As Books Fill Dumps, Publishers Target 'Insane' Returns Policy

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- When Robert Miller announced last month that he was leaving Hyperion, the Walt Disney Co. book unit he created, to start a new imprint at HarperCollins, he made headlines.

Miller, who's vowed to revolutionize publishing in his new post, instantly targeted a surreal policy that's been sacrosanct for too long: the practice that allows booksellers to send unsold copies back to publishers for credit.

In his last job, Miller published bestselling books such as Mitch Albom's ``For One More Day'' and ``The Last Lecture'' by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow.

At HarperCollins, Miller said he'll experiment with some nontraditional business practices, like offering authors profit- sharing instead of the typical advance/royalty arrangement, and bundling hardcover, nonfiction books with e-book versions of the same titles.

But it's the returns policy that got everyone excited.

Miller wants to sell his books on a non-returnable basis in a bid to kick the industry's addiction to overprinting and overstocking.

Depression-Era Practice

Returns date back to the Depression, when publishers implemented the practice as a way to ensure that bookstores would continue stocking new books.

Today, publishers have convinced retailers that stacks of books piled high in the aisles will attract customers and spawn bestsellers. It's a leaky theory posing little risk for booksellers. If the books don't sell, they're only out the cost of shipping and handling the returns.

``Let's face it, returns are bad for everyone, and things have to change,'' Miller said in a telephone interview last month. ``The only way to make it happen was to start something entirely from scratch.''

In 2005, roughly 1.5 billion books were shipped in the U.S., according to the Association of American Publishers. Of those, 465 million, or 31 percent, were returned to publishers.

``In the past, when economies of scale made it cost- effective to overprint books, we saw numbers as high as 40 percent,'' said Jim Milliot, an editor at Publishers Weekly, a trade magazine. ``But just-in-time shipping, inventory management and better point-of-sale data have helped the number come down.''

`Insane'

Publishers and booksellers agree it's a costly and wasteful system, and it leaves a big footprint that's no longer defensible for an industry that generates $25 billion a year in retail sales, according to the publishers association.

``In this age of global warming it's insane to be shipping books back and forth across the country for no good reason,'' said Margo Baldwin, president of Chelsea Green Publishing Co. of White River Junction, Vermont. ``It's just a waste of energy and, not only that, it still encourages the overproduction of books -- many of which end up in landfills.''

Baldwin, a publisher of titles about sustainable living, has started a ``green partnership program,'' signing up 30 bookstores that have agreed to take books on a non-returnable basis. In exchange, she gives them extra discounts and priority access to her authors for readings and events.

Allison Hill, president and chief operating officer of Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, California, agrees that returns are a big drain on her business.

Excess Production

``We'd like to see them reduced, not only for the environmental impact but for the fact that pulling returns, boxing them and shipping is one of the most time-consuming things our employees do,'' Hill said.

Mark Suchomel, president of Independent Publishers Group, one of the largest small-press distributors in the country, said he's held returns to 20 percent and is convinced that number can be reduced even further.

When authors and agents press for large print runs, he said, publishers, in turn, push the excess production into bookstores, even though they know much of it won't sell.

Ultimately, the market will decide if curtailing returns makes economic sense. For one thing, booksellers will demand a larger discount if they can't return what they don't sell.

Miller, provided he keeps his list of titles to a modest size, might succeed, though the practice has a lot of inertia on its side. Big publishing conglomerates would have to do some heavy rethinking.

``It would require Random House or HarperCollins to develop an entirely new business model,'' said Milliot of Publishers Weekly. ``And that is not going to happen.''

Rice's Lustful Jesus Faces Picoult's Killer Messiah: Book Buzz

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Fornicating vampires helped Anne Rice sell more than 100 million copies of her books worldwide. Lately she has been writing about Jesus.

The second in a promised quartet of biographical novels, ``Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana,'' (Knopf, $25.95) is out now. It picks up in the ``lost years,'' -- the period not described in the Bible -- and carries on through the baptism by John, the temptation by Satan, and up to the wedding feast in Cana, where Jesus transforms water into wine.

