How Recession Could Kill Chick Lit

Rebecca James' debut has publishers seeing next JK Rowling

(NEWSER) - The publishing world is in a frenzy over a debut novel whose Australian author is drawing comparisons to JK Rowling (Harry Potter? Perhaps you've heard of it.). “Beautiful Malice was one of the most extraordinary manuscripts I’ve read in a very long while,” one editor with an insufficient bid says of Rebecca James’ thriller, intended for teens and up. “I'm still reeling over having lost it.” More»

Obama's vacation book list drives leaps in Amazon sales rankings

(NEWSER) - President Obama’s poll numbers are faltering, but his summer reading choices are getting rave reviews, Politico reports. A survey of the Amazon.com standings of the five books the White House announced he would take with him on his Martha’s Vineyard vacation show a drastic improvement in sales. If you’re doubtful about joining Obama’s Book Club, look at these numbers and follow the pack: More»

Publishers roll dice on shocking French work by Yank Jonathan Littell

(NEWSER) - A novel about a Nazi officer with a taste for sodomy and incest might not scream “bestseller”—especially at nearly 1,000 pages long and translated from French. Yet Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones topped charts in France and precipitated a bidding war among US publishers. HarperCollins paid a reported $1 million, but early reviews have been deeply polarized, the New York Times notes. More»

(NEWSER) - Literary agent Dan Strone oversaw two multimillion-dollar celebrity book deals last week, stunning the publishing industry, the New York Observer reports. He scored $2.5 million for a Sarah Silverman book and drew bids topping $7 million for a Jerry Seinfeld title. Both were auctioned without a proposal. “I don’t make people spend the money,” said Strone, who did not understand why industry figures "should be horrified." More»

Reviewer rips popular portraits of female mediocrity

(NEWSER) - Slate reviewer Katie Roiphe dresses down the entire emerging "Mommy Lit" genre in her caustic feminist review of the Brit bestseller "Slummy Mummy." Roiphe says she doesn't have a problem with light summer page-turners, but she takes issue with the novel's celebration of frumpy female mediocrity. More»