Harpercollins shared the stats below during the Frankfurt book fair

Top 10 Categories by units per title

1. Sexuality
2. Romance
3. Philosophy
4. Fiction
5. Sci-Fi/Fantasy
6. Mystery
7. Self-help/Instructional
8. Thriller
9. Humor
10. Religion

Members of the foreign press who don't speak English are, in fact, welcome to cover Sarah Palin's book signing on Monday at Mall of America's Barnes and Noble store.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — She’s no longer the chief executive of Alaska, but Sarah Palin should still be called “governor.” And in English only, please.

That was the message sent out by officials at the Mall of America this week, who told reporters planning to cover the Minneapolis-area stop on Palin’s “Going Rogue” book tour they must address the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate by her former title. The guidelines also banned foreign reporters, allowing “only English speaking press.”

Mall officials said the guidelines were a mistake, and apologized Wednesday to Palin for the mix up, which they called “an internal miscommunication” that was “inadvertently distributed.”

“That should never have been in any kind of press release,” said Tina Andreadis, a publicist for publisher HarperCollins in New York, who added foreign reporters would be welcome at Palin’s Mall of America stop.

“That’s not the message the governor wants to send out,” she said.

The guidelines were likely to be mostly irrelevant either way. Palin hasn’t been speaking to most reporters – either local or from abroad – during her tightly controlled, stay-on-message book tour. A speech scheduled for Wednesday night at the private College of the Ozarks in southwest Missouri was expected to draw a crowd of 5,000, and the school said it agreed to keep out reporters to secure Palin’s appearance.

The few media outlets that did manage to gain access to the speech did so by using one of the free tickets given away to the public, and the college asked they not report on Palin’s address.

“I can’t take their tickets and ask them to leave, but we have asked them (local reporters) not to (attend),” said College of the Ozarks spokeswoman Elizabeth Andrews.

Last week, Army officials initially barred media from attending a Palin book-signing event at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg, fearing it might turn political and lead to negative comments directed at President Barack Obama. The Army later relented and allowed coverage of the event, at which Palin did not give a speech.

Alan Scher Zagier
The Huffington Post

February by Lisa Moore

ISBN: 9780887849626

Published: June 2009, House of Anansi Press (@houseofanansi)

The Recommend:

Moore’s plot drifts like clouds, but with all the purpose of weather. Her characters carry sadness and happiness in equal measures. Glorious, and emotionally resonant.

(I interviewed Lisa, not long after I’d done a quick stint as her publicist. Read it here. — ed.)

*
About Deanna McFadden (@tragicrighthip):

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Deanna McFadden goes digital for HarperCollins Canada for the cash, and blogs at My Tragic Right Hip for the kudos. She also reads. A lot.

Sarah Palin at one of her book signing this past week.

There have been so many lies and distortions pointed out in Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue since it was released last week that her memoir has already become something of a gag line.

But perhaps the most embarrassing gaffe so far is her mis-attributed quote to UCLA basketball legend John Wooden.

As the epigram to Chapter Three, “Drill, Baby, Drill,” Palin assigns the following remarks to the Hall of Fame hoops coach:

Our land is everything to us… I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it–with their lives.

Only the quote wasn’t by John Wooden. It was written by a Native American activist named John Wooden Legs in an essay entitled “Back on the War Ponies,” which appeared in a left-wing anthology, We Are the People: Voices from the Other Side of American History, edited by Nathaniel May, Clint Willis, and James W. Loewen.

Here’s the full quote:

Our land is everything to us. It is the only place in the world where Cheyennes talk the Cheyenne language to each other. It is the only place where Cheyennes remember the same things together. I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it–with their life. My people and the Sioux defeated General Custer at the Little Big Horn.

Oops! That’s not quite the sentiment that Sister Sarah was trying to convey as she guzzled down sugar-free Red Bull and cranked up Toby Keith’s “How Do You Like Me Now?” while jumping on her patriotic high horse at the opening of the third chapter.

There’s also no small amount of irony in the quote, given Palin’s abysmal record on Alaska Native issues during her truncated term as governor.

I was a huge UCLA basketball fan as a kid. Whenever the Bruins came to the Bay Area, I did whatever I could do to snag a ticket. I loved to watch Wooden coach. But I never figured the Wizard of Westwood as an advocate for radical land distribution.

Obviously this one slipped by Sister Sarah and her crack team of investigative journalists Lynn Vincent, Meg Stapleton and Ivy Frye, as well as all those dutiful fact checkers at HarperCollins. Obviously, they didn’t get the quote from anything Wooden ever wrote, but from a cute little web site called The Quote Garden. Isn’t that sweet?

Okay, I was a little leery reading Palin’s book and wondering if she really had read Aristotle and Plato. Somehow I didn’t think so. But I thought, maybe, just maybe, she might have read Sir John. Apparently not.