Rice considers her latest writing a serious attempt to reimagine the life of the biblical Jesus in a way that honors religious faith.

```The Road to Cana' is, in part, a direct repudiation of `The Da Vinci Code,''' Rice says when reached by phone at her home in Rancho Mirage, California. ``In it I show Jesus as celibate and sinless and not married to Mary Magdalene.''

Still, in Rice's version, Jesus is strongly attracted to Avigail, the bride married in Cana, and even spies on her in her wedding chamber before the marriage is consummated.

``Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt'' has a half-million copies in print and outsold the last of her vampire books, 2003's ``Blood Canticle,'' according to Rice's longtime publisher Knopf, which has put an equal number of copies of this second volume into bookstores.

Rice hasn't necessarily closed the coffin on vampires. ``I may yet revisit Lestat,'' she says, referring to her most famous vampire, who drank the blood of Jesus in one book. ``But if I do write another book about him it will be a Christian book. Lestat will consecrate his life to the Lord.''

Picoult's Messiah

Jodi Picoult's 15th novel, ``Change of Heart'' (Atria, $26.95), features another kind of messiah. Shay Bourne, a prisoner on New Hampshire's death row, raises a bird from the dead and changes water into wine -- via the prison plumbing system, to the delight of his fellow inmates. The strange occurrences cause a priest to believe the prisoner may be more than a mere man.

Convicted of killing a policeman and his daughter, Bourne now wants to donate his heart to the slain cop's second, ailing daughter. His scheduled death by lethal injection, however, would render his heart unsuitable for donation.

Thereby hangs the tale, for several conflicted characters -- the priest, an ACLU advocate and the cop's wife -- take a role in trying to convert the mode of execution to hanging. This would allow donation and conform to Bourne's religious wishes.

The plot allows Picoult to transubstantiate her book from an intriguing melodrama into a contrived disquisition on morality, religion and the separation of church and state.

U.S. readers have snapped up 9.5 million copies of Picoult's books out of a total of 13.5 million copies sold across 35 countries.

Picoult currently has two paperbacks on bestseller lists, and Atria, aiming to capitalize on her momentum, has printed a million copies of ``Change of Heart'' to start, by far Picoult's largest first run.

Embarrassed Publisher Works Fast to Erase Tracks of Fake Memoir
By Edward Nawotka

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Dishonest memoirists are the publishing industry's equivalent of juiced athletes. Incentives to cheat continue to outweigh the fear of getting caught.

In the latest scandal, Margaret B. Jones, the half-Native American, slum-raised author of the L.A. gang memoir ``Love and Consequences,'' turns out to be Margaret Seltzer, a white product of the upper middle class. And her book, subtitled, ``A Memoir of Hope and Survival,'' is largely make-believe.

``Love and Consequences'' was published just last week to widespread praise. Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin Group, had printed about 24,000 copies, of which 19,000 were shipped to stores.

Now the deeply embarrassed publisher is moving fast to control the damage. The book's page on the Penguin Web site has been deleted, the author's book tour has been canceled and, most significantly, the books are being recalled from bookstores.

In addition, Riverhead is defending itself from charges of sloppy fact-checking. According to a statement from executive director of publicity Marilyn Ducksworth released yesterday:
``Prior to publication the author provided a great deal of evidence to support her story: photographs, letters; parts of Peggy's (i.e., Seltzer's) life story in another published book; Peggy's story had been supported by one of her former professors; Peggy even introduced the agent to people who misrepresented themselves as her foster siblings.''

Strange System

The cost of recalling a book is tricky to estimate, given that returning unsold merchandise is a linchpin of the book- distribution system.

Since the Depression, bookstores have been able to send unsold books back to publishers for credit, which they then use to purchase new books. The returned books are either sold back to bookstores as cut-priced ``remainders'' or pulped -- as, presumably, all returned copies of ``Love and Consequences'' will be.

Penguin will cover the cost of shipping back the returns, which could be significant. The financial impact on bookstores is likely to be minor. At Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, California, promotional director Jennifer Ramos had ordered 37 copies of the book in anticipation of Seltzer's scheduled reading this Thursday.

``Her cancellation is no big deal,'' Ramos says. ``Events get canceled all the time. We'll just return the books as we normally do. It won't have any financial impact on us at all.''
Anyone who bought the book can get a full refund, upon request, by returning the book to the store where it was purchased.

Another Liar

In recent years falsehoods in a number of high-profile memoirs have come to light. Only last week the Belgian author Misha Defonseca confessed that her Holocaust memoir ``Surviving With Wolves'' is ``nothing but pure fiction.'' She did not really sup on fresh kill with a friendly wolf mommy and her cubs.

The most famous instance, of course, is James Frey's Oprah- ordained 2003 bestseller ``A Million Little Pieces.'' After it was revealed in 2006 that significant portions of it had been fabricated, Random House agreed to refund as much as $2.35 million to readers who felt they had been bilked.

As of October 2007, only 1,536 people had filed claims. Both Random and Frey agreed to donate additional monies to charity. (Coincidentally, Frey's editor, Sean McDonald, and Seltzer's editor, Sarah McGrath, are now colleagues at Riverhead.)

John Freeman, president of the National Book Critics Circle, doesn't see an endemic problem.
``There have been thousands upon thousands of memoirs published in recent years,'' he says, ``and so far only a handful of them have turned out to be demonstrably false.''

`It Makes Me Wonder'

Barbara Hoffert, an NBCC board member and book-review editor of Library Journal, the trade publication that vets books for libraries, is less sanguine.

``I guess we thought that after the James Frey scandal, no one would try this again,'' she says. ``It makes me wonder if I need to tell my reviewers to start double-checking the memoirs they're reading.''

Columbia University Journalism School professor Samuel Freedman charges current book editors with having absorbed too much postmodern literary theory: ``They have been taught that all truth is subjective and contested anyway. They're all too willing to suspend their critical faculties and not do due diligence.''

He adds that editors need to demand more from their writers and themselves.
``Editing is more than just line editing,'' he says. ``It also requires the editor to ask the writer, `Where's the corroborating evidence? Where are the other documentary sources for this?'''

Patricia Cornwell Spends $250,000 Proclaiming Respect for Cops

By Edward Nawotka

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- A week after donating $1 million to New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice to fund courses in crime-scene investigation, bestselling mystery novelist Patricia Cornwell has spent a further $250,000 on full-page newspaper ads to reassure police officers that she likes them.

Cornwell told the Associated Press last week that she had made the donation after having seen ``cops walk through blood'' and ``leave their own fingerprints on a window.''

The ads, which appeared on Friday in the New York Times, the Washington Post and USA Today, read, in part, ``What has been publicized certainly does not accurately reflect my deep respect and admiration for these hardworking law enforcement professionals.''

Cornwell now says her comments to the AP were directed at the general public, not the police.

``What I was appalled by was what I've seen citizens do, not the police,'' Cornwell said when reached by phone. ``I've been riding with the police for 30 years. I care about these people and I'm not criticizing them. Any mistakes investigators make are not their fault. Too often they don't have the training or resources they need, which is what the donation is meant to address.''

Cornwell blames television shows such as ``CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' for misinforming people about police work. ``You'd think they were flying around on the USS Enterprise and using magic, instead of using Polaroid cameras and paying their own cell-phone bills like some of the investigators I know.''

Meddling With Evidence

She says TV has led people to think they're helping when they meddle with crime scenes, and cites an instance in which robbery victims laid out index cards highlighting evidence for the police to find.

``If it were up to me, some of these people should be brought up on charges for tampering with evidence, if only as a warning,'' Cornwell said. ``It's getting scary. We need to take control of our crime scenes again.''

This is not the first time the author has used newspaper advertisements to defend her reputation. In 2005, she took out full-page ads in British papers the Guardian and the Independent denying that she was obsessed with Jack the Ripper. She had spent more than $6 million funding a new investigation into the Ripper murders, publishing a book about the results, ``Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper -- Case Closed,'' in 2002. She has continued to work on the case and plans to publish a new edition.

Yunus Goes Beyond `Microcredit'; Grisham's `Appeal'

By Edward Nawotka

