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How To Never Get Published
Just when you thought you had heard every dumb idea the world had to offer! Book publisher HarperCollins UK will soon launch their new social-networking-ish website, called Authonomy, where eager lil' beavers can upload their work and show it to people. (Every old organization, from the NYT to Forbes, has seen fit to start a social network these days.) Your work is reviewed by the other yokels on the site, but as the publisher says, "Readers will be able to support their favourite manuscripts, with HC guaranteeing to consider the most popular for publication." Explains the Guardian: More »
Slain Cop's Novel Published
"Though The Wolfman will have a first print run of 9,000 copies, Tor Books has already had a number of inquiries from film and television producers about adapting the novel. Among those praising the book are two of Mr. Pekearo’s literary heroes: Andrew Vachss, who calls the book a 'brilliant, insightful, overpowering debut,' and Joe R. Lansdale, who says the novel gives the werewolf motif 'a fresh coat of fur and new sheen on its very sharp teeth.'" [Times]
winning
Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing's Advice to Young Writers: "Don't Assume You'll Have It Forever"
Outspoken novelist Doris Lessing, 88, never cared much about winning the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature: "Oh Christ, I couldn't care less," she said at the time. Now, she adds in a radio interview, winning the prestigious award has totally messed up her life and creative energy: "It has stopped; I don't have any energy anymore. This is why I keep telling anyone younger than me, don't imagine you'll have it forever. Use it while you've got it, because it'll go; it's sliding away like water down a plug hole." [NYT] Oh, shit.
hiding in hip hop
The Gay Hip Hop Book, Revealed: Actors, Rappers, And A 'Megastar'
Yesterday, I finally received my advance copy of Hiding in Hip Hop, former closeted entertainment industry gadfly (pictured) Terrance Dean's much-hyped autobiography about all of the gays that are, well, hiding in hip hop. I've read about half of it so far. Dean has already proven himself eager to trot out blind items about male celebrities he says he's hooked up with, and the book doesn't disappoint in that regard. Today, an overview of what the book is and isn't, and then some of what you've been waiting for: three TV actors, a famous rapper, and a "megastar," anonymously outed. More »
books
The NYT Loves James Frey's New Book
We haven't read it yet (somebody please send!), but the NYT has totally fallen in love with reformed lying-memoirst James Frey's Bright Shiny Morning, set in Los Angeles. Times critic Janet Maslin writes, "His publisher called it a dazzling tour de force. (Look, somebody had to, if only to create a comeback drama)... But that wasn't so far off the mark..." It's the "captivating urban kaleidoscope that, most recently, Charles Bock's 'Beautiful Children' was supposed to be." And what else? More »
books
Chuck Palahniuk's Book Trailer Basically Straight-Up Porn
Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk, coiner of the term "suicide girls" and writer of stark raving mad fiction (people have fainted during his readings), has a new book, Snuff. As it the trend right now, he also has a book trailer. As Fleshbot pointed out, it's a porn parody, as the book concerns a gangbang. Is it SFW? Sort of... there' no nudity, but your boss will assume you're watching bad 70s porn. (Here's the test of a good book trailer: after watching it, are you able to figure out what the hell the book is about? Well...) More »
books
That Other n+1 Editor's Novel, Deep-Discounted
Sometimes, the future is right in front of your face. Three years ago, there was a different n+1 (the most important literary journal of our time) dude publishing a much-vaunted, yet sorely disappointing first novel featuring immature young men fumbling their way with tragically smart women who are only with them due to the startling lack of suitable males in New York. It was Benjamin Kunkel's Indecision. This weekend, a reader snapped a photo of it at Barnes and Noble in Hyannis, Massachusetts, on fire-sale at the "Under $5" table... next to Michael Crichton. (Click to enlarge.)