But just because we’re all good sports here at HuffPo, I thought I’d save the former Governor (can you imagine what Wooden thought about her quitting?!) a little bit of time, and here are five actual Wooden quotes, courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor, that she might want to take to heart:

1. It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.
2. Failure is not fatal but failure to change might be.

3. What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player.

4. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

5. Never mistake activity for achievement.

We’ll see if the second printing carries a correction.
Award-winning writer and filmmaker Geoffrey Dunn’s book The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power will be released by St. Martin’s Press in spring 2010.

Geoffrey Dunn
The Huffington Post

Attractive cover design for the British edition from HarperCollins UK:

Boring cover design for the North American edition from Nation Books:

I also appreciate Nation Books changing the title to make it relevant to ME, Mr Joe Average North American. Nice touch…

Atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel praised Signature in the Cell in the Times Literary Supplement, stating,

Stephen C. Meyer’s Signature in the Cell: DNA and the evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperCollins) is a detailed account of the problem of how life came into existence from lifeless matter – something that had to happen before the process of biological evolution could begin. The controversy over Intelligent Design has so far focused mainly on whether the evolution of life since its beginnings can be explained entirely by natural selection and other non-purposive causes. Meyer takes up the prior question of how the immensely complex and exquisitely functional chemical structure of DNA, which cannot be explained by natural selection because it makes natural selection possible, could have originated without an intentional cause. He examines the history and present state of research on non-purposive chemical explanations of the origin of life, and argues that the available evidence offers no prospect of a credible naturalistic alternative to the hypothesis of an intentional cause. Meyer is a Christian, but atheists, and theists who believe God never intervenes in the natural world, will be instructed by his careful presentation of this fiendishly difficult problem.

(HT: Uncommon Descent)

If there’s a copy of the NIV in your house, or even a copy of Purpose Driven Life, you know  Zondervan, the Grand Rapids company founded in 1931 by Pat and Bernie Zondervan, now owned by HarperCollins.

But even if you don’t, you would have a hard time escaping mention of the company online during the last 90 days, as it’s been a wild ride for company executives, and especially company president Maurine (Moe) Girkins, pictured at right, who seems to be making a public statement on one front or another every week.    Imagine dealing with all this:

• The fall announcement that the TNIV translation would be discontinued in favor of a revised NIV.    This re-sparked old debates over the TNIV’s use of gender-neutral language, with some discussion shifting from the anthropos=mankind argument, to the plural vs. singular argument and the translation vs. commentary challenge of Bible translation.   In the process, very few people considered that the much better-loved NIV — as it currently exists –was also being scrubbed in the process.
  
• The hiring of Flickering Pixels author Shane Hipps by Mars Hill Bible Church in Zondervan’s hometown, brought Hipps under fire from the discernment ministries who already had their guns aimed at Rob Bell.   It also showcases Zondervan’s willingness to promote next generation authors and give a platform to younger voices — bloggers Jon Acuff and Anne Jackson come to mind — and Emergent church, social justice and missional voices like Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne or Dan Kimball.   But the downside of this is going to be inexperience at minimum, or more severe controversy as in the next item; and even the hint of heresy from some extreme sides could diminish the value of the Zondervan brand in the eyes of conservative Christians.    The company is caught in the race against other publishers to sign “the next big thing in Christian writing” on the dotted line.   With that comes risk.   While there are more and more authors in the marketplace, Donald Millers don’t grow on trees.
• The decision to pull Deadly Viper Character Assasins by Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite was probably not easily made.    Taking a title of out distribution is costly and suggests the company wasn’t carefully considering the full ramifications of the book’s content before the presses started rolling.  Most people agree.   Others would say the company got caught in the tide of political correctness and that the book’s Kung-Fu imagery was a valid literary device to express the authors intent.
• The sale of Youth Specialties to Youthworks was the buzz of the recent National Youth Workers Convention, and it follows the release of Youth Specialties head Mark Oestreicher.   Zondervan will continue to hold the print rights to current and future books and resources.
• The downward spiral in the marriage of Jon and Kate Gosselin.   Zondervan is the publisher of Multiple Blessings: Surviving and Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets. The “story of a young couple who trusted in the ever present hand of a faithful God to provide the strength and courage they needed to face seemingly impossible challenges one day at a time” no doubt pales in the light of their recent separation and Jon’s excesses.    Such is the world of celebrity.   Just ask Thomas Nelson, whose biography of Lynn Spears was put on hold a few years back when Britney’s younger sister became pregnant at a young age.
• The lawsuit filed last week against Zondervan by Thomas Nelson, alleging copyright infringement in its I-Can-Read series book, The Princess Twins which they say is ripping off the Gigi: God’s Little Princess book and series by Sheila Walsh.  The similarity in the visual appearance of the characters is complicated by — but also somewhat explained by — the fact that both books used the same illustrator.  It also raises the issue of lawsuits among Christians.
  