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- In 1976, Bangladeshi banker Muhammad Yunus took $27 from his own pocket and loaned it to a group of bamboo-stool makers to help them buy materials. Thirty years later he received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in founding the Grameen Bank and spearheading the use of ``microcredit'' to help the needy.

Today, $27 covers the cost of Yunus's new book, ``Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism'' (PublicAffairs, $26). It's a kind of manifesto, arguing that a business model similar to that which built Grameen Bank can develop self-sustaining ``social businesses.''

Such enterprises will provide safe drinking water, housing and affordable medicine for the poor, Yunus says. He recounts the creation of Grameen Danone, a joint venture started in 2005 between Grameen Bank and the French food company Danone that provides nutrient-enriched yogurt to the needy.

Among Yunus's tenets is the notion that an investor in such a company would forgo taking a financial dividend and be content with the moral and spiritual satisfaction provided.

``There are sure to be critics of his ideas, especially among the philanthropic community,'' says Clive Priddle, editorial director at Yunus's publisher, PublicAffairs. ``But Yunus likes to develop his ideas in public so they can be challenged.''

Yunus's previous book, ``Banker to the Poor,'' has sold more than 100,000 copies. PublicAffairs thinks ``Creating a World Without Poverty'' could match that and is printing 100,000 copies to start.

Grisham's Baptists

John Grisham won't be touring to support his first legal thriller in three years, ``The Appeal'' (Doubleday, $27.95), to be published on Jan. 29. Grisham doesn't ``do appearances,'' says his publicist, Alison Rich. It's not like he needs to peddle the product: He has sold about 235 million copies of his books worldwide.

Grisham will be making a rare speech two days after ``The Appeal'' is released, but not to promote the novel. He'll be speaking to ``The Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant,'' a conference for Baptists being held in Atlanta, where he'll appear alongside Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter.

In the past few years, Grisham, who served in the Mississippi House of Representatives, has been increasingly vocal about his political views. He supported the writer James Webb in his successful 2006 Virginia Senate campaign and, more recently, interviewed Hillary Clinton on stage as part of a Clinton fundraiser in Charlottesville, Virginia.

``The Appeal'' tells the story of a billionaire chemical baron as he tries to get elected to the Mississippi Supreme Court to help reverse a damaging judgment against his company. The book reflects the compromises of political campaigning and suggests that high office can be bought.

Stephen King

Grisham's is by far the biggest book of the month in terms of print run, with Doubleday putting out an initial 2.8 million copies. That tops the 1.5 million copies for Stephen King's newest novel, ``Duma Key'' (Scribner, $28), scheduled to go on sale Jan. 22.

King tells the story of a construction worker who survives an accident, moves from Minnesota to Florida and begins painting pictures that have a horrific effect on the real world around him.

School Satire

Finally, fans of Roger Rosenblatt can expect another dose of satire in his second novel, ``Beet'' (Ecco, $23.95), which concerns efforts to save an off-the-rails university, surely one of the few that offers a major in Homeland Security. The writer's debut novel came in 2006 with ``Lapham Rising,'' which dealt with social life in Long Island's Hamptons enclaves and the construction of a 36,000-square-foot house. ``Beet'' sprouts on Jan. 29.

Bhutto's Last Word, X-Rated `Celebutantes' Trailer: Book Buzz

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Days before she was murdered on Dec. 27, Benazir Bhutto, the problematic two-time prime minister of Pakistan, finished writing ``Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West'' (Harper, $27.95). Rushed into production, the book lands in stores on Feb. 12, with a new afterword by her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and their three children.

Political lobbyist Mark Siegel, Bhutto's collaborator, will stand in her place on the book tour. The audience for the book is likely to be strongest in Washington, where Siegel will stop in at the National Press Club on Feb. 20.

A main, well-proven theme of the book is that Islam must resolve internal conflicts before it can accommodate democracy and reconcile its differences with the West.

Outside the Beltway, interest varies. Tariq Rahman, books manager at Halalco, an Islamic supermarket in Falls Church, Virginia, said that while he plans to stock the book, he doesn't anticipate strong sales.

``No one has asked me for any other books by or about her,'' he said.

At Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, customers quickly bought up existing stock of Bhutto's 1989 autobiography, ``Daughter of Destiny,'' prompting purchasing manager Kathy Kirby to put in an order for 200 copies of ``Reconciliation.''

``I think there will be lingering interest in Bhutto for a while,'' Kirby said.

Since rushing production of ``Reconciliation,'' Harper has doubled the announced first printing to 100,000 copies from 50,000 and will republish ``Daughter of Destiny'' in April, with a new epilogue from Siegel.

`The Thing About Life'

One title Kirby is confident will sell at her store is David Shields's ``The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead'' (Knopf, $23.95).

``We had a lot of pre-orders on our Web site,'' said Kirby. ``It's the type of book that really resonates with men of a certain age.''

Prompted, in part, by the realization that his cranky 97- year-old father had a robust sex life well into his 70s, Shields has written a meditation on mortality. He dwells at length on his own aging body, calculates his remaining breaths (he hopes for another 300 million) and offers data about his diminishing erections.

Knopf will likely be standing by to see whether its 30,000- copy first printing will be enough to satisfy demand.

`Celebutantes'

Equally frank and far less earnest is the novel ``Celebutantes'' (St. Martin's Press, $23.95) by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Hopper. The authors, who are both Hollywood princesses (the daughters of producer Leonard Goldberg and actor Dennis Hopper, respectively), have produced a roman a clef about a spoiled director's daughter and her coterie of BFFs (Best Friends Forever) during Oscar week.

In an effort to extend their audience beyond bookstores, the authors enlisted movie director McG (``Charlie's Angels,'' ``We Are Marshall'') to shoot four film ``trailers'' for the novel.

``It's kind of backward,'' agreed Steve Troha, associate director of publicity for St. Martin's Press. ``Usually, you read the book and imagine the characters, then see them visualized in a movie. This time the movie comes first. I think it will definitely change the way people read the book.''

The trailers, available on YouTube, are definitely NSFW (Not Safe for Work): The first features a lithe, bikini-clad starlet faking an orgasm, while another stars a male fashion designer who confesses to having attempted auto-fellatio.

With 100,000 copies of the book going on sale Feb. 5, Troha is hedging his bets.

``We're still planning on running newspaper ads,'' he said.

Six Finalists Shortlisted for New $50,000 Arabic `Booker' Prize

By Edward Nawotka

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Egyptians Baha Taher and Mekkaoui Said are the best-known of six authors whose books have been shortlisted for the inaugural International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Modeled on the Man Booker Prize, the new award is being funded by the Emirates Foundation of Abu Dhabi. The winner will receive $50,000 in prize money, with $10,000 going to each of the shortlisted authors.

The Booker Foundation, which administers the Man Booker Prize and the Man Booker International Prize, provided guidance for the award.

Samuel Shimon, an Iraqi writer and chairman of the judging panel for the awards, announced the shortlist yesterday in London. It includes the aforementioned Taher's ``Sunset Oasis'' and Said's ``Swan Song''; the Lebanese Jabbour Douaihy's ``June Rain'' and May Menassa's ``Walking in the Dust''; Jordanian Elias Farkouh's ``The Land of Purgatory''; and Syrian Khaled Khalifa's ``In Praise of Hate.''

``The purpose of the prize is to secure recognition, reward and readership for outstanding Arabic fiction,'' said Jonathan Taylor, chairman of the Booker Foundation and also chairman of the board of trustees of the Arabic prize. ``A further objective is to ensure translation and publication.''

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction is part of a boom in new literary awards emanating from Abu Dhabi. Last year the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage launched the Sheikh Zayed Book Awards, given in nine categories and worth a total of 7 million dirham ($1.9 million).

Poetry Readers

Though less rich, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction has a prestigious partner in the Booker Foundation, which also has been instrumental in developing both the Russian Booker Prize (first awarded in 1992) and the Caine Prize for African Writing (begun in 2000).

``Both of those prizes now operate fully independently, which is how the International Prize for Arabic Fiction will work,'' said Eve Smith, secretary of the Booker Foundation.

Gaining a wider readership for Arabic novels will be a challenge. Poetry is the dominant literary form in the Arabic- speaking world -- it is widely read (beginning with the Koran), written and published, and is even featured on a wildly popular ``American Idol''-style TV competition, ``Poetry Millions.''

Though various forms of Arabic prose fiction emerged in the 19th century, primarily inspired by the translation of European works into Arabic, the first Arabic book recognizable as a modern novel -- Egyptian Muhammad Husayn Haykal's ``Zaynab'' -- was published only in 1912. Widespread recognition for the form didn't come until 1988, when Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz became the first Arabic writer to win the Nobel Prize.

