TODAY'S NEWS

Tsaba vs. RWA, Round 2
By Claire Kirch
The dispute between Tsaba House and Romance Writers of America continues following Tsaba's accusations last week that the RWA discriminates against small presses by barring its authors from the RWA RITA Award; RWA said it considers Tsaba to be a vanity publisher because its standard contract contains clauses concerning author chargebacks.

According to RWA's policy manual, a subsidy publisher is defined as "any publisher that publishes books in which the author participates in the costs of production in any manner, including publisher assessment of a fee or other costs for editing and/or distribution." RWA bars these publishers from its programs and contests. Read on »

Dutton Preempts Gottlieb; Wally Lamb Returns...Finally
By Matthew Thornton & Rachel Deahl
On the heels of her Jenna Blum auction win, Dutton editor-in-chief Trena Keating made another big buy, preempting world rights to a new book by Lori Gottlieb. The untitled work will be based on a controversial article that appeared in this month's The Atlantic Monthly under the title "Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough," in which Gottlieb suggests that maybe women are too picky in their search for a mate. Liv Blumer made the sale, and Dutton will likely publish in 2010.

Gottlieb is the author of Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self, published by Simon & Schuster in 2000, and since optioned for film by Martin Scorsese. Gottlieb is also a regular commentator for NPR's "All Things Considered," and is currently doing her internship to become licensed as a psychotherapist. She is represented for film and television by Bob Gumer of Kaplan Stahler.

Two-time Oprah book club honoree Wally Lamb, who hasn't released a new title in 10 years, has a new work on the horizon. Read on »

Mountaineers Navigates a New Direction
By Lynn Andriani
The Mountaineers Books, the nonprofit publishing division of The Mountaineers Club, has long been known for its outdoor guides by expert climbers, hikers and skiers. Among its bestselling books are Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, Wake Up and Smell the Planet: the Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day and the Best Hikes with Dogs series. So what's a memoir about love lost and found, about growing up, getting married and having kids, doing on its spring list?

Forget Me Not by Jennifer Lowe Anker tells the story of the author’s life married to world renowned mountaineer Alex Lowe; his death in 1999 on Shishapangma in Nepal; and her marriage to Lowe’s best friend, Conrad Anker—who survived the avalanche that killed Lowe—two years later. It is partly a women’s memoir and partly an exotic travel adventure story, and while it’s outside of Mountaineers’ typical hard-core mountaineering fare, it aligns nicely with the direction the house is now steering itself. Read on »

Book Review: 'Why We're Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America'
Eric Alterman. Viking, $24.95 (382p) ISBN 978-0-670-01860-4

Alterman (What Liberal Media?), is an omnipresent columnist and blogger, proud to identify himself as a liberal—but, he says, many others shy away from the word because it has been corrupted by conservative political activists. Because of the clever, dishonest conservative campaign to discredit liberal programs, far too many in the electorate dismiss liberal political candidates as unpatriotic, elitist, atheistic, free-sex, reverse-racist, murderous (a.k.a. pro-choice) wimps. Alterman labors mightily to erase the myths and bury the lies pushed by antagonists such as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and others. The trouble is that defining liberalism is a difficult matter, which makes Alterman's polemic anything but laser-like. Another problem is that in attacking conservatives, Alterman falls into some of the traps he attributes to them, including name calling and over-generalizing. He is persuasive, however, when he turns the tables, demonstrating that conservatives are frequently as elitist and hypocritical as they claim liberals to be. Despite the presence of George W. Bush in the White House, Alterman claims opinion polls prove overwhelmingly that the majority of Americans prefer the liberal agenda. His hope, he says, is that his book will "open the way for Americans to get the government they repeatedly say they want." (Mar.)

Web Exclusive Reviews
Star-worthy tales from Darfur and the Middle East, violence in the Old West, non-violence in India, civil war in the sneaker industry, a personal take on Terri Schiavo and a new kind of AIDS narrative. Plus: psychotherapy for your stomach and another look at Our Bodies. Read on »

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Three Answers: Tina Salaks
Three Answers today are from Tina Salaks, co-author of Paw & Order: Dramatic Investigations by an Animal Cop on the Beat, which will be published next month by BowTie Press. Read on »

The PW Morning Report: A daily round-up of the latest publishing news
Three McCourts; Did Nazi Kill Little Prince Author?; More on Love and Consequences; Lambda Finalists; Universal-Dark Horse Deal; Margaret Mitchell Property for Sale; Sexist Orange Prize; and Methuen in Arthur Miller Deal Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Eleanor Clift's Two Weeks; The Great Warming; Samantha Power
This morning, Newsweek contributing editor Eleanor Clift visited The Diane Rehm Show with Two Weeks of Life: A Memoir of Love, Death & Politics (Basic Books, $26), which alternates between the much-publicized death of Terri Schiavo and that of Clift's husband Tom Brazaitis–within days of each other. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

A Jersey 'Carpool'
Last week Nancy Star, author of the recently published novel Carpool Diem (5 Spot/Grand Central Publishing), was greeted by locals and fans at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, NJ. Star (l.) is pictured here with Watchung owner Margot Sage-El. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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