• The September decision to jettison the company’s Pradis Bible software and instead work with other software developers such as Logos, with the result that pastors and seminarians don’t have to have a separate Bible program to utilize Zondervan content.
• The shunning of the Christian bookstore market in favor of developing an entire series of specialty Bibles for retail giant Wal-Mart may have been the last straw for those stores.   The backlash could continue for several years as customers bring those copies to the Christian stores looking to buy “another one like this one” which store staff will have never seen before.   To further complicate things, the Wal-Mart series piggybacks on several existing Zondervan NIV brands.
  
• Uncertainties as to how many copies of the new Glo Bible software will be returned after Christmas.   With four computers in the house — two of them recent — there’s a little concern in our home as to whether or not we can install the program which requires a dual core processor and 18GB of free hard disc space.  My youngest son, who is into gaming, offered me space on his, but it’s hard to find time when he’s not using it.
  
• While it’s not a Zondervan title, the company’s sales reps are promoting parent HarperCollins’ release Going Rogue by Sarah Palin in the Christian bookstore market, because of Palin’s unabashed faith commitment.   But Palin is a wild card, and the company can’t afford any backlash from the independent Christian bookstores that still remain.
• Stuff Christians Like blogger Jon Acuff’s book of the same name is due out from the company in the new year.   The blog is somewhat tame at times — he refused to print two comments by this writer, and I’m not known for being edgy — but takes risks in others.    One of the edgier sections is called “Booty – God – Booty” which frankly discusses the North American penchant for compartmentalizing our lives into the sacred and the profane.    But readers may have to read the section twice to get the illustration, and speaking of illustrations, at least one blogger is upset over this one.

And that’s just a few major items.   I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the Zondervan conference room.  It’s hard to imagine one Christian publisher dealing with so many varied issues at the same time.

I can’t wait to see what surprises the company has in mind for 2010.

Now,  more in the spirit of blogging:  How significant is the name on the spine of a book to you?  Do you note who the publishers are?   Do publisher imprints matter?   Do you have a favorite publisher?

Pictured below, some graphics from the now off-market Deadly Viper Character Assassins:

from Morning Satirical News:

Junction City, November 25, 2009–Brisk sales of Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue are saving the Main Street Book Emporium from the scrap heap of local businesses that go belly up after Walmart comes to town.

Jim Exlibrius, founder and owner of the 20-year-old bookstore conveniently located kitty corner across a busy intersection from the Krispy Kreme, told employees this morning that his butt and their jobs are safe through April Fool’s Day because Palin’s bestselling book is flying off the shelves “like bats in a tornado.”

“I almost lost my shirt after my window display for Audrey Niffenegger’s spooky “Her Fearful Symmetry” scared away all my customers,” said Exlibris. “Now, I’m making money like a blind water salesman in the Sahara Desert because every woman in this town has always wanted to ‘go rogue’ and ever man in this town has wanted to know a woman who ‘went rogue.’”

According to informed sources at publisher HarperCollins, the Main Street Book Emporium has sold up to 25% of the 2.5 million copies of Going Rogue now in print. Exlibris told reporters that he expects Junction City readers will force HarperCollins to make a tenth trip back to the printer to keep up with demand.

“I not only asked Sarah to come to my store for a book signing so huge that it will make J. K. Rowling look like a wannabee, I urged her (Sarah) to stay here as my wife,” said Exlibris. “How can a man not love a woman who writes, ‘With the gray Talkeetna Mountains in the distance and the first light covering of snow about to descend on Pioneer Peak, I breathed in an autumn bouquet that combined everything small-town America with splashes of the last frontier.’”

Police reports show that since Going Rogue was released earlier this month, more fights have broken out at the Main Street Book Emporium than Mona’s Biker Bar, Hot Balls Miniature Golf Magic Lane, and Ghost-of-a-Chance Cemetery combined.

“If we didn’t have a continuous presence at Krispy Kreme,” said Chief Kruller, “people would have been killed or worse at that bookstore. Jim just can’t keep enough Sarah on the shelf to satisfy everyone.”

Sources at city hall indicated that if Palin comes to town to do a reading and signing, Mayor Clark Trail is prepared to give her the key to the city as soon as he can find it (the key).

“He thinks it was in his gone-fishing trousers and must have ended up at the bottom of Miller’s Pond after last year’s incident with that school of rogue crappies,” councilman Calvin Knox said.

The Albino County Literary Club and Pecan Pie Society complains that its winter discussion schedule has been “more tangled than kite string in a Charlie Brown tree” because members sent to Exlibris’ store to buy one thing keep coming out with a sack full of Rogues.

