Filed under: books, rumors | Tags: catcher in the rye sequel, gawker, hoping that salinger is still writing, salinger
Now, whether you think Salinger is the cat’s pajamas or overrated ballywhoo, he is one of the great enigmas of 20th century literature. Wrote a book that struck a chord with … everyone and then as his fame was reaching a peak disappeared to the Hanover wilderness. Or. His house. With his wife.
SO. When this sequel hit the media-stream didn’t you for 10 seconds think, hey, maybe Salinger dusted off his typewriter long enough to let loose some prose. Because, as Gawker points out, that name, John David California, is pretty fake.
Well, here’s a drink to John David California, and one of my old English professors who was convinced Salinger’s been writing under a pen name this whole time.
I don’t want to say too much … BUT we could have Pride and Prejudice and Zombies back in stock by the end of the week. Just sayin’.
This from a source who wished to remain anonymous: “who are you? I’m trying to take a shower. I’m calling the police.”
We’re crossing our fingers.
Filed under: books, rumors | Tags: a memory of light, brandon sanderson, greedy publishers, robert jordan, tor, trilogy, upset fans, wheel of time
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Meant to post this yesterday, but hey, sometimes a bottle of wine takes priority.
The last book in Robert Jordan’s unfinished epic, The Wheel of Time series, is going to be split into three separate books under the original title for the manuscript A Memory of Light.
President of Tor Books, Tom Doherty, had this to say in the press release:
“It is a magnificent closure to a great American epic fantasy whose journey began almost twenty years ago. There is no way Robert Jordan would have squeezed it to a single volume, and somehow it seems fitting that what began as a trilogy will also end as one.”
Though there has been some outcry over the handling of the final manuscript. Seems R.J himself lamented probably having to split the final book in half because of it’s heft, but Tor is being accused of, what else, greed (or money speak: maximizing profit margin). Though no one should be surprised as this cash-cow for Tor is coming close to it’s end after 18 years and millions of copies sold.
The author working with Jordan’s manuscript, Brandon Sanderson, had a blog post as a rebuttal of sorts. Worth a read for some context.
Though I am sure that all of R.J’s fans will still buy the last three books (look at how much Scholastic milked out of the last Harry Potter book) as it’s the capstone to the whole damn thing.
The first of the final books, titled The Gathering Storm, will be published November 3, 2009.
Yes. We’ll have it.
Filed under: books, rumors | Tags: barack obama, book deals, george w bush, presidential book deal, random house
Just announced today there are 44 and 43 got themselves some book deals! Guess which one is bigger? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I could laugh for six pages. I’ll post that link later.
“The Decider’s” large, though small in comparison, book advance. $7 million. Really. Well, Random House (Crown is publishing the book), you better have payed him in Ameros.
#44, Barry Obama, also got himself a book deal yesterday. Two months into his presidency. Well, at least we know he knows how to write. And judging from how much Dreams from My Father has Sold, I am guessing it’s going to be a little bit more than the token they threw at Georgie. Assuming, of course, that he doesn’t launch a full scale war to try and get his Frisbee off the neighbor’s lawn.
Filed under: books, rumors | Tags: ameros, audrey niffenegger, her fearful symmetry, simon and schuster
Well, Audrey Niffenegger has scored big. Real big. Bigger than Kathy Griffin big. Bigger than Richard Ford big. And it’s from our pals at Simon and Schuster. ‘natch. $4 million. That’s dollars not ameros. Must have been what they were saving their pennies for after they fired 2% of their workforce.
Her Fearful Symmetry is about two girls in a cemetery or some such and will be published in September. Is it going to have time traveling this time? Rockets? Explosions? Better get some good CGI.
Word of advice: keep Jar-Jar Binks away from it.
Filed under: books, rumors | Tags: HMH, houghton mifflin harcourt, nemesis, philip, philip roth
This just in from Publisher’s Lunch:
Philip Roth’s 31st book, NEMESIS, about a wartime polio epidemic in the summer of 1944 and the effect it has on a closely-knit, family-oriented Newark community and its children, has just been announced, folks.
Do you ever think that when Mr. Roth is sitting at his desk writing that he ever says to himself: “Haven’t I written this book before?”
I am sure Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt is putting all their eggs in this basket. [Tongue planted firmly in-cheek] Of course I kid. This could be good. Can’t judge a book by its one sentence agent-blurb.
Filed under: books, rumors | Tags: david foster wallace, dfw, hachette, kafka, nabokv, the new yorker, the pale king
Among the many things that David Foster Wallace left unfinished when he cut short his life was another sprawling novel called The Pale King. Hachette (DFW’s publisher) has decided that it will publish what Wallace left behind. Including “notes, outlines, and other material.”
Here is a DFW fan site that is still regularly updating and has traced back excerpts of the novel back to 2006. They actually have quite a bit of information.
The New Yorker has also printed a couple of sample pages from the manuscript in this weeks issue. So … check it out? Or don’t. One can argue the validity of publishing unfinished things. Like Nabokov’s son and his perennial back and forth over whether to publish the final manuscript his father told him to destroy. Or Kafka’s friend publishing everything that Kafka told him to destroy.
But I guess since DFW didn’t ask his wife to destroy the material …
Filed under: books, bookstore news, news of the world, rumors | Tags: anderson news, david plouffe, houghton mifflin harcourt, philip roth, ron burkle, source interlink, source interlink is stupid, source interlink sucks, walmart
Ouch, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ouch.- It’s a common story nowadays, but still a shock regardless. Where will we get our Philip Roth books?!
David Plouffe is getting a large advance … on a book! The title? The Audacity to Win. Well, he helped create the wagon, so why not latch himself on. Thesis of the book: drop out of school. No, just kidding! Stay in school, kids. Don’t do drugs!
Guess who’s in a fight with Walmart? No, not that off-duty cop who assaulted a greeter. Ron Burkle owned Source Interlink, and Anderson News! Source Interlink is somewhat infamous for being an incompetent company who make it a horrible experience to receive three copies of Billboard every month, but to take on Walmart? With magazines dying by the day? Takes guts, kid, takes guts. Or a billionaire owner.
Filed under: news of the world, rumors | Tags: fired, publisher's weekly, sara nelson
As of TWO days ago, Sara Nelson, 4 year Editor at Publisher Weekly with her mixed results, has been sacked. Ok, old news now.
What really got me is that in her last weekly column in the PW we got today. The title: “Change I Believe In” I actually cringed a little. Couldn’t fire her before she wrote that article? Put in a little bright-pink insert disclaimer?
Her article actually reads like a self-aware missive. Did she know she was on the outs?
“In other words, while everything suggests that the road ahead is going to be rocky, like many others in BookLand, we’re still on our feet – and moving forward – because we’re still passionate about what we do.”
One last plea? It reads like a evaluation to a consultancy firm right before they start liquidating staff per the executive board.
Well, Sara, good luck out there. Books are going to need it.
