September Issue
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BooksBeat
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The Best Reviews Money Can Buy
Todd Rutherford was seven years old when he first understood the nature of supply and demand. He was with a bunch of other boys, one of whom showed off a copy of Playboy to giggles and intense interest. Todd bought the magazine for $5, tore out the racy pictures and resold them to his chums for a buck apiece. He made $20 before his father shut him down a few hours later.
A few years ago, Mr. Rutherford, then in his mid-30s, had another flash of illumination about how scarcity opens the door to opportunity.
He was part of the marketing department of a company that provided services to self-published writers — services that included persuading traditional media and blogs to review the books. It was uphill work. He could churn out press releases all day long, trying to be noticed, but there is only so much space for the umpteenth vampire novel or yet another self-improvement manifesto or one more homespun recollection of times gone by. There were not enough reviewers to go around.
Suddenly it hit him. Instead of trying to cajole others to review a client’s work, why not cut out the middleman and write the review himself? Then it would say exactly what the client wanted — that it was a terrific book. A shattering novel. A classic memoir. Will change your life. Lyrical and gripping, Stunning and compelling. Or words to that effect.
In the fall of 2010, Mr. Rutherford started a Web site,GettingBookReviews.com. At first, he advertised that he would review a book for $99. But some clients wanted a chorus proclaiming their excellence. So, for $499, Mr. Rutherford would do 20 online reviews. A few people needed a whole orchestra. For $999, he would do 50.
There were immediate complaints in online forums that the service was violating the sacred arm’s-length relationship between reviewer and author. But there were also orders, a lot of them. Before he knew it, he was taking in $28,000 a month.
A polite fellow with a rakish goatee and an entrepreneurial bent, Mr. Rutherford has been on the edges of publishing for most of his career. Before working for the self-publishing house, he owned a distributor of inspirational books. Before that, he was sales manager for a religious publishing house. Nothing ever quite worked out as well as he hoped. With the reviews business, though, “it was like I hit the mother lode.”
Reviews by ordinary people have become an essential mechanism for selling almost anything online; they are used for resorts, dermatologists, neighborhood restaurants, high-fashion boutiques, churches, parks, astrologers and healers — not to mention products like garbage pails, tweezers, spa slippers and cases for tablet computers. In many situations, these reviews are supplanting the marketing department, the press agent, advertisements, word of mouth and the professional critique.
But not just any kind of review will do. They have to be somewhere between enthusiastic and ecstatic.
“The wheels of online commerce run on positive reviews,” said Bing Liu, a data-mining expert at the University of Illinois, Chicago, whose 2008 research showed that 60 percent of the millions of product reviews on Amazon are five stars and an additional 20 percent are four stars. “But almost no one wants to write five-star reviews, so many of them have to be created.” Consumer reviews are powerful because, unlike old-style advertising and marketing, they offer the illusion of truth. They purport to be testimonials of real people, even though some are bought and sold just like everything else on the commercial Internet.
Mr. Liu estimates that about one-third of all consumer reviews on the Internet are fake. Yet it is all but impossible to tell when reviews were written by the marketers or retailers (or by the authors themselves under pseudonyms), by customers (who might get a deal from a merchant for giving a good score) or by a hired third-party service.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued guidelines stating that all online endorsements need to make clear when there is a financial relationship, but enforcement has been minimal and there has been a lot of confusion in the blogosphere over how this affects traditional book reviews.
A Legend Dodges the Bullet
The Writer, which was due to go on hiatus with the October 2012 issue after more than 125 years of continuous publication, has been acquired by Madavor Media, a privately held niche and enthusiast media company, from Kalmbach Publishing (which also sold off Birdwatching Magazine in the same deal.)
AmSAW president and widely published author D. J. Herda reflects upon what the writing world might have looked like had the magazine ceased publication.
"I wrote for The Writer, as well as for Writer's Digest, for several years early in my literary career. While neither one ever paid very well, they were prestigious publications to be able to include in your precis.
"The Writer, in particular, fueled me with enthusiasm, gave me a place to go in my times of dejection, and offered me a continuing thread of hope in becoming a full-time freelance writer. I can't imagine a world in which this invaluable magazine didn't exist."
Eye Witness Account Contradicts Obama
Even as the Pentagon and CIA are reviewing the text of "Mark Owen's" forthcoming NO EASY DAY, the AP "purchased a copy" of the embargoed on Aug. 28 and the Huffington Post also "obtained" a copy at a bookstore. Publisher Dutton moved up the official release to next Tuesday, September 4. The author tells the AP he did "not disclose confidential or sensitive information that would compromise national security in any way."