“Just a couple of days ago, I sent them there to buy Jeff Shaara’s new new book No Less Than Victory, and they came out with Going Rogue, proving, I guess, that winning isn’t everything,” said society president Marianne Stemple.

Exlibris confessed to Star-Gazer editors that reporter Jock Stewart is the only man in town who refuses to buy Palin’s book, and “who the hell is more rogue than he is?”

Stewart reportedly maintains that when Palin buys his book, he’ll buy her book and even try out a halibut taco, a reindeer sausage and other delights from the land of the midnight sun Exlibris is giving away free with every copy of Going Rogue through the Black Friday weekend.

-30-

Copyright (c) Malcolm R. Campbell, author of Jock Stewart and the Missing sea of Fire where you’ll find Jim Exlibris, Chief Kruller, Councilman Knox, Mayor Clark Trail and–of course–Jock Stewart are all going rogue.

Isabel Allende e o scriitoare foarte talentată, născută în Peru şi crescută în Chile, de unde probabil a achiziţionat toată cultura locală necesară pentru a scrie CITY OF BEASTS (Oraşul Fiarelor). Cei mai mulţi o cunosc probabil după CASA SPIRITELOR sau PORTRET IN SEPIA, traduse la noi, şi mai puţin după cărţile ei fantasy, diamante neşlefuite care n-au fost încă „prelucrate” de editurile de la noi.

CITY OF BEASTS e prima dintr-o serie de trei cărţi despre aventurile lui Alexander Cold în lumi exotice şi îndepărtate, alături de bunica lui, Kate, şi de cea care va deveni prietena lui cea mai bună, Nadia Santos.

Cartea este superb scrisă, talentul autoarei transpare din fiecare rând. Deşi Allende menţionează că locurile şi personajele sunt în întregime fictive, eu am crezut fiecare rând, atât de credibil e scrisă. Toate descrierile, de locuri, de oameni, legendele sunt redate atât de frumos şi de cursiv, încât nu te îndoieşti nicio clipă de existenţa Poporului Ceţii, de existenţa Fiarelor, de călătoria iniţiatică a lui Alex în căutarea „apei sănătăţii” pentru mama lui bolnavă de cancer, şi de drumul parcurs de Nadia în căutarea celor trei ouă de cristal care vor salva lumea primitivă a amazonienilor. Până şi animalele fantastice descrise, pasărea-dragon, liliacul mare cât un urs polar, Fiarele, sunt portretizate cu atâta convingere încât eu una sunt sigură că undeva, în jungla deasă şi labirintică a pădurilor amazoniene, ele există nedescoperite de oamenii obişnuiţi.

Este o carte superbă,  un fantasy, dar puţin mai diferită de genul obişnuit, în sensul că aventurile celor doi copii se petrec pe lumea aceasta, chiar dacă e o lume a legendelor şi credinţelor mistice, o lume unde poţi deveni invizibil dacă te concentrezi suficient şi unde te poţi transforma în animalul tău totemic, ca să îi preiei din puteri şi din calităţi. Alex (Jaguarul) şi Nadia (vulturul) vor lupta pentru a proteja Poporul Ceţii contra lui Rahakanariwa, spiritul morţii în cultura locală (din perspectiva localnicilor) sau contra unor investitori rapace (din perspectiva străinilor). Răul şi moartea sunt aceleaşi, indiferent de forma pe care o iau în mintea oamenilor, şi Alex şi Nadia îşi vor pune viaţa în joc ca să câştige împotriva lor.

O combinaţie de carte de aventuri, cu fantasy, cu thriller, cu carte poliţistă, cu tentă iniţiatică pe care o recomand oricui ştie puţină engleză şi vrea să se scufunde într-o lume magică timp de 406 pagini.

Recenzie sponsorizată de CărţiABC.ro.

Titlul original: City of Beasts
Autor: Isabel Allende
Editura originală: HarperCollins
Autor recenzie: Laura

Last Updated: 11:08 AM, November 23, 2009

Posted: 1:19 AM, November 23, 2009

Via NY Post

A parody of Sarah Palin’s book “Going Rogue: An American Life” has been causing huge confusion — forcing Palin’s publishers HarperCollins to take out ads to direct buyers to the official version.

The rival book, “Going Rouge: An American Nightmare,” was released on the same day as Palin’s memoir and features an almost identical cover.

Colin Robinson, co-publisher of the book, compiled by Nation magazine staffers Betsy Reed and Richard Kim, told Page Six: “We have been contacted by numerous media outlets across the country asking for interviews with Sarah Palin, or companies offering security for her while on tour.

UPI

“One Web site not only thought we were Ms. Palin’s publishers but called the book ‘Going Rough.’