More Publicity

There have been popular novels since then, such as Alaa Al Aswany's 2002 ``The Yacoubian Building,'' which has sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide. Yet they remain few and far between.

Marilyn Booth, a professor at the University of Illinois who has translated many highly regarded Arabic novels, believes the new prize might help.

``The trustees and this year's judges are highly respected cultural figures,'' she said. ``I applaud the fact that the shortlist, as well as the winning novel, is getting financial recognition and publicity.''

Her own latest project has been a translation of Saudi writer Rajaa Alsanea's novel ``The Girls of Riyadh,'' whose depiction of the love lives of a quartet of women has prompted critics to call it the first example of Saudi chick lit.

In all, 131 books were entered from 18 different countries, with 29 entries by women writers. Booth said, ``I'm surprised there weren't more.''

Greenspan, Keynes in Arabic? Abu Dhabi Sets Translation Project

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- While Abu Dhabi pours $27 billion into building five museums, including a Guggenheim designed by Frank Gehry and a Louvre designed by Jean Nouvel, another planned project will help expand Arabic libraries.

As part of efforts to transform the emirate into the cultural lodestone of the Middle East, the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, or Adach, has chosen 100 books to be translated into Arabic. Among them are Alan Greenspan's memoir, ``The Age of Turbulence,'' John Maynard Keynes's ``The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money'' and Milton Friedman's ``Capitalism and Freedom.'' The goal is to translate 100 titles every year.

Adach has formed a nonprofit organization called Kalima (Arabic for ``word'') to undertake the translations and expand Arabic-language publishing in the United Arab Emirates.

About 10,000 books have been translated into Arabic in the past millennium, according to a 2003 study by the United Nations Development Program. The demand has been small, partly owing to the historical tendency to focus most reading on religious texts and classical poetry. Some 300 new translations appear each year, so Kalima's further 100 titles represents a substantial addition.

Kalima will buy rights, pay translators and enlist established Arabic-language publishers in the Persian Gulf region and North Africa to print and distribute the books.

Karim Nagy, Kalima's chief executive, acknowledges the hurdles. The Arabic-speaking world comprises some 300 million people in more than 20 countries. Censorship laws vary, and often there is no strong bookselling community or distribution channel.

Print Runs

``First, we will worry about getting the books translated,'' Nagy says. ``Then we will work to optimize their distribution.''

The typical print run for a book in the Arab world is often no more than 2,000 copies; Kalima plans to fund a minimum of 5,000 copies for each of its titles, with some earmarked for donation to schools and libraries.

Jumaa Abdulla Alqubaisi, director of the Abu Dhabi National Library and an adviser to Kalima, suggests that ultimately the project is as pragmatic as it is idealistic. ``Good books are like penicillin,'' he says. ``They fight against hate, segregation and misunderstanding.'' Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts -- which itself is funding translations from Arabic into English -- agrees that such a project is ``political in the best sense of the word. A great novel or poem from another culture allows you to look into the common humanity of people you might have otherwise thought foreign. The important thing is that we broaden these literary and human exchanges.''

`Looming Tower'

The first 100 titles draw from history, science and fiction; Kalima is still securing the rights to most of them. More than half are originally in English, with 26 coming from the U.S. Lawrence Wright's Pulitzer Prizing-winning look at the origins of al-Qaeda, ``The Looming Tower,'' and Khaled Hosseini's bestselling novel ``The Kite Runner'' made the list, as did a variety of classics -- Milton's ``Paradise Regained'' is one.

There are some eccentric choices, including Michael Lewis's 2006 book ``The Blind Side,'' about a family that adopts a homeless African-American football player, and Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 cult novel ``Stranger in a Strange Land.'' A number of works by Jewish writers are on the list, including Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer's ``Collected Stories.'' Abu Dhabi has been pursuing other literary projects, too. Last year Adach formed a partnership with the Frankfurt Book Fair to promote publishing and reading in the U.A.E. and the Arab world in general. The joint venture, officially announced this month, has been named Kitab (Arabic for ``the book'').

`Safe Haven'

Kitab's stated mission is ``professionalizing publishing'' in the region, in part by establishing a kind of safe haven for Arabic-language publishing houses in Abu Dhabi and developing a distribution system for books to reach stores and libraries.

The partnership's first project was to transform the annual Abu Dhabi Book Fair. This year the fair moved from a dusty public square into the city's shiny new National Exhibition Center and morphed from a book bazaar for shoppers into a trade show for publishing professionals.

In addition, it featured the first winners of the inaugural Sheikh Zayed Book Awards. Named for the late founder of the U.A.E., the awards in nine categories provided 7 million dirham ($1.9 million) to otherwise cash-strapped Arabic-language publishers and authors. Translation was already a priority, with the prize for Personality of the Year, worth 1 million dirham ($272,230), going to Denys Johnson-Davis, a highly regarded Arabic-to-English translator.

Cramer Family Planning, Government-Censored Science: Book Buzz

By Edward Nawotka

Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- If Jim Cramer, the button-mashing circus barker of the financial world, had his way, preschoolers would be tuning in to his money-management show.

In ``Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life'' ($26), which is just out, Cramer suggests buying your tyke Hasbro, Disney and Gymboree stock: ``I would buy one share of these the moment your child is born.... I don't know a soul who is doing this, and that has to change, right now.''

Later he adds, ``If only baby showers would get registered with E*Trade, TD Ameritrade and Schwab!'' Cramer thinks children can grasp the concept of stock ownership as long as they can get excited about the brand. His subtitle is ``Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer).''

Elsewhere in the book he names ``20 Stocks for the Long Term'' (topped by the heavy-machinery manufacturer Caterpillar) and recommends mutual funds.

Publishing a financial-advice book in December is counterintuitive: Who really wants to be reminded to eliminate credit-card debt in the midst of the holiday shopping frenzy? Cramer, though, likes the appearance of not following the crowd.

And he has an established audience: His two previous books, ``Jim Cramer's Real Money'' (2005) and ``Jim Cramer's Mad Money'' (2006), have sold 476,000 copies and 258,000 copies respectively, according to Nielsen BookScan. Simon & Schuster is confident enough to be delivering 350,000 copies to bookstores for a start.

`Bad Samaritans'

The 44-year-old Cambridge University economist Ha-Joon Chang has also established a reputation as a contrarian. In ``Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism'' ($26.95), he repudiates some of the theories championed by Thomas Friedman and other free marketers.

Chang shows how South Korea, the country of his birth, managed to prosper by going against many of the economic prescriptions that ``bad Samaritan'' rich countries demand in return for aid, such as rapid, large-scale trade liberalization.

``Bad Samaritans'' comes with blurbs from lefty luminaries Noam Chomsky and Bob Geldof. The publisher, Bloomsbury, is printing 40,000 copies and using the book to launch a new line of serious nonfiction books edited by Peter Ginna, formerly of Oxford University Press.

``So many books written about globalization are written in a historical vacuum,'' Ginna says. ``This one isn't, which is what makes it so persuasive.''

Expect to see Chang on the talk shows when Davos begins in January.

`Censoring Science'

Another academic likely to be making the January chat-show circuit is James Hansen. Mark Bowen's ``Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming'' ($25.95) hits the shelves on Dec. 27.

As director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and professor in the department of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University, by 2004 Hansen had compiled some three decades of research underscoring the threat of global warming. The Bush administration stifled the data.

Frustrated, Hansen opened his files to Bowen. The resulting book not only offers a detailed account of the scientist's ordeal; it also shows how an organization like NASA can be reduced to an instrument of partisan politics. Scary stuff -- like climate change itself.

T Is for Timber

The 40,000 copies of ``Censoring Science'' Dutton is publishing will hardly make a dent in the earth's forests -- compared, at least, with the tens of millions of Sue Grafton novels in print. This week, ``T Is for Trespass'' ($26.95), the 20th in Grafton's long-running Kinsey Millhone mystery series, lands in bookstores. Putnam's 724,000 copy first printing ensures it will be stacked high for holiday shoppers.

Also in December fiction, Colleen McCullough's ``Antony and Cleopatra'' ($26.95), the seventh in her ``Masters of Rome'' series, is just out from Simon & Schuster, albeit with a more modest printing of 75,000 copies.