In a brief excerpt from his pending 60 Minutes interview, Owen says the release date was not intended to influence the presidential campaign: "This book is not political whatsoever. It doesn't bad mouth either party, and we specifically chose September 11th to keep it out of the politics. You know, if these-crazies on either side of the aisle want to make it political, shame on them. This is a book about September 11th, and it needs to rest on September 11th. Not be brought into the political arena, because this--this has nothing to do with politics."
Most explosively, the book takes issue with the official account of the killing of Osama Bin Laden. He reports that bin Laden was shot in the head as he poked his head through the doorway while SEALs were approaching his room. The HuffPo says Owen writes, "The raid was being reported like a bad action movie. At first, it was funny because it was so wrong."
White House officials had said at the time that Bin Laden "did resist the assault force. And he was killed in a firefight." But Owen writes that the Al Qaeda leader lay on the floor dying after that first shot was fired, and never had a chance to resist or even pick up a weapon. Nonetheless, Owen and another SEAL "trained our lasers on his chest and fired several rounds. The bullets tore into him, slamming his body into the floor until he was motionless." This has led to the raising of both legal and ethical questions about intentionally killing Bin Laden after he was disabled--perhaps fatally--by the first shot. It also contradicts accounts of the SEALs' orders to "detain" Bin Laden if he was not threatening them.
Further, Owen writes, the two guns that Owen found in Bin Laden's room were not loaded: "He hadn't even prepared a defense. He had no intention of fighting. He asked his followers for decades to wear suicide vests or fly planes into buildings, but didn’t even pick up his weapon. In all of my deployments, we routinely saw this phenomenon. The higher up the food chain the targeted individual was, the bigger a pussy he was."
Also, "contrary to earlier accounts, Owen says SEALs weren't fired upon while they were outside the gate of the compound. There was no 40-minute firefight. And it wasn't true that bin Laden had 'time to look into our eyes.'"
Owen's account is similar to--yet diverges on a crucial point from--a "you are there" depiction Nicholas Schmidle wrote for the New Yorker, based on interviews with multiple members of the attack team. Schmidle noted "some of their recollections—on which this account is based—may be imprecise and, thus, subject to dispute." The New Yorker account of approaching bin Laden's room is exactly the same as Owen's--minus the firing of the important first shot: "On the top stair, the lead SEAL swivelled right; with his night-vision goggles, he discerned that a tall, rangy man with a fist-length beard was peeking out from behind a bedroom door, ten feet away. The SEAL instantly sensed that it was Crankshaft [Bin Laden]."
But the man who should be Owen is described differently: "A second SEAL stepped into the room and trained the infrared laser of his M4 on bin Laden's chest. The Al Qaeda chief, who was wearing a tan shalwar kameez and a prayer cap on his head, froze; he was unarmed. 'There was never any question of detaining or capturing him—it wasn’t a split-second decision. No one wanted detainees,' the special-operations officer told me. (The Administration maintains that had bin Laden immediately surrendered he could have been taken alive.)" The implication is that the story Owen told Schmidle is different from what he writes in his book.
After the AP and Huffington Post together broke the story with their bookstore copies, the NYT followed later but did not really have anything to add. Except that the Times makes it clear that after getting beat, they simply "obtained a copy" rather than purchasing one.
Google Acquires Frommer
By Amir Efrati and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg
Google Inc. for years swore it wasn't interested in creating content, choosing instead to point people to information on the Web. Google also championed the vox populi, letting crowd-sourced opinions bubble to the top when users search for answers online. Slowly, though, the experts have been moving up in Google's eyes, and its business.
Google is buying the Frommer's brand of travel guides from publishing house John Wiley & Sons for an undisclosed price, Jeffrey Trachtenberg reports on digits.
Google said recently it is acquiring the Frommer's travel-guide business in a bid to attract more advertising dollars tied to online-travel bookings and local-business information. Google is buying Frommer's from publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc. Google paid around $25 million for Frommer's, according to a person briefed on the deal, which hasn't yet closed. But the deal is more significant for its strategy than its price tag.
By owning Frommer's travel-guide content and showing it in search results, Google could sell travel-related ads against it and provide more tools for people to book travel arrangements. The Frommer's deal follows Google's 2011 acquisition of Zagat Survey, whose reviews and ratings of millions of businesses have since been incorporated into Google+ local-business listings. Google said Monday that the Frommer's brand would be melded with the Zagat brand. Frommer's data about local businesses around the world could boost the Google+ business listings—where both Zagat ratings and individual customer reviews are displayed—and Google Maps.
With Zagat and Frommer's, Google is betting it can become a trusted guide for travel and local-business information by using expert ratings and aggregating online comments from thousands of customers, the way Yelp.com and TripAdvisor.com do.
Frommer's is more evidence that Google has grown fonder of professionally produced content. There are other examples: It recently took an equity stake in Machinima Inc., which creates video content mainly for Google's YouTube video site.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.