“We’ve noticed that someone, presumably HarperCollins, has been buying ads on Google redirecting people looking for ‘Going Rouge’ to ‘Going Rogue,’ which seems very unsporting of them.”

Victims of the “Rogue”/”Rouge” saga include CNN’s Political Ticker, which quoted Obama adviser David Axelrod saying he’d be borrowing Obama campaign manager David Plouffe’s copy of “Going Rouge.”

USA Today’s section The Oval wrongly posted the cover of “Going Rouge” with a review of Palin’s book. It has since corrected the confusion with the statement: “Erratum: An earlier posting featured the photo of a different Sarah Palin book. The Oval regrets the error.” Last week, Fox News Channel apologized for showing the cover of the takedown book while discussing Palin’s memoir.

Robinson added: “We are sure that many people who mistakenly bought our book will have been pleasantly surprised. You learn more about the real Palin in our version.”

HarperCollins did not respond to calls and e-mails for comment.

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A good choice for junior and senior high school students

Not Suitable for Family Viewing has been chosen as an official Book Club selection by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre.

That's what I like to see

While in Alberta for Children’s Book Week, I visited ten schools, three libraries and any number of book stores. I talked to close to a thousand kids between the ages of ten and eighteen. I learned about pump jacks and stubble and why everybody in Alberta has a cracked windshield.

And I had a very, very good time.

I want to thank all the teachers, librarians, students and book-sellers who made me so welcome.

Would I go back again? As they say in Alberta – “You betcha!”

(This candid photo was sent to me by teacher/librarian Donna Alden after my visit to Calgary Science School. Does my heart good…)

Jane Friedman at SCPS-NYU Center for Publishing

“To be a success, you only have to be right 51% of the time,” said former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman about her publishing career, past and future. Friedman was speaking to an audience of graduate students, alumni, and faculty of NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing. Publishing heavyweights such as Michael Cader, creator of Publishers Marketplace; Peter Workman,  president and CEO of Workman Publishing; and Bob Miller, president and publisher of HarperStudio also listened intently as Friedman talked about her exciting new e-book company, Open Road Integrated Media.

With 70% of the population having access to the internet, 30% of all books in the U.S. being purchased online, and 96% of young adults being connected to a social network, Friedman realized the importance of creating and distributing meaningful content whenever and wherever readers want it. After 30 years in publishing, she says  that “the only constant is change.” However, sometimes change means recognizing the importance of the past and of books that stand the test of time.  Friedman noted that many of the books she reads are the same ones she wants her children and grandchildren to read. So, with the sale of classic works diminishing, she decided to reinvigorate the great masters.  “I like to tell people I am going ‘back to the future,’ ” she said. Open Road will focus on creating e-versions of backlist books; the first three authors on the list are Dame Iris Murdoch, Pat Conroy and William Styron, whose topics, of course, include depression and war. “You can ride that for a long time,” Friedman said to much laughter.

In addition to publishing electronic editions of the literary giants, Open Road will create “e-riginals”, a term Friedman has coined for books that will be born in digital format.  Other functions of the company include self-publishing and print-on-demand. Digital entertainment, with apps, widgets and audio platforms, is also in the works. She described Open Road as a marketing platform which will work with the social network community, websites and blogs and will do a lot of “pushing out and getting feedback.”

Her company already has agreements to create digi-content for two publishers, Grove/Atlantic and Kensington Books. Although Open Road is currently weighted towards fiction, they will publish in any category. Friedman hopes to publish about 1000 books in her first year.

The audience had a chance to meet her partner and Open Road’s President, Jeffrey Sharp, an award-winning movie producer. Sharp, who previously ran a film development division at HarperCollins, talked about potential movie adaptations for Open Road’s backlist.Visit the company’s website www.openroadmedia.com, designed by Code and Theory, to see the company’s first few videos.

When asked about the business model for Open Road, Friedman talked about the benefit of being a small company. Not having the same overhead as larger companies, Open Road has the ability to move quickly when something works or doesn’t, and the flexibility and edge to be potentially successful.  “Bookstores have shrunk, but advances and returns have not,” Friedman noted. With the publishing industry suffering from declining revenue, she argued that it is time to look at another way of doing business. Although, Open Road will not provide author advances, Friedman feels the profit sharing model could be extremely rewarding to authors. Furthermore, she promises a strong marketing arm and adhering to the same five fundamental tenets of publishing she has used throughout her career:

1. Publishing is about relationships

2. Hire the right people

3. Authors are your most important asset

4. Know your audience

5. Move with and embrace technology

As in any conversation about e-books, the subject of the right price came up. Friedman said she though the value of an e-book should be roughly the same as a trade paperback, and cited $14, possibly more for premium content. “The value of an e-book is the same value for the person reading it as any other format of the book,” she offered, rejecting the notion that digital editions had to be “cheap.”  Like DVD’s that include extra footage and content, Open Road will also include ancillary materials, including author bios and interviews. However none of this will be embedded in the actual text; Friedman does not believe in disrupting “the purity of the read.”

