French Lessons Napoleon’s Deluge in France, Coelho in Teheran, and Italy’s Wayward Professor A fiendishly degenerate account of a dead academic leads off in France this month, as the pseudonymous author San Antonio (the late Frédéric Dard) tramples all cultural propriety in his delirious novel Napoléon Pommier. Here’s the pitch: The august Professor Titan Ma…Continue Reading
A Quick Reference Fix for Publishers As we were trying to find hard data on the subject of reading groups recently, we realized once again how little useful, accurate, or relevant information there is on book publishing. So we asked a few people who are in the knowledge business — reference librarians, consultants, packagers, etc….Continue Reading
Crisis management was the reigning publishing paradigm when, in 1998, George Soros’ Open Society Institute funded the Authors Guild Midlist Book Study. So it was slightly ironic when, at a meeting last month featuring study author David Kirkpatrick, several participants pronounced the midlist in satisfactory health and certified that it had never been as well…Continue Reading
Dictators’ Desserts Trujillo’s Dominican Feast and Franco’s Fall in Spain, Plus Cremer Redux in Holland Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa conquers lists in both Spain and Argentina with The Goat’s Feast, a novel that’s captivated critics (it “makes one’s flesh creep,” one wrote admiringly) and has been hailed as a revival of Vargas Llosa’s best…Continue Reading
Direct Marketing Days NYC 2000 The “e-” prefix firmly attached itself to this year’s Direct Marketing Days in New York, where direct response pros from dozens of industries gather for an ever-lengthening shindig at the Hilton each May. Indeed, d-marketing gave way to e-marketing as fifty percent of the sessions were devoted to aspects of…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Reader’s Digest announces that Harold Clarke, most recently President of Random’s Children’s Publishing Division, has been named VP Publisher New Market Development, for RD’s Global Books and Home Entertainment Division, reporting to SVP and President John Bohane. Speaking of exurban, Janet Harris has left Workman, where she has overseen all sales, to become Associate…Continue Reading
The Cultural Agency Gets Real on Books Chances are the National Endowment for the Arts ranks somewhere down there between, say, Sears and Pets.com on the candidate list for publishers’ future business partners. But the organization that helps fund National Poetry Month and gave Michael Cunningham a fellowship more than a decade ago has re-branded…Continue Reading