In addition, Google is investing more than $350 million to help create and market professional-grade videos for YouTube, located on special "channels," as the site upgrades its offerings from the simple user-generated videos of its roots.
New Rogue's Gallery Launches
Ashlock tells Writing on the Ether "that this is your third option. You get the benefit and flexibility and independence of self-publishing, in that you keep your rights and way more of your royalties. But you also get all the virtues of traditional publishing — quality editorial, quality design, the sense of being curated and chosen, capital-infused marketing and publicity — all as part of a community."
Ashlock says they intend to stay focused on only one author a month.
BITS AND BYTES
FICTION Debut Monica Trasandes's BROKEN LIKE THIS, the story of a young provocateur and muse and her two lovers who must advocate on her behalf after an accident puts her in a coma (and neither knows she is pregnant), to Katie Gilligan at Thomas Dunne Books, in a nice deal, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency (NA). UK & Translation:
Playwright and screenwriter Anne-Marie Casey's debut novel, AN ENGLISHWOMAN IN NEW YORK, about four women in Manhattan facing forty, pitched as in the tradition of Melissa Banks' THE GIRLS' GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING, to Amy Einhorn at Amy Einhorn Books, in a two-book deal, by Allison Hunter at Inkwell Management, on behalf of Lizzy Kremer at David Higham (world).
Screenwriter Hannah Weyer's ON THE COME UP, based on a true story, about a resilient teen in Far Rockaway, Queens who is determined to build a stable life for herself after accepting a leading role in an independent film just months after giving birth, to Ronit Feldman at Nan A. Talese, at auction, by Alice Tasman at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency (NA).
Chrysler Szarlan's debut THE HAWLEY BOOK OF THE DEAD, which opens as a woman's husband dies under mysterious circumstances; fearing for her family's lives, descended from a long line of women with special powers, she flees with her three daughters to the place she's always felt safest, to the abandoned town of Hawley Five Corners, Massachusetts, where the magic of her ancestors reigns, and her first love is Hawley's chief of police; pitched as a novel for those who loved The Night Circus and A Discovery of Witches, to Kate Miciak at Ballantine Bantam Dell, at auction, by Alexandra Machinist of Janklow & Nesbit (NA).
Elizabeth Huergo's THE DEATH OF FIDEL PEREZ, in which a man named Fidel accidentally falls to his death from his Havana balcony and the neighbors' outcry is misinterpreted to proclaim that a different Fidel has fallen from power, to Fred Ramey at Unbridled Books, for publication in Spring 2013, by Katie Grimm at Don Congdon Associates (World).
Mystery/Crime NYT bestselling author Denise Swanson's next two Devereaux's Dime Store mysteries, to Ellen Edwards at NAL, by Laura Blake Peterson at Curtis Brown.
Rachel Howzell Hall's A GIRL IS LIKE A SHADOW, in which a LAPD homicide detective must learn the truth about the apparent suicide of a teenage girl which may be related to her own sister's disappearance more than twenty years ago, to Kristin Sevick at Forge, in a two-book deal, by Jill Marsal at the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. Jill@MarsalLyonLiteraryAgency.com
Jenna McCormick's NO MERCY, a futuristic erotic romance in the world of No Limits, to Audrey LaFehr at Kensington Aphrodisia, in a two-book deal, for publication in 2013, by Jessica Faust at BookEnds.
Diva mysteries author Krista Davis's WAGTAIL Mystery series set in a pet resort, to Sandy Harding at Berkley Prime Crime, by Jessica Faust at BookEnds.
Laurie Cass's Bookmobile Cat mystery series, featuring a Bookmobile librarian and her cat, to Jessica Wade at Signet, in a three-book deal, by Jessica Faust at BookEnds.
Paranormal Fury of Fire, Fury of Ice, and Fury of Seduction author Coreene Callahan's next three books in the Dragonfury Series, to Eleni Caminis at Amazon Publishing, for publication in 2013-2014, by Christine Witthohn at Book Cents Literary Agency. Dramatic/graphic: cw@bookcentsliteraryagency.com
Thriller 2011 Barnes & Noble Discover Award winner Scott O'Connor's HALF WORLD, about a fraying CIA analyst who spearheads a clandestine operation to explore methods of brainwashing, and the young, drug-addled agent who discovers the stunning legacy of the program and the people most affected by it, to Millicent Bennett at Free Press, at auction, for publication in Summer 2013, by Yishai Seidman at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner.
Agent Keith Korman's fifth novel TEA HOUSE OF THE HIDDEN MOON, pitched as the Pied Piper of medieval legend reappearing on the streets of Manhattan, plunging America into chaos and ruin, and the TEA HOUSE is the only place beyond his reach, to Bob Gleason at Tor, for publication in Spring 2014, by Theron Raines at Raines & Raines (World English).