All in all, Friedman is bullish not only about her new company, but about the industry in general. “This is the most exciting time for publishing,” she said. “There are more books, more diverse formats, and more opportunities to serve customers in a whole new way.”

By Alyssa Léal

For another take on this event, check out the SCPS News blog’s entry. You can find video of the event here.

Former GOP presidential candidate Senator John McCain comments to "The Hill" on his vp running mate Sarah Palin's new book "Going Rogue."

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who spoke to The Hill Monday evening, denied Sarah Palin’s allegation that his campaign stuck her with a $50,000 legal bill to pay for the cost of vetting her as a potential vice presidential candidate.

McCain said the bill was for legal work related to allegations that Palin made improper use of her influence as Alaska’s governor to press for the dismissal of a state trooper named Mike Wooten. Wooten was embroiled in a custody dispute with Palin’s younger sister, Molly McCann.

“That was addressed by Trevor Potter,” said McCain, “That was over the Troopergate.”

In a statement to the Associated Press, Potter, McCain’s general counsel, denied that McCain’s campaign billed Palin for vetting her.

“To my knowledge, the campaign never billed Gov. Palin for any legal expenses related to her vetting and I am not aware of her ever asking the campaign to pay legal expenses that her own lawyers incurred for the vetting process,” he said.

Palin made the charge in her new book, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” which listed a litany of complaints Palin had with McCain’s campaign, such as its decision to limit her access to reporters. Palin also questioned how the campaign handled the announcement of her daughter’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

McCain told The Hill that he nevertheless enjoyed Palin’s book.

“I hope she sells lots of them,” he said.

Palin received a $5 million advance from HarperCollins, according to the New York Times.

Alexander Bolton
The Hill

HarperCollins is already headed back to the printer to get another run of Going Rogue in print. WSJ reports:

Sarah Palin’s memoir just hit the stands today but demand for “Going Rogue: An American Life” is so strong that HarperCollins Publishers is going back to press for an additional 100,000 run, bringing the total number of hard-covers in print to 1.6 million copies.

All the left can do is keep trying to insult this woman. At this point I’m sure she’s cool with it. Her book sales just keep going up.

"Going Rouge: An American Nightmare" is now available for purchase at www.orbooks.com

It was just six weeks ago that OR Books, the new publishing company set up by John Oakes and myself, decided to enter the fray against Sarah Palin by publishing our now much talked-about anthology, “Going Rouge.” In doing so, we realized we would not be competing on a level playing field. The book we were up against, Sarah Palin’s own “Going Rogue,” is the lead title this fall from HarperCollins, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, one of the largest media corporations on earth. Harper had agreed to pay the ex-Alaskan governor an advance reputed to be $7 million dollars, aiming to make at least some of this back from a first printing of one and half million copies. Pre-sales alone had taken their book to number one on Amazon.

On our side, the resources were less extravagant. OR Books has a full-time staff of two, John and me, together with help from a small group of talented part-timers. The OR office rotates between the Eros café on New York’s 7th Avenue during the day, and the bar at El Quijote, next to the Chelsea Hotel, at night. The more stressful the day, the earlier we head for the evening office. “Going Rouge,” a dazzling philippic of acrid Palintology assembled by Nation editors Richard Kim and Betsy Reed, is our first book.

Battling on such unpromising terrain, we realized that employing the strength of our opponents against themselves held the best, perhaps the only, chance of success. Call it the jujitsu approach to publishing. It involved positioning our book so that whenever “Going Rogue” was discussed, “Going Rouge” would be brought into the frame too. We had to become the skunk at Palin’s garden party.

We were helped in this in a number of ways: First was the devilish play on Harper Collins’ title (the creation of the book’s agent Deirdre Mullane) that we took as our own. There is something about the juxtaposition of “Rogue” and “Rouge” that reduces otherwise firm minds to jelly. It led to a variety of gratifying high profile mix-ups of the two books on cable television, including twice on CNN, and prompted someone identified only as SR to respond angrily to our Nation magazine email promotion: “Going ROUGE? It’s ROUGE [sic], not rouge. What an embarrassment. Don’t you have proof-readers?”

We had sharpened the satirical edge of our cover by selecting a portrait of Palin that bore an uncanny similarity to that on her own book. It features the same distant gaze that she regularly adopts, perhaps to keep a watchful eye on the Russians across the Bering Strait. We distinguished our cover by setting her against a dark, stormy sky and by including the subtitle “Sarah Palin – An American Nightmare“.

