwen Ifill is writing The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. Jabari Asim is writing What Obama Means MediaMatters' Eric Boehlert is writing a book about bloggers. Did we leave anyone out? Yes, probably. Americans Clamoring For All Things Obama [LAT] Newsweek's Wolffe Inks Obama Book Deal [Calderone/Politico] Books Written and Inspired by Obama Get an Election Boose [USAToday] Washington Post's Anne Kornblut Writing Hillary Book for Crown in Mid-Six Figure Deal [NYO] A Race to Deliver Election Books [WSJ]
Oh boy, hot news from Random House: once-popular entertainer Ann Coulter has a new book coming out! It's on sale, uh, five days after Christmas, and it's called.. well, apparently the title is embargoed. "This book is so hot we can't tell you what it's about," Random House claims. "Ann Coulter never disappoints." Man. They sure sound excited to be promoting this one, right? We can guess the book will be full of the usual Ann Coulter material, slightly updated for a new age of Democratic ascendence, but what is the over-arching theme? How will she top SLANDER: Liberal Lies About the American Right, TREASON: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, and GODLESS: The Church of Liberalism? Maybe this one is called "SOCIALISM." Or "GAYNESS." Or "BESTIALITY." Or "BAD THING: Liberals Being Not Good From Pontius Pilate to Kim Jong-il." Or "NEGRO: That Is The Color Of the Liberal Heart In Illegal Immigrant Spanish, Not a Racist Reference to Barack Obama (Wink Wink)." Or "ALIEN LIZARD PERSON: What I Am." Whatever it's called, we're sure it'll be a big hit, because Ann Coulter is still very popular and relevant.
Apocalyptic pronouncements have been made in publishing amidst the layoffs and rough economy; even megastore Borders is struggling. Barnes and Noble's chairman told the Wall Street Journal last week that "never in all my years have I seen a retail climate as poor as the one we are in;" he's preparing for a terrible holiday sales season. It might not be all bad, reports Motoko Rich in today's Times. After all, Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind sold a million copies in a year—in 1936, the middle of the Depression. Other literary types remain true to their wishful thinking: the whole nation was simply distracted by the election and that's why they weren't reading books for the last year!
Had Ted Turner's old rival Rupert Murdoch just issued an "autobiography" written by a former lieutenant, as Ted Turner has, one suspects it would not have been embraced so eagerly by sympathetic journalists at 60 Minutes, the Times, the Wall Street Journal and even AP, which meditated whimsically on the CNN founder's chapter titles. Maybe that's because the News Corporation chairman still enjoys the blood sport of media feuds in his old age, coordinating multi-outlet attacks on relative small fry like Keith Olbermann, while Turner is in the business of moving on — and making plenty of media friends in the process. He has forgiven Murdoch for what he suspects was the hiring of private investigators to prove him insane in the 1980s, as he explains in the attached 60 Minutes clip, and put behind him the loss of $7 billion, a devastating divorceand a bad prescription for Lithium.