Women's/Romance Sugar Jamison's FAT BOTTOM GIRL, in which an oh-so-curvy, plus-size-boutique owner reunites with her former bad boy crush and must determine if he likes her for who she really is, pitched as in the vein of Jennifer Weiner's GOOD IN BED and Jennifer Crusie's BET ME, to Holly Blanck at St. Martin's, at auction, in a three-book deal all featuring heroines of unusual size, by Emmanuelle Morgen at Stonesong. Translation:
Victoria James's A FAMILY FOR CHRISTMAS and the first two books of her forthcoming series THE MANNINGS OF RED RIVER, to Alethea Spiridon Hopson at Entangled Indulgence, by Nalini Akolekar at Spencerhill Associates.
Elizabeth Heiter's BAIT AND HOOK, about an FBI profiler whose search for her friend's rapist takes her to the marshes of Florida, into the arms of an intriguing homicide detective, and into the path of a cunning killer, to Paula Eykelhof at Harlequin Intrigue, in a three-book deal, by Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency (World).
Barbara Davis's debut LONELY BONES, alternately told in the contemporary voice of a New York photo editor and the historical voice of a mysterious woman buried in secret on the ridge overlooking a family plantation, is both a haunting family saga and a modern story of unraveling painful family secrets, overcoming trauma, and finding love, to Jhanteigh Kupihea at NAL, by Nalini Akolekar at Spencerhill Associates.
Kate Angell's next two books in her Barefoot William series, beach, boardwalk and romance, along with two novellas, to Alicia Condon at Kensington Brava, by Roberta Brown of the Brown Literary Agency.
USA Today bestselling author Julie Kenner's untitled erotic romance chronicling the passionate and tumultuous relationship between a powerful entrepreneur with a dangerous secret in his past and the woman who accepts his scandalous proposition, to Shauna Summers at Bantam Dell, by Kimberly Whalen at Trident Media Group (world).
Six-time Golden Heart Finalist author Shelley Coriell's THE BROKEN, featuring The Apostles, an elite team of FBI agents and their hunt for a serial killer, to Lauren Plude at Grand Central Forever, by Jessica Faust at BookEnds.
General/Other T. Greenwood's RUST AND STARDUST, following a twelve-year old, whose mother decides to leave their small town in rural Vermont and join the dangerous and seductive world of the carnival, as she walks the tightrope between the magic of childhood and the stark reality of being a woman in the 1970s, to Peter Senftleben at Kensington, in a very nice deal, in a three-book deal, for publication in Fall 2014, by Henry Dunow at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (World).
Leslie Lehr's WHAT A MOTHER KNOWS, in which a mother of two not only loses her memory after a deadly car crash but can't find her 16-year old daughter, the one person who may know what happened that day, to Shana Drehs at Sourcebooks, in a nice deal, for publication in Spring 2013, by Mollie Glick at Foundry Literary + Media (World English).
Merethe Lindstrom's DAYS IN THE HISTORY OF SILENCE, about the emotional and mental challenges that a couple face after they vow to remain silent about the troubling dismissal of their housekeeper, causing them to slip deeper into isolation from the world and each other, to Judith Gurewich at Other Press, by Even Rakil at the Aschehoug Agency (World English).
NYT bestselling author of Prayers for Sale and True Sisters Sandra Dallas's FALLEN WOMEN, about a Gilded Age New York socialite determined to solve how her estranged younger sister ended up a heinously murdered "soiled dove" in one of Denver's toniest brothels, again to Jennifer Enderlin at St. Martin's, by Danielle Egan-Miller at Browne & Miller Literary Associates (NA).
SEATING ARRANGEMENTS author Maggie Shipstead's ASTONISH ME, about the twenty-year aftermath of an affair between an aspiring ballerina and the principal dancer in her ballet company, a brilliant and magnetic soviet defector, to Jordan Pavlin at Knopf, by Rebecca Gradinger at Fletcher & Company (NA).
Kimberly Elkins's WHAT IS VISIBLE, a fictionalized account of Laura Bridgman's life; Bridgman was the precursor to Helen Keller, to Deb Futter at Grand Central, for publication date in Spring 2014, by Gail Hochman at Brandt & Hochman.
Children's: Middle grade Alan Macdonald's next three books in the Dirty Bertie series, more wickedly humorous stories about that loveable dirt and trouble magnet, to Jane Harris at Stripes, for publication in 2013, by Kate Shaw at The Viney Agency (World).
Professor and associate vice president at the University of Limerick Sarah Moore Fitzgerald's BACK TO BLACKBRICK, to Fiona Kennedy at Margaret K. McElderry Books, in a two-book deal, for publication in spring 2013, by Jo Unwin at Conville & Walsh (world).