And on Dec. 26, Bloomsbury squeaks 60,000 copies of Walter Mosley's third book this year into stores: ``Diablerie'' ($23.95), an erotic thriller about a philandering computer programmer for a New York City bank. Though Mosley has dropped the ``sexistential'' tag he used for last year's ``Killing Johnny Fry,'' his latest also promises plenty of titillation (and potential big sales).

(Edward Nawotka writes on books and publishing for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Rhett Butler Loves Again, Steve Martin Looks Back: Book Buzz

By Edward Nawotka

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The much loved cad of ``Gone with the Wind'' is being resurrected tomorrow, when Donald McCaig's novel ``Rhett Butler's People'' lands in bookstores. The novel imagines Rhett's South Carolina childhood, a failed stint at West Point, fortune-hunting in San Francisco and New Orleans and, of course, his love life in and out of Scarlett O'Hara's bed.

This is the second authorized sequel to Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel. The first was Alexandra Ripley's rather tawdry 1991 ``Scarlett,'' which critics derided as hackwork; readers didn't give a damn and bought 6 million copies from Warner Books.

In the wake of that enthusiasm, St. Martin's Press paid the Mitchell estate a generous $4.5 million in 1994 for the rights to publish Rhett's story -- which is finally appearing now, with an optimistic first printing of 2 million copies.

The intervening 13 years have been a saga in themselves. The original writer -- Emma Tennant, the well-regarded British author of, among other titles, ``Pemberley,'' a sequel to Jane Austen's ``Pride and Prejudice'' -- was bounced from the project after delivering a manuscript deemed too British. Pat Conroy, a South Carolinian, agreed to take over, calling the sequel the book he was born to write, but he and the estate could never agree on terms, according to St. Martin's Press president and publisher Sally Richardson.

In 2000, McCaig -- then best known as the author of books about dogs -- got the nod after an editor traveling through the South stumbled on his 1999 Civil War novel, ``Jacob's Ladder.''

Not a Sequel

Richardson denies that ``Rhett Butler's People'' is a sequel. ``It's a companion that explores the same material from a different angle,'' she says. ``The Mitchell estate wanted a book with more gravitas, one that is worthy of the original, which is what McCaig has written. And he doesn't overdo it.''

Presumably the Mitchell estate has vetted the book. In the past it has been very protective. Witness its 2001 lawsuit against Alice Randall and her publisher, Houghton Mifflin, for copyright infringement over ``The Wind Done Gone,'' Randall's thinly veiled version of ``Gone with the Wind'' told from the point of view of a slave named Cynara.

The suit was settled when Houghton Mifflin agreed to sell the book under the label ``unauthorized parody'' and to make a donation, at the Mitchell estate's behest, to Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Martin's Memoir

Steve Martin offers his own backstory in the surprisingly tender ``Born Standing Up,'' which Scribner will publish on Nov. 20. The memoir moves from his childhood in Waco, Texas, through his early gigs at Knott's Berry Farm and his first television appearances, to his final standup engagements in the late 1970s.

Martin, who prided himself on being a comic who didn't rely on punch lines, has established his literary bona fides in essays for the New Yorker magazine, two novellas (``Shopgirl'' and ``The Pleasure of My Company''), plays (``Picasso at the Lapin Agile'') and, last month, his first children's book, ``The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z,'' for which he teamed up with cartoonist Roz Chast.

Independent bookstores in particular are championing Martin's memoir. The 1,200 member stores of the American Booksellers Association Book Sense program have selected it as their top pick to promote in December -- a break that should help Scribner run through its first printing of 500,000 copies.

McCourt's Return

Another holiday item is Frank McCourt's ``Angela and the Baby Jesus,'' which comes out tomorrow. It tells the tale of a 6-year-old Irish girl -- McCourt's mother, the title character of his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1996 memoir ``Angela's Ashes'' -- who takes the holy infant from a church manger and brings it home, convinced it needs warmth and looking after. Simon & Schuster is publishing a total of 300,000 copies in two versions. One, for children, is illustrated with cheerful, optimistic watercolors. The other, for adults, is printed in a smaller format, with drawings in a more ominous palette that evokes the grim setting of ``Angela's Ashes.''

$50,000 Whiting Awards Go to Wyoming Climber, Vermont Farmer

By Edward Nawotka

Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Wyoming climbing guide Jack Turner, Vermont novelist and goat farmer Brad Kessler and tattooed New York memoirist Peter Trachtenberg are among the 10 winners of the 2007 Whiting Writers' Awards, announced yesterday at a ceremony at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

The seven others are Boston College professor Carlo Rotella, Brooklyn playwright Sheila Callaghan, Georgia poet Paul Guest, Iranian-born novelist and travel writer Dalia Sofer, Dallas short-story writer Ben Fountain, Staten Island poet Cate Marvin and Miami playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney.

Established in 1985, the Whiting Awards are given annually by New York's Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation to help writers early in their careers, when they are not yet widely known, ``devote themselves fully to writing.'' Each winner receives $50,000.

Approximately 100 candidates are nominated by an anonymous group of literary professionals appointed by the Foundation. Past winners have included Jeffrey Eugenides, Jonathan Franzen and Michael Cunningham. In all, the program has awarded more than $5 million to 230 different writers.

Some of this year's winners have already been honored by prize committees, including Kessler, whose novel ``Birds in Fall'' won the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Fountain, whose short-story collection ``Brief Encounters with Che Guevara'' won the $10,000 2006 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Fiction.

(Edward Nawotka writes on books and publishing for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Colbert Hawks Colbert, Tries to Top Stewart; Coulter's `Brains'

By Edward Nawotka

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Stephen Colbert hasn't been shy about using his mock talk show, ``The Colbert Report,'' to plug his own book, ``I Am America (And So Can You!).''

The branding of Colbert is an active industry. The Saginaw Spirit, a minor-league Michigan hockey team, named its mascot after him: Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle. Ben and Jerry's produced the flavor Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream (``a decadent melting pot of vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl'').

Last month, Colbert auctioned the plaster cast from his broken wrist on eBay Inc., garnering a winning bid of $17,200.

The book begins its exercise in arch right-wing smarm by pandering on the dust jacket: ``Congratulations, just by opening the cover of this book you became 25% more patriotic.'' There are satirical essays on cultural conservatism, a chart comparing the ``Jesus Train'' to the liquor ``Night Train,'' a list of ``things that are trying to turn me gay,'' and a photo of Colbert retching while reading the New York Times.

The big question is whether Colbert's book, which comes out Oct. 9, will outsell ``America (The Book)'' by fellow Comedy Central newscaster Jon Stewart. Grand Central, the publisher of both, thinks it might and is offering a first printing of 1.4 million copies -- just shy of the 1.5 million copies sold by Stewart.

Valerie Plame

Stewart, meanwhile, bagged Valerie Plame Wilson for his show. Her memoir, ``Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House,'' comes out on Oct. 22. Why not Colbert? ``This book just seemed better-suited to Jon,'' said Wilson's publicist, Elizabeth Mason, adding ``I don't think Valerie is going to be doing a lot of conservative media.''

With a first printing of 400,000 copies, Wilson's publisher, Simon & Schuster, will need more than Stewart's imprimatur to move books. Michael Persons, a bookseller at the Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham, thinks Plame will need to provoke a response from the Bush administration. ``That's the only way the book will last beyond one or two news cycles,'' Persons said.

Coulter's `Brains'

Wilson will want to avoid another high-profile blond author making the media rounds, Ann Coulter. The conservative commentator's new, subtly titled ``If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans'' was released this week. Though Coulter seems to be slipping in popularity, her publisher, Crown, is counting on loyalists to snap up this best-of collection of Coulter quips and recent columns. The first printing is 600,000.

Sebold's Matricide

October also sees the return of novelist Alice Sebold. Her 2002 novel ``The Lovely Bones,'' featured a murdered narrator who observed events on Earth from the afterlife. It became a phenomenon in grieving post-9/11 America and sold 1.5 million copies.

Her new novel, ``The Almost Moon,'' due in stores on Oct. 16, also explores the psychology of murder and features a woman who commits matricide in the first pages. Publisher Little, Brown, confident that the grim story won't repel readers, is printing a whopping 750,000 copies.

How Alan Greenspan Pushed Canadian Skier Off Top of Book Hill

By Edward Nawotka

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Alan Greenspan's ``Age of Turbulence,'' the former Fed chairman's memoir and apologia, sold 128,000 copies in its first full week, according to Nielsen BookScan.

