Now that Tina Fey is done with her Sarah Palin impressions, she can be off writing that memoir/book/funny stuff that she's been allotted $6 million for. So hey, it looks like book writing is the one profession in word trading that still might be lucrative, providing that you are already an established success in your field.
And right now? The hot ticket is women comedians. Sarah Silverman's non-fiction humor essays just ended a huge bidding war between HarperCollins and two other publishing houses, with HC emerging the victor in a $2.5 million bid. Now it's all in-fighting at HarperCollins HQ, as three editors from each of the house's different sections (Harper, Collins, and William Morrow) try to decide who gets the Silverman collection, which her agent is billing as "just like Tina Fey's."
That must have been what it felt like for Augusten Burroughs when his agent had to refer to him as "just like David Sedaris."
Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal is going synergytastic with a new partner. Nope, not Sam Zell and his Tribune printing plants, although that's still going to happen.
No, the WSJ, bitchslapped by the reality of falling sales and rising costs, is joining up with HarperCollins in a three year plan to promote books written by the Journal's "expert editors and reporters." Neat!
Of course, since wire-service Reuters is now no longer an objective source of news, they put their two cents in about the upcoming book club with a grain of irony that even we couldn't top.
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Stuff White People Like is a semi-humorous book from HarperCollins publishing, based upon, and written by the same author of the blog Stuff White People Like.
And turning a blog into a book was a clever idea! Even though hey, the original gets updated every day while the book just sits there on your coffee table, containing the same bit of content all the time and reminding you daily why books are becoming this sort of obsolete medium, at least in regards to pop culture flotsam or what have you but anyway!
Since Christian Lander's What White People Like was so successful, both as a blog and a book (it's still on New York Times bestseller list!), there have been some spin-offs, much in the way the LOLCats has now moved on to dogs, bunnies, and day traders. Stuff Christians Like is the newest incarnation of the meme, and guess what? It's getting it's own book too.
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With everyone feeling the crunch of the market lately, why didn't media execs hit upon the idea sooner that the answer to all their problems lay in the Mecca of the East? The shining city on the hill of Industry, Abu Dahbi represents what a lot of overspenders with a lot of money can do: be the best next best thing to Dubai, without all the George Saunders freak outs and Brave New World overtones. So that explains why big media companies like CNN and the BBC are pouring resources into the UAE state, snapping up space in the the Abu Dhabi Media Zone, a 200,000-square-meter campus that might as well have its own indoor ski slope.
But does Abu Dhabi offer the press a Catch-22? That is, if Thomson Reuters or HarperCollins' set up shop in a government-assisted facility, will Abu Dahbi expect quid pro quo and be looking for a promotional slant towards the city? CONTINUED »
There is a sweet injustice in the world, where many people go to college to major in Creative Writing or English only to spend the next fifteen or so years frustrated over their attempts at a first novel. All that time and effort, when it turns out just about anybody can get a 3-book deal with a reputable publishing house, provided that they star in a reality television show for a couple years first. Enter The Hills star Lauren Conrad:
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On last night's Countdown, Keith Olbermann named Rupert Murdoch his "Worst Person in the World" for the inside baseball decision of firing HarperCollins chief Jane Friedman, supposedly because she quashed the O.J. Simpson book and fired Judith Regan, despite Murdoch wanting the book out.
But maybe Friedman's fate was sealed much earlier? Like, three years ago? When her ally Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert, left the company, and she had to begin reporting to COO Peter Chernin? And had to start meeting certain financial targets? Which would've meant layoffs? That Friedman would've had a problem with?
With this week's ouster of HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, so too come the exciting details. Like how Rupert Murdoch took a meeting with Friedman's deputy Brian Murray on Monday, and then met with Friedman on Wednesday, where she was told she'd be leaving the company, and then named Murray her successor.
But another bit of HarperCollins news makes headlines this week: That the publisher is suing former Star columnist and reality television star Victoria Gotti for the $70,000 advance they paid her in a 2005 two-book deal, one of which was to be a memoir, but never materialized. Her literary agent says no big whoop, and that she'll return the advance. Oh, and maybe the reason she never turned in that memoir is because they fired her confidant Judith Regan and all her underlings, and she didn't feel like commuting in from Long Island to make any new friends.