Catherine Jinks's TO CATCH A BOGLE, the first book in a trilogy, set in a richly imagined alternate version of Victorian England, where a young orphan traps monsters for a living and quickly discovers that the scariest creatures hunting the lost children of London might not be bogles at all, to Reka Simonsen at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's, in a three-book deal, for publication in Fall 2013, by Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management on behalf of Margaret Connolly & Associates (NA).
Darby Karchut's GIDEON'S SPEAR, the sequel to FINN FINNEGAN continues the story of a modern teenage boy apprenticed to a legendary Celtic warrior, to Vikki Ciaffone and Trisha Wooldridge at Spencer Hill Press, for publication in February 2014, by Rebecca Mancini of RightsMix (World).
Varian Johnson's JACKSON GREENE STEALS THE ELECTION, pitched as an Ocean's Eleven for middle-schoolers, in which an eighth-grade reformed con artist has to get his old crew back together to stop the school bully from winning the all-powerful SGA Presidential election, all while trying to win back his ex-best friend and first crush, to Cheryl Klein at Arthur A. Levine Books, in a pre-empt, by Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger (world).
Children's: Picture book Lori Alexander's BACKHOE JOE, about a boy who finds a stray backhoe, Joe, and attempts to train him before realizing that Joe may already have a home elsewhere, to Annie Stone at Harper Children's, in a very nice deal, at auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in 2013, by Kathleen Rushall at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency (World).
Michael Bandy & Eric Stein's GRANDADDY'S TURN, the follow up to the Stein and Bandy's first picture book, WHITE WATER, the story of Michael's grandfather attempting to vote for the first time in the segregated South, to Karen Lotz at Candlewick, in a nice deal, by Spencer Humphrey at Rocky Hill Group.
Barbara Bottner's MISS BROOKS' STORY NOOK, the sequel to Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I don't) finds previously reluctant-reader Missy creating her own stories, and FEET, GO TO SLEEP, to Nancy Siscoe at Knopf Children's, in a nice deal, by Spencer Humphrey at Rocky Hill Group.
Christy Ziglar's CAN'T WAIT WILLOW and MUST HAVE MARVIN, to Peggy Schaefer at Ideals Publishing, for publication in Spring 2013, by Spencer Humphrey at Rocky Hill Group.
Marilyn Sadler's EGG COUNT, a story about a Hen who lays eggs while her frantic Rooster husband rushes back and forth to provide for them, to Alice Jonaitis at Random House Children's.
Barroux's VOYAGES, a wordless storybook that takes our heroine on a contemplative, solitary journey from outer space to the comfort of her bed sheets, to Harriet Ziefert at Blue Apple Books, by Lori Nowicki at Painted Words.
Children's: Young Adult VCFA grad Amy Rose Capetta's debut ENTANGLED, pitched as Firefly as a YA novel, in which a girl who thought she was alone in the universe with just her guitar, finds out that she is one of two humans to be experimentally connected on the particle level, and has to launch herself across space to save the boy she is quantum entangled with, with the help of a smuggler and her rag tag crew aboard a living spaceship, to Kate O'Sullivan at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's, at auction, in a very nice deal, in a two-book deal, by Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger (world English).
Crissa Jean Chappell's FLIP THE SWITCH, about a teen boy whose dad is Miccosukee and whose mom is English -- making him "one hundred percent nothing" -- who is determined to figure out where he belongs and who he belongs with, to Brian Farrey-Latz at Flux, by Tina Wexler at ICM (World English).
Kass Morgan's THE HUNDRED, following 100 teenagers with dark secrets, who leave their homes -- enormous, city-like spaceships -- to recolonize a barely recognizable Earth, only to discover they cannot escape their pasts, to Elizabeth Bewley at Little, Brown Children's, and Kate Howard and Harriet Bourton at Hodder & Stoughton, in a two-book deal, for publication in Spring 2014 and Fall 2014, by Sara Shandler and Joelle Hobeika at Alloy Entertainment (World English).
Delilah S. Dawson's first YA book SERVANTS OF THE STORM, where a 17-year-old girl stops taking the pills meant to keep her sane and starts seeing the truth about the demons that are enslaving the hurricane-ravaged city of Savannah...and may have killed her best friend, to Anica Rissi at Simon Pulse, by Kate McKean at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.
NONFICTION Biography Carolyn Quinn's MAMA ROSE: Gypsy Rose Lee's Indomitable Stage Mother, the first-ever biography of Rose Thompson Hovick, whose unorthodox parenting style during the heyday of vaudeville and burlesque was immortalized in the Broadway musical GYPSY, to Leila Salisbury at University Press of Mississippi, for publication in Spring 2014, by Eric Myers at The Spieler Agency (World).