In the process, the book grabbed the No. 1 spot among business bestsellers from Vince Poscente's ``Age of Speed,'' a motivational outpouring about our fast-paced lives by a former Olympic speed skier. (Among other things, Poscente asks the reader to mull whether he is a ``bottle rocket'' or a ``jet.'')

The two similarly titled books took different routes to the top.

Behind Greenspan -- and pushing hard after a reported advance of $8.5 million -- was the mighty Penguin Press and a powerful New York editor named Ann Godoff. The Fed's ex-maestro enjoyed a heavily orchestrated media campaign that included TV interviews and print embargoes, almost guaranteeing that the book would be a sales-galvanizing news event.

Poscente began with no advance and got the word out mainly through an e-mail blast to his own distribution list of 10,000 names. His chief asset was Ray Bard, the dynamo behind a one-man publishing operation based in Austin, Texas, called Bard Press.

Since Bard founded the press in 1996, 14 of the 26 books he has published have landed on national lists. These include ``Little Black Book of Connections'' by Jeffrey Gitomer (2006), which has sold about 110,000 copies, and Bard's top-selling title, Gitomer's ``Little Red Book of Selling,'' which has moved in excess of 500,000 copies since it was published in 2004.

Maximum Care and Feeding

Bard says his high ratio of bestsellers is attributable to the fact that he publishes only one or two books a year. That lets him give each manuscript maximum care and feeding, from the writing to aggressively promoting the book to retailers.

``The Age of Speed'' sold a modest 12,000 copies in its first two weeks (and 13,000 to date), according to BookScan, which tracks sales at about 70 percent of retail outlets. Yet Bard had pre-orders for 60,000 copies of his 70,000 first printing. Because the pre-orders are reported to those who compile bestseller lists, they helped create an ``instant bestseller.''

Bard also worked closely with the retail chain Hudson Booksellers because its locations in airports and other travel hubs make it a good platform for sales of business books. Sarah Hinckley, vice president of book buying at Hudson, uses bestseller lists to determine how many of her nearly 500 outlets will stock a title.

Promotional $5,000

Where Hinckley could confidently predict Greenspan's book would appeal to her core demographic -- one she describes as ``older, wealthy, male, well-educated'' -- Poscente's sales potential was harder to call. To help guarantee that ``The Age of Speed'' would be given some consideration at Hudson stores, Bard Press paid a promotional fee of approximately $5,000, which was used to give the book wider distribution and better placement in the stores than it might otherwise have received.

``The Age of Speed'' is not yet a top-10 bestseller at Hudson Booksellers, though it ``is a slow steady seller,'' Hinckley says. ``It's done pretty well at big business hubs, but not even a third of what the Greenspan has done. Greenspan's book is going to be absolutely huge for us.''

Surprise Mailer Book on Religion Will Hit Bookstores Next Month

By Edward Nawotka

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Books on religion (mostly anti) have been popular this year.

Christopher Hitchens's ``God Is Not Great'' quickly topped the bestseller lists when it was published in May; it has since sold 224,000 copies. Richard Dawkins's ``The God Delusion'' has moved 318,000 copies since its publication last year -- both according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks book sales.

Now the combative octogenarian Norman Mailer is offering his own views on religion with the surprise publication of ``On God: An Uncommon Conversation.'' The final manuscript reached Random House only in July. The publisher rushed it into production, and it will land in bookstores on Oct. 16.

The book comprises 10 interviews with Michael Lennon, Mailer's literary archivist and official biographer. Mailer offers his views on such topics as prayer, intelligent design and proofs of God's existence.

Lennon acknowledged in a phone interview that the market for such books is burgeoning but added that he and Mailer began their conversations in 2003. They were inspired by a charity production of George Bernard Shaw's ``Don Juan in Hell'' in which they had both acted. (Mailer had the title role; Gore Vidal was the Devil.)

Lennon, who is currently editing Mailer's letters for publication next year, noted that religion is not a new subject for Mailer -- ``It has just been in the background.'' He added that Mailer ``believes in a literal God, but one whose power is limited.''

Atomic Devil

Mailer, he said, views the horrors of the 20th century as proof of God's limited influence. He sees the Devil embodied, in part, in technology and atomic science. Unsurprisingly, the book includes a number of rants, in particular against fundamentalism. It also reveals that Mailer believes in a form of reincarnation.

Mailer communicated some of these views in his novel ``The Castle in the Forest,'' which is narrated by an emissary of the Devil who literally whispers into Hitler's ear. Published earlier this year, the book received mixed reviews and sold a modest 40,000 copies, according to BookScan.

Morris Dickstein, a professor at the City University of New York who has written extensively on Mailer, said he's surprised by the literalness of the author's theology. ``I never took his talk about God and the Devil seriously,'' Dickstein said. ``I thought it was a metaphor.''

Still, Dickstein acknowledges, writers do mature and change. ``I always thought Norman was acting out against the idea of being a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn. But as people get older, they want to reintegrate with parts of their lives they may have rejected or ignored. That may be what Norman is doing now.''

Greenspan Soaks in Hot Bath, Klein Ambushes Friedman: Book Buzz

By Edward Nawotka

Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- While plenty of businesspeople are holding their breath for the Sept. 17 release of Alan Greenspan's memoir, ``The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World,'' a few booksellers aren't. Like me, they can't forget Greenspan's deadly-dull keynote address in June at BookExpo America, the publishing industry's annual confab, in New York.

The former Fed chief's most memorable revelation that night was that he wrote much of the book while soaking in a hot bath.

Amid the unkind remarks afterward (``Now we know why he looks so shriveled''), one bookseller wondered, ``Who's going to be interested in paying $35 for a book about decades-old interest rates?''

Penguin Press, which was interested enough to pay $8.5 million for the memoir, will need to sell out much of the million-copy first printing to make a profit. But can it? Powell's Books, the influential independent bookstore with six locations in and around Portland, Oregon, and a busy Web site, has ordered a total of 94 copies. ``That's a pretty modest amount,'' purchasing manager Gerry Donagahy confirms.

So far Penguin has kept the manuscript carefully under wraps. One of the privileged few to have read it is Dave Hathaway, Barnes & Noble's business-book buyer. ``It's not written in Greenspeak,'' he told me. ``But it is like sitting in a room with someone who has 500 more IQ points than you.''

According to Hathaway, the book has as much to fascinate history buffs as businesspeople. For prediction junkies, Greenspan offers a vision of the world economy in 2030.

``And his account of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks blew me away,'' Hathaway said.

Klein Versus Friedman

Naomi Klein's ``The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism'' reaches stores on Sept. 18, the day after Greenspan's book. It's likely to inspire far more debate.

Klein, a Canadian political activist, made her name in 2000 with ``No Logo,'' a critique of mass-market manufacturing and globalization. Her new book is an almost 600-page assault on the legacy of the late economist Milton Friedman and his acolytes, arguing that prosperity and human rights don't necessarily follow from the implementation of free-market policies: Witness Russia, China and Pinochet's Chile. Klein also reports from the largely failed reconstruction efforts in Iraq and New Orleans.

With such a wide array of evidence in support of liberal platforms, the book should have a place on the bedside tables of the Democratic candidates.

Pretty Plus

Klein's youthful prettiness can tempt adversaries into challenging her authority -- a notion that makes Frances Coady, Klein's editor at Metropolitan, laugh. ``It's very difficult to doubt her,'' Coady says, ``once you read the book and see how she synthesizes some 50 years of recent history in support of her theories.''

In any case, Klein knows how to handle criticism. Being married to the popular Canadian political talking head Avi Lewis, she's learned the tricks of the TV-pundit trade and is no pushover in an interview.

She's also a savvy self-promoter: Actors Tim Robbins and John Cusack have already blurbed the book. And Klein and director Alfonso Cuaron (``Children of Men'') are screening their trailer for it at the Venice and Toronto film festivals.

Draper on Bush

Just published, to much buzz: Robert Draper's ``Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush'' (Free Press).

Draper, a writer for GQ and a former editor at Texas Monthly, landed six mano-a-mano interviews with the president, the last on May 8 of this year. His evenhanded portrait of our ``misunderestimated'' (Bush's word) commander in chief has already drawn protests -- in particular from former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer, whose dissolution of the Iraqi army in 2003 is now widely regarded as a catastrophic mistake.

``Well, the policy was to keep the army intact,'' Bush told Draper. ``Didn't happen.''

Big Novels