peter olson
Brutal Publishing Exec Really A Wimp
Peter Olson of Random House fixed his reputation in the publishing industry when he displayed a smirking glee at the number of editors he'd fired. (Never let Lynn Hirschberg of the Times follow you around.) However, the outgoing Random House boss may have combined the worst of all management styles: a callous public persona and decision-making weakness. Intelligencer notes that Olson let Random House units bid each other up for hot books. "For all of his tough talk, the proud and cerebral Olson was never a real enforcer."- Previously: Nor did Olson call the shots at home
journalismism
Reporter Marked For Death By Japanese Mob: It's Not As Cool As In Movies
Jake Adelstein is an American reporter who spent the last 15 years covering Japanese organized crime for that nation's largest paper. I have to admit I always thought the Japanese yakuza crime syndicates were some overblown fantasy movie creation, but turns out they're actually very real, 80,000 strong, and they want to kill Jake Adelstein. You learn something new every day! Adelstein got along with the cops and the gangsters fine for a while, until he tried to break a scoop about the "John Gotti of Japan" flying to the US for a liver transplant. "Erase the story or be erased," said the gangsters, dramatically. So Adelstein decided to hold off on the story until things blew over. But that plan didn't quite work out: More »
true crime
O.J.'s Confession
Mike Gilbert, O.J. Simpson's former manager, has a tell-all coming out. According to an AP reporter who got an advance copy of the book, "He said Simpson had smoked pot, took a sleeping pill and was drinking beer when he confided at his Brentwood home weeks after his trial what happened the night of June 12, 1994. Simpson said he went to his ex- wife's condominium, but did not bring a knife with him. Simpson told him Nicole Brown Simpson had one in her hand when she opened the door." More »
previews
Day Three: The Gay Hip Hop Author Meets An Athlete's Mom
So, have there been any updates in the prolonged daily rollout of salacious details about "Preston," the mystery professional athlete who allegedly had a fling with Terrance Dean, former closeted MTV producer and author of the upcoming book on the gay side of hip hop? Well yes there has been an update! Though we must say, he's really trickling this story out slowly. Today, Preston—who we now know is a pro basketball player—reveals his down-low status, and then takes Terrance home to meet his mom: More »
It's True!
Musician and noted blogger Ryan Adams is publishing a book of poetry. "If Jewel can do it..." he writes in his blog that's constantly being taken down.
new york times
David Carr Was A 'Fulminating Crackhead'
David Carr is a charming and competent media reporter, commuting to the New York Times from bourgeois Montclair where he lives with wife Jill and three children. But once he was in his own words a fulminating crackhead. Here's a sample from his forthcoming addiction memoir, obtained by Daily Intel: "Both of us were chronically, psychotically high, and I was spending all of my time lifting the blinds and peeking out at a world that I was increasingly scared to venture into."
books
Paultards Hijack Times Bestseller List
Kooky libertarian Ron Paul has already lost the Republican presidential nomination to John McCain, but he's technically still in the race and even picked up 16 percent of the no-doubt-minimal Republican voting in Pennsylvania. And Paul apparently still commands an army of internet zealots who spam online comment boards in between World of Warcraft guild quests, because his troops just pushed Paul's new book Revolution to the top of the May 18 Times bestseller list for nonfiction. Vanity Fair took a look at some of their shady tactics, happily confirmed by Paul's publisher Grand Central: More »
previews
More Closeted Athlete Details From The Gay Hip Hop Author
Terrance Dean, the former MTV producer who's about to release his hotly-anticipated-by-us book on the gay secrets of hip hop, has provided a few more details on "Preston," the mystery pro athlete who Dean says he had a fling with at an island resort. So all of you who guessed football players, baseball players, or Mike Tyson: wrong!: More »
books
Julia Allison Plays Familiar Role in Book About "Filthy Rich"
Radar's Chris Tennant's forthcoming book, the Official Filthy Rich Handbook, cheekily offers advice for "the best zip codes" and "majordomos vs. butlers," etc. Well, it's been a few years since the hipster and preppy handbooks came out, and The Hollywood Assistants Handbook just landed on our desk, so it looks like the market is right for handbooks right now! (People like being told what to do.) Tom Wolfe blurbs, rather ostentatiously, that "Tennant seems to know la dolce vita Americana billionara, every sweet morsel of it." Yet he chose a nice Midwestern girl to model the part of "the Heiress" inside the book—none other than Star talking head Julia Allison. She's not filthy rich (she makes only six figures a year), nor is she an heiress. But the book isn't meant for the growing class of newly rich, obviously, but to the aspirational and slack-jawed yokels among us. So in that case, maybe the choice of Allison is entirely appropriate. Click the image to gawk.
From the Mailbag
"James Frey's Bright Shiny Morning is at #666 on Amazon. I just had to tell someone." [Amazon]