Business/Investing/Finance CEO of the Nature Conservancy, Mark Tercek and conservation biologist Jonathan Adams' NATURE'S FORTUNE: WHY SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT IS THE SMARTEST INVESTMENT WE CAN MAKE, calling upon businesses, governments, and individuals to recognize that ecosystems, from forests to rivers to peat bogs, have value that has for too long been underestimated and setting forth a new calculus that properly measures nature's central role in economic progress and prosperity, to TJ Kelleher at Basic, for publication in 2013, by Lisa Adams at The Garamond Agency (world English).
Dan Sherman's MAXIMUM SUCCESS WITH LINKEDIN: Dominate Your Market, Build a Global Brand, and Create the Career of Your Dreams, a step-by-step guide that will show readers hot to solve virtually any business-related goal or professional challenge by harnessing the power of LinkedIn, to Casey Ebro at McGraw-Hill, for publication in Spring 2013 (World).
Head of MIT's Media Lab Joi Ito and contributor to WIRED and author of Crowdsourcing Jeff Howe's THE MISSION STATEMENT, a provocative future-looking work which contends that the younger generation of workers is ready to break away from the traditional corporate command-and-control management style, and is eager to fully embrace unpredictability as part of their everyday lives, to Rick Wolff at Business Plus, at auction, for publication in Spring 2015, by Max Brockman of Brockman (NA).
Twelve-year veteran of Goldman Sachs - who also hired the firm to sell the asset management company he co-founded - and current adjunct professor at Columbia University Business School, Steven Mandis's insider's account of what every executive can learn from what went wrong at Goldman, why the culture of the firm will continue to drift, but why Goldman is organizationally positioned to be slightly ahead of every other firm, to Tim Sullivan at Harvard Business Review Press, by Susan Rabiner at Susan Rabiner Literary Agency (world).
Cooking Blogger Lisa Leake's 100 DAYS OF REAL FOOD, a how-to guide and cookbook that shows average American families how to cut processed food out of their diets and transition to a "real food" lifestyle, putting what Michael Pollan preached into practice in real life, to Cassie Jones at William Morrow, in a significant deal, in a pre-empt, by Meg Thompson at Einstein Thompson Agency (world).
Activist, speaker, and author Bryant Terry's AFRO-VEGAN: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Food Remixed, to Melissa Moore at Ten Speed Press, at auction, by Danielle Svetcov at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (world).
Activist, speaker, and author Bryant Terry's AFRO-VEGAN: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Food Remixed, to Melissa Moore at Ten Speed Press, at auction, by Danielle Svetcov at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (world).
Winner of Food Network's Next Iron Chef, judge on Chopped, featured on Next Food Network Star and The Best Thing I Ever Made, and executive chef/owner of The Lambs Club and The National in New York, Water Club at Borgata, and Ocean Blue Geoffrey Zakarian's two cookbooks with a focus on his "perfect pantry," detailing the essential accessible ingredients that every home cook should have on hand to make exciting dishes that work for any level of expertise, to Emily Takoudes at Clarkson Potter, for publication in Fall 2014, by Eric Lupfer at William Morris Endeavor.
Sunday Brunch, Sunday Soups, and Sunday Roasts author Betty Rosbottom's SUNDAY CASSEROLES, to Bill LeBlond at Chronicle, for publication in Fall 2014, by Lisa Ekus of Lisa Ekus Group.
Suneeta Vaswani's EASY INDIAN, Second Edition, to Robert Dees at Robert Rose, for publication in March 2013, by Lisa Ekus at The Lisa Ekus Group.
Karen Putman and Judith Fertig's CHAMPIONSHIP BBQ SECRETS FOR REAL SMOKED FOOD, Second Edition, to Robert Dees at Robert Rose, for publication in May 2013, by Lisa Ekus at The Lisa Ekus Group.
Virginia Willis's OKRA: A SAVOR THE SOUTH COOKBOOK, to Elaine Maisner at UNC Press, for publication in Spring 2014, by Lisa Ekus at Lisa Ekus Group.
Author of HUNT, GATHER, COOK and creator of the award-winning website "Hunter Angler Gardener Cook," Hank Shaw's DUCK: The Ultimate Cookbook, a guide to all things Anatidae as duck becomes one of the hottest ingredients in restaurants across the country and home consumption is on the rise, with tips on preparation, new and classic recipes, and 'duck tales' from some of the best chefs in the business, to Jenny Wapner at Ten Speed Press, by Jason Yarn at Paradigm (World).
Co-author of APPETIZER ATLAS Arthur Meyer's HOUSTON CHEF'S TABLE: Extraordinary Recipes from The Bayou City's Iconic Restaurants, part of the CHEF'S TABLE series, offering recipes from the top restaurants in Houston, along with colorful descriptions of its neighborhoods and places to see, to Katie Benoit Cardoso at Globe Pequot, by Rita Rosenkranz (World).
Health Biochemist Dr. Phyllis Bronson's HORMONES, MOOD, AND EMOTION, a guide to managing the symptoms of menopause using bioidentical hormones, to Suzanne Staszak-Silva at Rowman & Littlefield, by Andy Ross at the Andy Ross Agency (world).
