another "memoir" decreed a lie

Oh, Augusten Burroughs. How far you have fallen. I devoured your memoir, "Running with Scissors." I watched the movie on-demand (even paying Time Warner a whole $3.95 for it) and laughed at Alec and Annette's crazy antics. Oh, and Gwyneth and pre-Manson Evan Rachel Wood. But now. Now. To find out that the Turcottes "are each fine, decent, and hardworking people." And that you've paid them off. Settled even. No! I haven't been so distressed since I found out that James Frey was a spoiled subarban kid who was no tougher than my grandmother.

When Oprah crucified Frey on live TV over the "lies" in "A Million Little Pieces," publishers everywhere feared what this meant for the memoir. After all, every person remembers certain events differently. As Burroughs himself writes the Turcotte family's memoires "are different than my own." The solution seems easy enough - simply change the names and sell it as a thinly-veiled autobiographical novel, "based on real life experiences."

Yes, I know that James Frey initially tried to sell his as a novel. And it got rejected again and again. But, seriously, publishers, let's think about this. Do you want to get sued? Do you want Oprah to hate you? Go the route of Jack Kerouac for "On the Road." Hell, follow in the shoes of Lauren Weisberger and "The Devil Wears Prada." And just promote the bejesus out of the author's background. People will latch on and barely notice the distinction. In fact, they'll become obsessed with identifying who these characters are actually based on. Save yourself the trouble in advance. It worked for Hemingway…until he killed himself.

Love and Kisses,
Ladytron

An open letter to PW

Dear PW:

What the hell! First your email bounces back and then you just ignore me - do I not send you tons of books each year? Are they not good enough? Sure I know some of them weren't the best - but they have feelings too ya know!

WTF PW!

Hugs,
Babytron

what the hell pw?

Hi, I'm sorry, we are no longer able to provide the service of checking to see if a book has been schedule for review. Sincerely,
Isabell Taylor
Executive Assistant Publishers Weekly

deathwatch

There is a deathwatch for a certain editor whose hard-partying ways might be catching up with them. Always late, that’s if they show up of course. Continues to drink throughout the day, just ask anyone who walks by them in the hall, elevator, or street. Others are beginning to catch on because he isn't doing a good job of hiding it anymore!

-Sparky

Dr Blogstein, Our Hero.

Congrats to Dr Blogstein for jumping the shark and making Page Six news in the Post for his interview with Walid Shoebat formerly of the PLO.



Proof once again that the Jews control the media ;)



-Slunch Editor

What's black and white and red all over and can't go through a revolving door?

We all talk about how the revolving door in publishing continues to spin, but i've never seen it spin faster than it does over at Gotham & Dutton. In the last year I've read in Pub Lunch about their publicists moving on to do great things at Random, Soho, S&S, Houghton, and an insider over at Penguin reports to us that the turnover is something like a person a month. DEAR LORD! How do they manage? All I can say that is if anyone can stick it out there, they've got serious cojones. That, or they can't find a decent job anywhere else.

-Slunchie

ps: the answer to the riddle is: A nun with a spear through her stomach.

Not if, but how I did it.

It's rare to see corporations take a moral stand on things. Sure, they have their sexual harassment policies, and codes of conduct, but at the end of the day its anything goes to make a buck. right? Well, I do have to commend B&N for taking a stand and NOT carrying the OJ Simpson book If I Did It. Granted, we embrace free speech as a country, and this is in no way censorship. The book will be published, the Goldman family will make gobs of money off the sensationalism of their son's death, and that more than anything is the real tragedy here. If it was me, I'd want the whole thing behind me, and after receiving the rights, destroy every copy in existence. The book in my opinion is an abomination, and a veiled admission to murder by a sick mind hoping to profit from it. Get back in your Bronco OJ and take a slow drive to another country. I hear the Mexican film industry is taking off and they could use your talent.

PUBLITRON

R.I.P Magdalen Nabb

I just received this obit from the ladies over at Soho Press. British author Magdalen Nabb passed away on Saturday in Florence, Italy. She will be missed by the book community and mystery lovers everywhere.

Obituary: Magdalen Nabb
January 16, 1947 – August 18, 2007
Magdalen Nabb, British crime writer and author of children’s books, died on August 18, 2007, following a stroke.
Magdalen Nabb was born in the village Church in Lancashire, England in 1947. She studied art and pottery at the College of Art in Manchester, and it was there that she started writing. While working in a pottery studio in the Italian town of Montelupo Fiorentino, Nabb came up with the idea for her most popular character, the Sicilian-born police detective Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia. From 1975 onward she lived and worked as a journalist and writer in Florence, Italy. Her novels were much loved and praised and have been translated into 14 languages. The New York Times Book Review called the Marshal Guarnaccia series “elegant” and the Sunday Times (London) deemed them “crime fiction at its best.” She recently finished the manuscript of Guarnaccia’s newest case “Vita Nuova,” which Soho Press will publish in June 2008. Soho will also be releasing “Death of a Dutchman” this November. In addition, eight other titles are currently available.
Magdalen Nabb also published thirteen books for children and young adults, including “The Enchanted Horse,” which won the British Smarties Book Prize in 1993.

the remote is the new bookmark

There's a new AP poll out , and apparently one in four adults in the US say they read no books in the past year. NONE. And the "typical" person has only read four. Not to brag or anything, but I've read four books in the past two weeks. And before you throw it in my face that it's like, you know, my job - those were non-work books. I mean, everyone knows that publicists don't actually read the books we're promoting…that's for editors and suck-up assistants. Richard Bustos of Dallas, Texas offered up this excuse: "I just get sleepy when I read." Well, Richard, maybe try reading before watching 6 hours of mind-numbing reality shows and crawling into bed. I mean, geez, people. No one's asking you to read War and Peace. Just something! Anything. Harry Potter for christsakes. No wonder the book business is losing money. Goddamn you America. It's your fault we're all underpaid and overworked. If you're not going to read them, could you at least buy them? That way I could get the new handbag I've been eyeing.
Much Obliged,
Ladytron