Fall marks a change from the summer raft of thrillers and soap operas that load down bookstore shelves. Among the month's most anticipated novels are Ann Patchett's ``Run'' (HarperCollins) and Richard Russo's ``Bridge of Sighs'' (Knopf) -- each writer's first novel in six years.

Patchett's ``Bel Canto'' won the 2002 PEN/Faulkner award and sold more than a million copies; Russo's ``Empire Falls'' won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize and sold just shy of a million.

In ``Run,'' Patchett once again tackles a quasi-political theme in a story about a white Boston mayor grooming his two adopted black sons for political careers. Russo's ``Bridge of Sighs'' deals with a retirement-age couple in upstate New York and a longed-for escape to Venice.

Rove's $900-an-Hour Book-Deal Broker Preps Hillary for Debate

Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- When Alan Greenspan, Tony Blair and Karl Rove decided it was time to write a memoir, each turned to the same broker: Robert Barnett, one of the most powerful players in book publishing, though he operates well outside the New York publishing clique.

Barnett, 61, a partner at the Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly, is a rainmaker for high-profile politicians passing from the public to the private sector. Though he's not a headhunter, should you want to land on a corporate board or a university faculty or work as a consultant or a TV talking head, Barnett can help. A particular forte of his is acquiring multimillion-dollar book advances.

Barnett is the man who persuaded Penguin Press to offer Alan Greenspan an $8.5 million advance for ``The Age of Turbulence'' -- one of five books he represents that are likely to land on the September bestseller lists.

The other four are Bill Clinton's ``Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World'' (Knopf); political strategist Mark J. Penn's ``Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes'' (Twelve); novelist James Patterson's ``You've Been Warned'' (Little, Brown); and presidential daughter Jenna Bush's ``Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope'' (HarperCollins).

While Barnett functions on behalf of his book clients much as an agent does -- negotiating contracts, assisting with the editing process, refereeing between writer and publisher -- he firmly rejects the term.

Hourly Rate

``I'm a lawyer and proud of it,'' he insists when reached by phone. ``I bill my clients an hourly rate; I don't agree with taking a percentage for someone's creative output.'' (An agent typically takes a 15 percent to 20 percent commission as payment.)

The bulk of Barnett's legal practice involves corporate clients. Selling books accounts for only 10 percent to 15 percent of his time. An equal amount goes to an A-list of 250 television journalists and producers, including his wife, CBS News correspondent Rita Braver.

At $900 an hour, Barnett's attention doesn't come cheap. Peter Osnos, founder and editor-at-large of the publisher PublicAffairs, notes that Barnett's fee arrangement isn't right for everybody. It's most advantageous to ``the kind of person who wants to write one magnum opus or two for a great deal of money.''

But when it's a question of a multimillion-dollar contract, Barnett's hourly rate can offer a client a massive savings over an agent's commission. In an example Barnett cited, he billed a client $150,000 for negotiating a $3 million book contract -- a substantial discount from the $450,000-$600,000 an agent would customarily charge.

Clinton's Millions

While authors might save money, publishers don't. Sonny Mehta, chairman of the Knopf Publishing Group, a subsidiary of Random House Inc., paid $12 million for the privilege of publishing Bill Clinton's memoir ``My Life,'' which Barnett represented.

Replying to an e-mail query, Mehta -- who has a reputation as one of the most intimidating publishers in New York -- said that the upside of working with Barnett ``is that when he calls about a client, it's always someone you will want to take a meeting with. The downside is that he's an expert on valuation, and as such I can never quite negotiate the deal I'd like.''

Since 1976, Barnett has honed his negotiating skills prepping Democratic presidential candidates for debates. He has role-played George H.W. Bush and Dick Cheney (whose wife, Lynne, is also a client) on multiple occasions.

Supporting Hillary

Among the current crop of Democratic front-runners, he can count Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards and Bill Richardson as clients. But he says it's no secret he's supporting Hillary. He has served as the Clintons' personal attorney since 1992 (except for a short period when his wife was covering the Clinton White House). ``We've been close friends for a long time,'' he says, ``and I'm on her debate prep team.''

Still, Barnett's Democratic politics haven't scared Republicans away. Bush administration officials who have called him just before or after leaving the White House include, in addition to Rove, Andrew Card, Ari Fleischer and Donald Rumsfeld.

``I've always been bipartisan in that regard,'' Barnett says, adding that he's never lost a client over political differences: ``I enjoy discussing politics with my Republican clients -- I might learn something. And, while I'm not above trying to educate them on a point or two every once in a while, I never argue.''

That kind of agreeableness is important to Bush administration officials -- and their families. Earlier this month, Barnett sold an as yet unnamed second book by Jenna Bush to HarperCollins, this one to be co-written with Laura Bush. With that kind of access to the First Family, can it be more than a matter of time before the president himself calls?

Beaufort to Publish O.J. Simpson Book; Goldman Family to Profit

By Edward Nawotka

Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Beaufort Books said late yesterday that it will publish O.J. Simpson's ``If I Did It'' after acquiring the rights to the controversial title.

The book is a supposedly hypothetical account of how Simpson, a former football star, might have murdered his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald L. Goldman in 1994. It was originally backed by editor Judith Regan and scheduled for publication last November by News Corp.'s HarperCollins.

Following a public outcry, publication was canceled, the printed books were destroyed, Regan was fired and her ReganBooks imprint was dropped by HarperCollins.

Beaufort, a small independent publisher in New York, said it expects the book to reach stores by Oct. 3. In the past, it has often operated as a ``vanity'' press, with the author and publisher splitting costs as well as any profit.

Beaufort spokesman Michael Wright said the company had reached a traditional publishing agreement and costs would not be shared. He wouldn't disclose whether or how much money was paid to the Goldmans for the rights.

Both the Goldman and Brown families originally protested publication of ``If I Did It,'' though earlier this year the Goldmans -- frustrated with the slow pace of payment on the $33.5 million owed to both families by Simpson following the 1997 wrongful-death judgment against him in a civil suit -- sued for rights to the book.

On July 30, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Miami awarded most of the potential proceeds from book sales to the Goldmans. The judge added that any publisher of the book ``must promise the court it will maximize the sale of the asset.''

Additional Commentary

Los Angeles literary agent Sharlene Martin of Martin Literary Management sold the rights to Beaufort on behalf of the Goldmans. The manuscript, according to Wright, will ``remain intact, with some additional commentary of a nature that's yet to be determined.''

Denise Brown, Nicole Brown's sister, issued a statement yesterday that derided the book as a step-by-step manual on how Nicole and her friend Ron were murdered, and she called for a boycott. Denise Brown is scheduled to debate Beaufort President Eric Kampmann today on NBC's ``Today'' show.

For his part, Kampmann said in a statement that the company ``will be working diligently to not only publish this book well, but to honor the memory of the victims of this terrible crime: Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.''

The statement said Beaufort, the Goldmans and Martin will contribute an unspecified portion of the proceeds to the Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice.

Booksellers are divided on whether they will carry ``If I Did It.'' McKenna Jordan, manager and book buyer at Murder by the Book in Houston, is put off by the idea.

``To be blunt, it's tacky,'' she said. ``Our customers would not appreciate seeing it in the store and would be offended.''

Yet Steve Bercu, owner of Book People in Austin, Texas, and a board member of the American Booksellers Association, says he would sell it despite personal reservations: ``The public will decide very quickly whether they're interested in it or not.''

Starbucks Picks Next Book to Sell: Isay's StoryCorps Collection

By Edward Nawotka

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Starbucks Corp. has chosen its next book. On Nov. 8, ``Listening Is an Act of Love'' will go on shelves alongside CDs, DVDs and coffee mugs.

The book, edited by Dave Isay and published by Penguin Press, offers a selection of 50 real-life stories from the archives of StoryCorps, the ambitious oral-history project of interviews by and with everyday Americans. Founded by Isay in 2003, it has recorded more than 13,000 conversations.

While bookstores also will sell the title, the Starbucks version is an exclusive boxed edition that includes a CD of 10 additional stories. The book's cover price is $24.95; no price has been set for Starbucks's boxed set.

Reached by phone, Isay praised Starbucks as a ``third place in American life,'' after home and work, ``where people come to talk and listen to each other.'' He added, ``The StoryCorps project is about listening. It's a great match for us.''