Graeme Cowan's BACK FROM THE BRINK: Americans tell their stories of overcoming depression, which was inspired by his own recovery and successful self publishing, based on interviews and survey results presenting real stories of people recovering from depression, as well as practical tools for coping with and healing from depression, to Melissa Kirk at New Harbinger, for publication in fall 2013, by Rita Rosenkranz at Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency (World).
Caterer and creator of Vegan Eats products Amy Cramer and Allure Copy Director Lisa McComsey's THE VEGAN CHEAT SHEET, a take anywhere "cheat-sheet" guide to a healthy, delicious vegan lifestyle with 100 recipes, shopping lists, travel tips, restaurant do's and don'ts, 21-day meal plan, and everything else you need to go vegan without going crazy, with a foreword by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, to Maria Gagliano at Perigee, by Janet Rosen at Sheree Bykofsky Associates (world).
History/Politics/Current Affairs Gordon Leidner's FOUNDING FATHERS: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches, the second book in Leidner's gift-sized "Quotes, Quips, and Speeches" series, to Kelly Bale at Sourcebooks, in a nice deal, for publication in Spring 2013 (World).
Professor Ryan Balot's COURAGE AND ITS CRITICS IN DEMOCRATIC ATHENS, critical of the modern neglect of political virtue, taking readers to ancient Athens in order to explain our need for a distinctively democratic ideal of courage, to Stefan Vranka at Oxford University Press, by Jill Marsal at the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. Jill@MarsalLyonLiteraryAgency.com
Fellow at the Center for a New American Security and staff member at National Journal Yochi Dreazen's THE INVISIBLE FRONT, which tells the story of Army Maj. Gen. Mark and Carol Graham who lost two sons, one a ROTC student to suicide and the other a infantry soldier to a roadside bomb in Khaldiya, as a way of exploring the U.S. military's suicide problem, to Vanessa Mobley at Crown, by Gary Morris at David Black Literary Agency (US).
Princeton professor and former high-ranking State Department official Anne-Marie Slaughter's book expanding on her recent article in The Atlantic, "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," which concluded that the promise that women can have the same choices that men do with respect to combining careers and family has not been met, offering "a blueprint for action in the personal, professional, and public sphere," to Susan Kamil at Random House, at auction, for publication in spring 2014, by Will Lippincott at Lippincott Massie McQuilkin
Illustrated/Art Gypsey Elaine Teague's STEAMPUNK MAGIC: Real Magic and Ritual Aboard the Airship, a grimoire of working magic including tools, crafts, rituals, and spells, to Amber Guetebier at Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari, for publication in Spring of 2013.
Author/Illustrator Betsy Snyder's I HAIKU YOU, a collection of delightful haiku that condense the wonders of love into breezy but powerful poems, to Heidi Kilgras at Random House, by Lori Nowicki at Painted Words.
Memoir Mindy Budgor's WARRIOR PRINCESS, the true story of a young entrepreneur who, tired of having a job to have a job, decides to make changes in her life; while volunteering and working with the Maasai tribe, she gets the chief to agree to train her (and her fellow female volunteer) to become two of the first female Maasai warriors, to Mary Lyons at Skirt, in a nice deal, for publication in Summer 2013, by Kari Stuart at ICM (NA).
2011 Iowa Short Fiction Award winner and Stegner Fellow in fiction and a Charles Pick Fellow at the University of East Anglia Will Boast's THE PANTOMIME HORSE, describing the loss of Boast's father - the final surviving member of his family - and the stunning discovery of a secret held by his father capable of giving Boast a second chance to find a home, to Katie Henderson Adams at Liveright, by Gail Hochman (NA).
Stegner Fellow in fiction and 2011 Iowa Short Fiction Award winner Will Boast's THE PANTOMIME HORSE, describing the loss of his father - the final surviving member of his family - and the discovery of a secret held by his father capable of giving Boast a second chance to find a home, to Katie Henderson Adams at Liveright, by Gail Hochman at Brandt & Hochman (NA).
Writer for BuzzFeed and The Awl Katie Heaney's YOU'RE RIGHT I REALLY LIKE YOU: My Selfless, Brave, and Mostly Involuntary Pledge to Live 25 Years of Solitude, tracing Katie's lifelong search for love in humorous and unflinchingly honest stories, pitched as in the vein of Sloane Crosley and Mindy Kaling, to Sara Weiss at Grand Central, by Allison Hunter at Inkwell Management.
John Fry, ed.'s ALMOST PIONEERS, an historical memoir written by Laura Gibson Smith about her family's experiences homesteading in Wyoming during the 1910s, to Erin Turner at Globe Pequot, for publication in summer 2013, by Rita Rosenkranz at Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency (World).
