Larry King will write another autobiography, to be published on Father’s Day in 2009. It will be called What Am I Doing Here?, and not Sometimes I Fart On Air, I Worry That Jay Leno May Take My Job, nor Softball: How to Conduct the Least Engaging Interview with Society’s Most Interesting People. [Variety]

With all those fake memoirs getting exposed and their authors losing their contracts, why wouldn’t a publisher (or an author) simply put out the book as a novel instead of claiming it as a factual first-person account? “The glib answer is that publishers want memoirs because they sell and novels don’t.” Ah. Gotcha. [Paper Cuts]

Concerned about the future of books after all those faux memoirs? Don’t be! NYU students, who are the future of every creative profession, are still scrambling over each other for literary fame.

Or at least they will be, judging by the crowd at last night’s “Agents, Editors and Writers! Oh My!,” a panel discussion on that magical Oz, the land of publishing. We made Intern Anastasia attend.

The talking heads included an agent, a couple of editors, and one “screenwriter” who has, like, two credits on IMDB. Most of what they said was super-obvious, like, “It takes us a long time to get to the slush pile” and “Chick lit is hard to sell right now.”

Finally, someone mentioned the elephant in the room: How had JamesFreyJTLeroyMargaretJones affected what they choose to publish?

Claudia Cross, Sterling Lord Literistic agent and Amy Sedaris impersonator candidate, claimed those faux memoirists hadn’t affected her job much. “It’s hard to sell a memoir to begin with. As an agent, if I see a beautifully-written memoir I think I can sell, I’m not going to do any fact-checking. I would trust the editor’s legal department with that.”

A Random House editor, Stephanie Lane, explained they “usually go through three edits, and each one gets more expensive,” adding, “We won’t publish anything incorrect—that we know of.” The pasty, bearded crowd (note: only the males were bearded) laughed.

Clad in black-framed glasses that all literary types must wear to get their I’m a Literary Type Card, Marion Wrenn, editor of lit mag Painted Bride, pointed out “Tobias Wolff started This Boy’s Life with ‘Memory has its own story to tell,’ which sort of let him off the hook.”

Well, what do you do after controlling the most powerful White House in recent history? Why, shop your tell-all, of course! Karl Rove has put his memoir on the auction block today.

Considering Ted Kennedy got $8 million for his proximity to power, Rove should score a seven-figure deal. The Bush White House little romantic appeal for housewives, but Rove’s alpha-man account should make a good beach read for plenty of men. Insiders are predicting a $3 million sale.

Does anyone else remember that study showed that no one reads anymore? And yet the publishing industry will pay $3 million for what will surely be a limp memoir. Maybe print deserves its death.