As News Corp.'s HarperCollins pushes out its chief Jane Friedman, Rupert Murdoch is smartly installing her deputy, Brian Murray, who, at 41, is 21 years her junior and is expected to usher is a new methodology. Or whatever. Basically, he's expected to up profits.
No matter than Friedman has managed to double HarperCollins' take during her 10 years there; in the fiscal year's last nine months, her profits have slid $6 million, to $132 million, over last year. Which, theoretically, is not that big of a slide. But it's part of the newest trend in book publishing: Out with the old, in with the new. Which isn't exactly a new trend, but anyone will point to the ouster of Random House CEO Peter Olson last month, and his replacement of Markus Dohle, as evidence.
By all accounts, the move comes as a surprise, with top-level insiders at the publishing house not expecting her departure. So how to explain why Friedman, inarguably an industry talent, was given the heave ho?
Well, this Bill Moyers book deal might have something to do with it. Moyers, of course, was famously quoted in 2004 saying this, which couldn't have sat well with Murdoch: CONTINUED »
For someone who should be scraping the bottom of the publishing barrel, author and news-article-re-poster James Frey certainly seems to have crawled his way to the top. Over Nan Talese's body.
Not only has his "switch" to fiction – one rumor we continue to hear from publishing insiders is James always imagined himself a novelist, but publishers knew they could better market a memoir, so he, stupidly, made the jump – been nicely swept under the rug (with A Million Little Pieces continuing to move copies), but his new effort, Bright Shiny Morning, on bookshelves May 13, is being feted with a May 8 Sotheby's party with a limited edition of the novel, in collaboration with photogs Terry Richardson and Richard Prince, to be released. He'll then head off to Anaheim to speak at the American Library Association convention.
Having ditched Random House imprint Double Day, Frey is now at HarperColilns. Which might explain why today's Page Six carries the flattering news; HarperCollins, like the Post, is owned by News Corp. That, and former MSNBC programming whiz Davidson Goldin, who is counseling Frey on all things media relations, appears to be damn good at his job.
Like the learned press operative that she is, Judith Regan isn't just issuing a press release to fire back at her old attorneys that are suing her for nonpayment — she's suing them. Dreier LLP and Redniss & Associates, who Regan dumped before reaching a reported $25 million settlement agreement with News Corp. over her firing, claim they were never paid their fees or the percentage of the settlement they were promised. Actually, says Regan, she did send them a check, for $125,000 — and they sent it back. Says Marc Dreier: "She sent us a letter terminating our services, and yes, she sent us a check - for $125,000. But our agreement spelled out that we would get 25% of her recovery … which has been reported at $10 million to $20 million. Our payment should be a lot more than $125,000." How about $1 million in all the free publicity your firm is getting?
Just like Britney Spears, embroiled ex-publisher Judith Regan is having lawyer trubs. She's being sued by Dreier LLP and Redniss & Associates, who represented Regan in her $100 million lawsuit against former employer News Corp. before she fired them in December, hired Bertram Fields, and scored a settlement deal in January. Regan was supposed to pay them 25 percent of any proceeds she received, but after settling with Murdoch & Co. for a reported $25 million, they've only received $125,000. So: They're suing for their share, plus $42,560 in unpaid fees.
HOSTAGE-COLLINS Starting today, HarperCollins will let you read a selection of their books for free. But you have to read them on HarperCollins.com. You cannot print them. And you cannot download them to Sony's eReader or Amazon's Kindle. Eventually, you'll become Patty Hearst, and they the Symbionese Liberation Army. [NYT]
Ousted publisher Judith Regan – whose firing we were the first to tell you about – has settled with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in hopes of putting the cloud of Jew hating behind her. Gawker says she got $25 million. And News Corp. says they "accept Ms. Regan's position that she did not say anything that was anti-Semitic in nature, and further believe that Ms. Regan is not anti-Semitic."