Blind Chinese rights activist and self-taught legal advocate Chen Guangcheng's memoir, covering his dramatic escape from his heavily guarded home in China -- where he was illegally detained for more than nineteen months -- and the process of seeking refuge and relocating in the US, while also recounting his life and experiences beginning with his youth in rural Dongshigu village, with no formal education until he was 18, eventually becoming a "barefoot lawyer" defending the poor against the Chinese authorities, to John Sterling for Times Books, for publication in fall 2013, by Robert Barnett at Williams & Connolly (world).
Parenting Sesame Street puppeteer and author of TEN-MINUTE PUPPET, Noel MacNeal's BOX! CASTLES, KITCHENS, COSTUMES AND OTHER CARDBOARD CREATIONS, a book for parents that takes a regular old cardboard box to the next level teaching readers how to design a savings bank, a desk, a sword, and a computer, to Lara Asher at Lyons Press, by Kerry Sparks at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (World).
Reference READING THE OED author Ammon Shea's BAD ENGLISH, a history of the English language in 500 years' worth of mistakes, again to Marian Lizzi at Perigee, by Jim Rutman at Sterling Lord Literistic (world English).
Veteran wilderness guide Tamarack Song's ENTERING THE MIND OF THE TRACKER: Native Practices for Developing Intuitive Consciousness, training methods for tracking and wilderness observation woven into real-life stories of animal reading skills, to Jon Graham at Inner Traditions, for publication in Spring 2013, by Rita Rosenkranz at Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency (World).
Restaurant consultants Arthur Meyer and Jon Vann's HOW TO OPEN AND OPERATE A RESTAURANT, part of a series on opening small businesses, describing the steps to opening a successful restaurant, with pitfalls to avoid, to Cynthia Hughes at Globe Pequot, for publication in 2013, by Rita Rosenkranz (World).
Religion/Spirituality Anita Kraft's QABALAH WORKBOOK FOR MAGICIANS, with a foreword by Lon Milo DuQuette, offering exercises, rituals, and experiments to learn how to see, smell, feel, and "do" the magical Qabalah, to Amber Guetebier at Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari, for publication in Spring of 2013.
Science Retired psychologist John Pilley's CHASER'S STORY, about his Border collie Chaser, who learned the proper names for 1,022 objects -- written up in The New Scientist -- and then displayed significant abilities with deductive reasoning and syntax, actually speaking to the broader "genius of dogs" in general, pointing to a new understanding of animal intelligence, with wide-ranging implications for human-canine relations, to Courtney Young at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in a pre-empt, said to be "well into six figures" by the AP, by Steve Ross at Abrams Artists Agency (NA).
Author of BAD SCIENCE, medical doctor, academic, broadcaster and columnist Dr. Ben Goldacre's BAD PHARMA, about the hopelessly flawed and broken systems for finding out what works in medicine, and how these affect all treatments, in all fields, looking at how often the so-called research into and evidence of drugs' efficacy is completely and dangerously rigged, on a massive global scale, to Mitzi Angel at Farrar, Straus, and to Jenny Bradshaw at McClelland & Stewart in Canada, by Zoe Pagna menta at Zoe Pagnamenta Agency, in association with Sarah Ballard at United Agents. Translation:
General/Other Horace's Compromise author the late Theodore Sizer's A NEW AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL: A DESIGN WRAPPED IN A MEMOIR, to Kate Gagnon at Jossey-Bass, by Wendy Strothman at The Strothman Agency (World English).
New York Magazine's THE SEX DIARIES, based on the magazine's online column of the same name, which has been profiling the sex lives of average New Yorkers since 2007, and comprising 50 original entries from diarists ranging from young to old, conservative to liberal, coastal to middle American, impoverished to affluent, for a peek behind America's closed doors, to Jenny Wapner at Ten Speed Press, by David McCormick at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency.
Co-host of MSNBC TV's The Cycle and author of WHO'S AFRAID OF POST-BLACKNESS Toure's I WOULD DIE 4 U, exploring how and why Prince became a Gen X icon, for publication in February 2013, WHAT'S A REAL MAN?, investigating what it means to be a man in America today, for publication in Spring 2015, to Alessandra Bastagli at Free Press, by Andrew Wylie (NA).
Proprietor of Denver's legendary Isis Books Karen Harrison's EVERYDAY PSYCHIC, a complete guide to activating your own gifts, to Amber Guetebier at Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari, for publication in Fall of 2012.
Edred Thorrson's ALU: An Advanced Guide to Operative Runology, the long awaited follow-up to Futhark, to Amber Guetebier at Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari, for publication in Fall of 2012.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of WHY WE MAKE MISTAKES Joseph Hallinan's KIDDING OURSELVES, which takes a close look at our human penchant for self-deception, to Charlie Conrad at Crown, by Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (World).
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