But most important to our jujitsu strategy was the media’s infatuation with what they call “both sides of the story.” In fact the supposedly even-handed approach of mainstream media is generally a fiction. The fulcrum is rarely placed at the center of the real debate. We can have a raging controversy about whether more troops should be sent to Afghanistan or whether the existing numbers should be maintained, but you’ll be hard pressed to find any respectable commentator joining with what the majority of Americans and Afghanis appear to want, which is that we just pull out.

Pretense of balance is, however, vital to the way media sells itself and “Going Rouge” thus became a handy counterweight to its competitor. “Satire or Sabotage?” trumpeted the hosts of Entertainment Tonight’s “The Insider” in their segment on the book. “You decide!” Similar weighing of the alternatives appeared on “Hardball” and “Countdown,” and in Entertainment Weekly and the Los Angeles Times. Even Fox News, co-owned by the same corporation as our rival publisher, speculated on which book would sell most, concluding it would probably be Palin’s because “she’s appearing on Oprah“.

This juxtaposition of the two books has produced a torrent of orders. We are now selling hundreds each day. It has also enraged many Sarah Palin supporters, as evidenced by the flood of caustic e-mails arriving in the OR Books comment box. Some are sniffily self-righteous: ” It is obvious you won’t make it in decent circles as you have no moral compass,” wrote a budding Miss Manners from VA. Others are more direct: “I will … be on the watch for other slippery, conniving, left winged [sic] corporations or organizations that attempt to sway political opinion with fake products …Sneaky, conniving, crooks!” And a few are darkly menacing, including one that juxtaposes photographs of spent bullets next to a description of the publishers, resulting in my partner sleeping even less than usual.

But this sort of thing goes with the territory. And for every raging conservative who has assailed us for “making a buck off the backs of honest capitalists!” there have been others, from all around the country, who have written to thank us for taking the fight to Palin. Here, for instance is the manager from a Midwestern branch of a large chain bookstore: “My corporate office recently scheduled an event that, although will bring me tons of business, does little to excite me and make me happy. Sarah Palin will be signing her new book at my store. I not only despise the woman, but, as a female, think she is a disgrace to those of us who actually have some common sense … good luck with the book.” (It was with regret that we had to inform her that our paperback is currently available only online–at www.orbooks.com).

Our resolve stiffened by such heartwarming support, we now head into the final round of Rogue vs Rouge. Publication day for both books is this Tuesday, November 17th. The night before, for the red corner, Palin will appear on Oprah; for the blue, we have Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel on Larry King Live. Naomi Klein will appear on CNN the following morning. In between, we will be gathering at a nightclub in Chelsea to “Paint the Town Rouge” in the company of a few Sarah Palin lookalikes, an Alaskan flag, and a great deal of booze. We already know it’s going to be a victory celebration, sweeter, we’re sure, than anything happening over at HarperCollins.

“Going Rouge: Sarah Palin – An American Nightmare” is available ONLY direct from OR Books at www.orbooks.com

Colin Robinson
The Huffington Post

Today I’m making you a fan of…Flux Books!

Reasons Why You Should Love Flux: To me, Flux strikes me as one of the more innovative Teen Imprints out there. It’s an independent publisher, catering exclusively to teens. Not middle grade, not picture book, not the broad umbrella of children’s lit. Just straight YA. As a result, I find a lot of there titles to err on the edgy side (a good thing, in my opinion), but really the genres run the gamut. Although not the powerhouse presence of a HarperCollins or Random House, Flux has managed to wrangle some of YA’s hottest authors. Right now, they have Simone Elkeles, Maggie Stiefvater, and A.S. King and I think Mandy Hubbard was just signed for a new book. What’s more, Flux puts out some great covers–always big in my book! Here are a few examples:

Finally, if you’re a writer, you can sub to them without an agent.

A few Flux books on my To Be Read List:

Second Virginity of Suzy Green–

Suzy Green used to be one of the coolest “almost-Goth” party girls in Australia. That was before her older sister Rosie died and her family moved to a new town. Gone are the Doc Martens and the attitude. All she wants is to be like Rosie—perfect. The new Suzy Green makes straight As, hangs with the in-crowd at her new school, and dates the hottest guy around. And since all her new friends belong to a virginity club, she joins, too. So what if she’s not technically qualified?

This is What I Want To Tell You–

Nadio and his twin sister, Noelle, always had a unique bond. And somehow, Keeley Shipley fit perfectly into their world. But when Keeley spends the summer in England, she comes home changed, haunted by a dark memory. As she and Nadio fall in love, they try to hide it from Noelle, who’s jealously guarding a secret of her own. Slowly, a life-long friendship begins to crack under the crushing weight of past trauma, guarded secrets, jealousy, obsession . . . and an unexpected love that could destroy them.