It’s hard to find good scapegoats these days. After taking the fall for the O.J. Simpson book deal last year, Judith Regan is back with a $100 million defamation suit against News Corp.
In her case, Regan claims that HarperCollins told her to lie about her affair with Bernard K. Kerik, the former New York police commissioner. How Regan and Kerik got together remains a mystery, but conservative America is starting to seem like one big high school.
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In the December issue of Harper's Bazaar, ousted HarperCollins publisher Judith Regan magically reappears just in time to answer the question everybody wanted to know six months ago: What in the hell ever happened to Judith Regan? As it turns out, not very much. The "retired" editrix claims she's tired of the public spotlight, desirous of a major lifestyle change and finally ready to come clean about her biggest regret, namely:
"Agreeing to reward a known murderer with a hefty book advance in exchange for his detailed how-to guide to committing double homicide."
Kidding! Her much more boring answer: "… that I spent too much time in the office. I gave so much to my work, and honestly, it wasn't worth it."
Weird! We hear her former assistants (who are, coincidentally, all suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder) had the exact same regret!
What’s a little vegetable plagiarism, among friends?
Jerry Seinfeld defended his wife’s honor on Monday night on David Letterman, claiming that any similarity between his wife’s book, Deceptively Delicious, and Missy Chase Lapine’s book, The Sneaky Chef, is just a coincidence. Also, a coincidence: HarperCollins rejected The Sneaky Chef a few months before they published Jessica Seinfeld’s version of it.
Right about now, James Frey and Kaavya Viswanathan are probably wishing they had married successful entertainers.
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Kicking it old school, MySpace has partnered with HarperCollins and entered into publishing.
Figuring that kids are the only ones who still use MySpace and care about the environment, the first book will be called MySpace/Our Planet: Change is Possible and come out on Earth Day.
The book will be penned by freelance writer Jeca Taudte and include suggestions from MySpace users. One potential snag: Taudte is not a member on MySpace but is on Facebook.
Well, at least the writer they found probably isn't a child predator.
Jessica Seinfeld, who it should be stated as much as possible is married to Jerry Seinfeld, is the author of a best selling cookbook, Deceptively Delicious. The recipes teaches parents how to manipulate their kids into eating spinach. Sounds like A+ parenting.
One problem though. Missy Chase Lapine, who is married to no one famous, published the The Sneaky Chef in April, which has many of the same recipes as Seinfeld's book. Lapine even submitted her book to Seinfeld’s publisher, HarperCollins, in February and May 2006. At the time, HarperCollins rejected Lapine’s book because it was “too similar” to another title on their list.
Of course, no other title on HarperCollins' list had a connection to the guy who put “yada, yada, yada” into the vernacular.
Jessica Seinfeld denies stealing Lapine’s work, and Jerry Seinfeld told the Times, “Let’s be realistic — my wife isn’t in this for the money or the publicity.”
Being famous is so great. Not only do you get book deals you don’t deserve, you get a pass on any possible wrongdoing.
After Oprah castrated James Frey on national television early last year, the non-fiction fiction writer seemed done for. But if A Million Little Pieces taught us anything, it’s that we should never underestimate the fictionalized will power of James Frey.
The author has sold a new book, this time really fiction, to HarperCollins to be released next summer.
Frey’s agent, Eric Simonoff denied that the whole lying about his memoir thing was an issue. "When word began trickling out that I had a novel from James Frey … every publisher in town contacted me.”
Every publisher in town probably excludes Random House, since they had to refund readers for A Million Little Pieces and their senior editor was disgraced on national TV.
Ever since David Caplan left his senior gig at Star magazine for the, ahem, more respected trenches of VH1's Best Week Ever brand, he's generated a new hoard of followers. And haters. Among them? GalleyCat, Mediabistro.com's book industry blog, which is calling bullshit on Caplan's "exclusive" for 24Sizzler.com that HarperCollins canceled the tell-all book Baby Girl from Anna Nicole Smith’s bodyguard, Big Moe.
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