In an interview with Bloomberg News last year, Starbucks Entertainment President Kenneth T. Lombard noted that customers trusted the company to filter cultural content. Though the chain offers a wide selection of CDs, some produced by the company itself, so far it has sold only one book at a time.

``Listening Is an Act of Love'' is the third. The first, Mitch Albom's novel ``For One More Day,'' sold 100,000 copies at the chain after it went on sale in October 2006. Last February Ishmael Beah's ``A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier'' proved an even bigger hit there, selling more than 117,000 copies.

Before the Starbucks announcement, Penguin Press had planned to print about 75,000 copies of ``Listening Is an Act of Love.'' Now that number is likely at least to double.

New `Who Moved My Cheese?; Obama, McCain, Vampires: Book Buzz

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- ``The Dream Manager'' tells the story of a fictional cleaning company suffering from high turnover and low morale. When the firm institutes a new employee-loyalty program that involves listening to and helping workers achieve their personal aspirations, it undergoes a massive turnaround.

Australian motivational speaker and writer Matthew Kelly's brief new book may sound like another ho-hum business parable. Yet Barnes & Noble's Dave Hathaway says, ``It is going to start a movement.''

Hathaway, who as a buyer assesses thousands of business books every year for B&N (they're one of the bookseller's top five categories), isn't prone to hyperbole. But he maintains, ``This is something unique. It moved me both personally and professionally and changed my own life.'' He's heard that Procter & Gamble plans to test the program. (Calls for comment to Procter & Gamble had not been returned by press time.)

Jack Covert, founder of the online bookseller 800-CEO-READ, is intrigued by the book, but he hesitates to anoint it the next ``Who Moved My Cheese?'' ``Parables,'' he says, ``no matter how good, have the success rate of minor league baseball players.'' (Hyperion, Aug. 21, $19.95, 80,000 first printing.)

Obama Biography

``Obama: From Promise to Power,'' a new biography by Chicago Tribune journalist David Mendell, promises a behind- closed-doors look at Senator's Barack Obama's home life and an assessment of his political agenda.

``There isn't any gotcha revelation,'' James Hornfischer, Mendell's literary agent, admits. ``But you do get a comprehensive, balanced portrait, which is something you can't get from the news.''

There are now more than 1.6 million copies of Obama's ``The Audacity of Hope'' and another 1.1 million of his autobiography ``Dreams From My Father'' in print. But Becky Anderson, owner of Anderson's Bookshops in Naperville and Downers Grove, Illinois, isn't convinced readers will buy something Obama himself didn't write. ``People are waiting for a book that tells us what he would do if elected,'' she says.

``That's never going to happen,'' responds George Shipley, a Democratic political consultant in Austin, Texas. ``Opposition researchers would comb it line by line for ammunition.'' (Amistad, Aug. 1, $25.95, 200,000 first printing.)

New McCain

Shipley can't swallow the title of John McCain's ``Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them.'' ``It's got to be ironic,'' he says, ``because in recent years McCain has failed to make the hard calls. What does he really think about the war? About the abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib? About the justice department and Alberto Gonzales?''

McCain's new collection of historical studies doesn't say. ``The essay on the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr offers valuable insight into McCain's thinking about Iraq,'' counters Cary Goldstein, publicist for McCain's publisher, Twelve, a fledgling imprint of Hachette Book Group.

McCain may be in better hands with Goldstein than with his campaign managers, who have been failing to boost his poll numbers. Twelve publishes just one book each month (hence its name), and as a consequence McCain will get Goldstein's undivided attention. So far the new imprint's track record is superb, with two of its first three books -- Christopher Buckley's ``Boomsday'' and Christopher Hitchens's ``God Is Not Great'' --hitting the bestseller lists and the latter topping many of them.

McCain's last four books -- written, like the new one, with his longtime chief legislative aide, Mark Salter -- have been popular; his most recent, ``Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember'' (Random House, 2005) sold a respectable 184,000 copies in hardcover. (Aug. 14, $25.99, 200,000 first printing.)

Meyer's `Eclipse'

Among August fiction, Anderson is most excited about children's writer Stephenie Meyer's ``Eclipse,'' the third novel in her young-adult vampire series. ``These books are extremely popular with teens, who find them very romantic,'' Anderson says. ``And since there's no sex and barely any kissing, parents like them as well.''

With 1.6 million copies in print of the first two titles, ``Twilight'' and ``New Moon,'' some booksellers are calling Meyer a possible successor to J.K. Rowling.

``Stephenie isn't comfortable with that kind of talk,'' says Faith Hochhalter, children's book buyer at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona (close to Meyer's home in Phoenix), ``but it's probably the truth. We may even sell more of `Eclipse' than we did of the last `Harry Potter.''' The store has sold more than 3,000 copies of Meyer's previous books and has pre-sold 500 copies of ``Eclipse.''

``The third book is typically the tipping point for children's series,'' she adds.

Meyer's first novel was picked up off the slush pile at the literary agency Writers House; she is now published in 28 countries. When Changing Hands hosted a vampire-themed ``prom'' based on the books in May, fans flew in from as far away as Costa Rica and Germany. (Little, Brown, Aug. 7, $18.99, 1 million first printing.)

(Edward Nawotka writes on books and publishing for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Navy SEAL Recalls the Day His Friends Died

July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell's worldview has been formed by peering through a sniper scope. He sees only friends and enemies. He cherishes Christianity, bravery, loyalty, self-sacrifice and Texans (especially President George W. Bush). The Taliban, liberal media and lawyers, al-Qaeda and the Geneva Conventions are in his cross hairs.

Luttrell's memoir, ``Lone Survivor,'' recounts the events of June 28, 2005, the deadliest in U.S. Special Forces history, when he voted to free a trio of Afghan goatherds who had stumbled upon his SEAL team's observation post. They subsequently betrayed them to the Taliban, and before the day was over, Luttrell's three teammates and 16 more Americans -- including eight more SEALs --were dead.

We spoke on the phone.

Nawotka: You write that not executing the goatherds was ``the stupidest, most Southern-fried, lamebrained decision I ever made in my life.'' Why?

Luttrell: It led directly to the deaths of my friends. I was more worried about liberal media back home finding out about our executing the goatherds and accusing us of war crimes than I was about making the smart military decision. I've wished I could take it back every day since.

Nawotka: Is it typical for a SEAL team to take votes?

Luttrell: One of the things I try to get across in the book is how SEALs think. In the SEALs we know that one man can't win a war -- when one guy goes it alone, you die -- so we formulate a plan and we use each other's brains.

Bashing Liberals?

Nawotka: Your memoir is a big bestseller. Do you still feel the media are out to get you?

Luttrell: I now almost wish I hadn't put that stuff in there, but I told the story the way it happened. I'm not trying to bash liberals or Democrats and prop up Republicans -- in my heart of hearts I'm not. I want to bring the country back together, not divide it further. If people read the book, they will see it is about trying to protect this country and fighting insurmountable odds.

Nawotka: How is it that you weren't prepared for this kind of battle, yet you still killed more than 50 Taliban?

Luttrell: SEALs move fast and light, like guys going out for a hike or hunting. No, we were not dressed like what you see in Iraq, with body armor or heavy weapons. Two of us were carrying sniper rifles.

Luck and God

Nawotka: You tumbled thousands of feet down a mountainside, cracking three vertebrae, and survived a rocket-propelled grenade, only to be found by a friendly Afghan doctor who took you in and decided to protect you. Was that SEAL training or fate?

Luttrell: Pure luck and God.

Nawotka: Throughout your time in Afghanistan you wore two Texas patches on your uniform. One made it to President Bush. How?

Luttrell: When I was recovering, Admiral Mike Mullin, the chief of Naval Operations, asked me if there was anything he could do for me. I asked if he would give the patch to the president and tell him, ``Your Texas boys are getting it done.''

Later I met the president in the Oval Office when I was awarded the Navy Cross, and the patch was sitting on his desk. I had tried to clean it up, but it was still covered in mud and blood. He said, ``Son, do you remember this?'' and then he told me it was going to end up in his presidential museum.

Nawotka: You were trained as a medic. Now you're planning on attending medical school. Have you decided where?

Luttrell: I don't venture out of my home state of Texas much, but I think Yale appeals to me most.

Nawotka: How comfortable are you with the word ``hero''?

Luttrell: I am not a hero. I am a highly trained elite soldier. I was just doing my job. Those kids in Iraq, the ones who went into the Reserves to pay for college and are now fighting terrorists, going out on patrol and getting blown up by IEDs -- they are heroes.

``Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10,'' by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson, is published by Little, Brown (390 pages, $24.99).

(Edward Nawotka writes on books and publishing for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)