The Fat Girl–

Jeff Lyons can’t stand Ellen de Luca, the fat girl in his ceramics class. She’s huge, clumsy, can’t throw a pot to save her life, and stares at Jeff all the time. But he’s a “nice guy” and feels terrible when Ellen overhears his hurtful remarks about her. The “crumbs of kindness” he tosses her way soon turn into advice on weight loss, college, clothes, hair . . . and, to everyone’s surprise, good-looking Jeff actually dumps his pretty girlfriend to be with the fat girl! Re-creating Ellen is a labor of love, Jeff thinks. But as her pounds melt away, Jeff resents the happy, independent young woman he has unleashed. Where is the gratitude for all he’s done for her?

So now that you’re a fan, here’s how you can stalk Flux:

Flux Website

Flux Submission Guidelines

Follow Flux on Twitter

Become a Fan on Twitter

Ben has run from his life in England to Greece.

Just separated/divorced from his wife and child, he is running from something that isn’t inherently known right away.  They want to talk to one another, but there is never a good time since Ben is in Greece, and his wife is in England taking care of their child.  Could it been the differences in class and social standing? Could it have been an affair?

Ben is also a student attempting to finish his Spartacus thesis in Archaeology from Oxford.  When he finds a job working at a meat grill, he comes across one of his colleagues that let it out of the bag that he is travelling to a dig not far from where they are.  Not being terribly close and each having presumed assuming of one another, they leave one another as they found one another.

Unknown to Ben, this group of diggers have something hidden that he wouldn’t even begin to imagine, after he joins their ranks, how it all fits into the scope of what they are digging for, and why they are even there in the place where they are in the first place.

Curious after a jackal has invaded the digging site and left them a portion that they hunted, they decide it is time to let Ben into the fold on a night of hunting the jackal.  As disturbing as Ben and literally me as I read it, it seemed to be some sort of initiation into being “one of them”.

Which, he regrets almost immediately.

I liked the writing switching between his life in England and the things that haunt him there and what happened to his marriage, then in between his notes from his thesis about Spartacus and all of the battles won and lost in that era was quite fascinating, which in a strange sense have some strange similarities in both, but in different ways.

I almost tired of the story, as the real reason why they were all there in the first place was slowly being played out, but then again it could have been possibly that thriller/ adventure reading part of me that expected it quick and then on to the next thing.  I was just about ready to give up when in the last pages it was revealed, and what a reveal it was.  It left me with a few questions –

Are we always sure of what was want when we make a decision?

Do the secrets we keep hurt us when they are revealed, or when they are kept hidden for a period of time?; Would it cast us in a different light if we opened up about it right away, or if hidden for an amount of time then revealed?

If we are in a group and have close ties to the people we are in the group with, would the ties that bind, bind us forever whatever happens?

Do we want to be happy, or do we want to be right? Can’t be both I am afraid.

HarperCollins

If you want to see who else is in the blog tour, and get some more information check out the blog tour page HERE

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Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate, is always a hot topic of conversation in the media. Her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, slated for release by News Corp.’s HarperCollins next Tuesday, November 17, is no exception; it’s been making news since the ink dried on the deal made last May.

Going Rogue was one of 10 books selected for massive discounting by Amazon, Walmart, and Target in their ongoing price war. Palin made headlines last month when she revealed that HarperCollins had paid her a $1.25 million “retainer” sometime between January 1 and July 26, the day she stepped down as Alaska governor. Oprah Winfrey has her booked on her show next Monday, which the author will follow with a bus tour to far-flung corners of the country (or as she famously called them during the 2008 campaign, “the real America”). No less than three books about Palin are slated for publication around the same time, including a parody called Going Rouge: An American Nightmare.

Kit, who is a graduate student in literature  is literally obsessed with her work is about to have a change.

She decides on a whim to go across town to go to some dancing classes she came across.  She meets Joe as she is leaving halfway through the first lesson.  She dismisses him and thinks nothing of it, but when she returns the next week she isn’t so sure, but decides to see where it goes.

Once they are more comfortable with themselves, things from their lives start to emerge.  Joe’s life is more complicated then he first admits to;  A brother who is flawed and mentally incapable of sorts, while Kit comes across an intriguing part of her research – she is researching about Dickens which will or would change her thesis.

The complications in this novel, as well as the early writings of Dickens were as if they were taken from a modern day life.  The complexities of their lives in the present, with the lives of those in the past collide to give questions and answers some have been answered and some not, how the past collides with those of the present  who are or at least Kit is questioning whether it is the right fit or not.

The real question is, are we all like this until we have hit or stride, or it is the nuance of keeping on until we get something that we think is right for us individually, and then be able to let go?

Are there always twists and turns such as the ones that Kit and Joe experience in all of our relationships that we have to navigate through.  Will it be smooth sailing to speak when we first meet and start dating a new person? or will it be complicated and the real question is the person worth it?

HarperCollins

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