TODAY'S NEWS

Is the Financial Meltdown Story Over-Published Already?
by Matthew Thornton
As first intimated Thursday in the New York Observer, New York Times business reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin has inked a deal for his first book, to be called Too Big to Fail; Viking's Rick Kot took North American rights in a quick auction conducted by David McCormick, who had a number of publishers interested. The book will be an intimate, behind-the-scenes account of the personalities and policies that led to the current debacle in American finance. Read on »

SIBA Gets High Marks
by Kevin Howell
Larry McMurtry is not the only bestselling author to own a bookstore; in January, Kay Hooper and her business manager Linda Parks bought the 18-year-old Fireside Books & Gifts in Forest Lake, N.C. Parks, along with former owner Suzanne Ledford, attended last weekend's SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) gathering held in Mobile, AL from Sept. 25-28. The two arrived early for Thursday's all-day Bookseller School.

"Sometimes when people hear 'bookseller school' they think it's going to be all beginner information," said Ledford, who has stayed on at the store as its media contact. "I'd been working at Fireside since I was 16 and I owned it for the last three years and I still learned new things from that day of education."

New co-owner Parks was a first-time SIBA attendee and was enthusiastic about the re-branding of Book Sense into IndieBound. "I like that they've opened up the idea away from just being book-focused so we can have an indie cooperation that can involve all the local retailers in our town in spreading the word about supporting local businesses. You get more support, the more people you involve," Parks said. Read on »

Northern Illinois To Launch Fiction Imprint
by Claire Kirch
Northern Illinois University Press in Dekalb, Ill. is launching a new regional fiction imprint, Switchgrass Books. NIU said Switchgrass is “committed to enhancing the cultural landscape of the Midwest” by focusing on literary fiction set in or about the Midwest and written by authors with significant ties to the region. According to Alex Schwartz, NIU Press/Switchgrass Books director, agented manuscripts will not be accepted for consideration, in order to provide both emerging and established writers a venue to “have their Midwestern voices heard.” Two books will be released under the Switchgrass imprint each season, with the first release scheduled for fall 2009. NIU Press will continue to focus its nonfiction line of books on U.S. history, Russian studies, transportation, religion, and regional studies.

PW's Review of The Snowball
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
Alice Schroeder. Bantam, $35 (960P) ISBN 978-0-553-80509-3

In this startlingly frank account of Buffett’s life, Schroeder, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley—and hand picked by Buffett to be his biographer—strips away the mystery that has long cloaked the word’s richest man to reveal a life and fortune erected around lucid and inspired business vision and unimaginable personal complexity. In a book that is dominated by unstinting descriptions of Buffett’s appetites—for profit, women (particularly nurtur-ing maternal types), food (Buffett maintained his and his family’s weight by “dangling money”)—it is refreshing that Schroeder keeps her tone free of judgment or awe; Buffett’s plain-speaking suffuses the book and renders his public and private successes and failures wonderfully human and universal. Schroeder’s sections detailing the genesis of Buffett’s investment strategy, his early mentoring by Benjamin Graham (who imparted the memorable “cigar butt” scheme: purchasing discarded stocks and taking a final puff). Inspiring managerial advice abounds and competes with gossipy tidbits (the married Buffett’s very public relationship with Washington Post editor Katherine Graham) in this rich, surprisingly affecting biography. (Sept. 29)

Blogs

MORE STORIES

Big Fan Turnout for the 2008 New York Anime Festival
The second annual New York Anime Festival, held this past weekend at the Javits Convention Center, began slowly with a small group of fans on the floor during Friday’s professional day but their numbers swelled considerably by the evening. By Saturday the exhibition floor was jammed with fans and NYAF show manager Lance Fensterman said the show’s unofficial attendance was18,399 a 24% increase over the 14,000 fans that attended the show last year.

Next year’s show will again be held at the end of the September, despite conflicts with several conventions, among them Anime Weekend in Atlanta and San Francisco’s Yaoi-con. Reed Exhibitions, the organizer of the show, moved the NYAF to September from December to avoid bad weather and conflicts with school and university schedules. Nevertheless, some publishers were missing. Viz Media once again did not attend and Tokyopop, which has cut back its exhibition schedule in the wake of a financial reorganization, also did not exhibit after having had a major presence at last year’s show. Read on »

The Monday Interview: Eric Liu, Author of The True Patriot
An interview with Eric Liu, co-author with Nick Hanauer of The True Patriot, which was published by Sasquatch in January 2008.

PW: How would you describe The True Patriot?

EL: The book is an argument that we’ve got to reclaim patriotism in more progressive terms. It’s written in the style of a Thomas Paine pamphlet, and is meant to provoke debate about the ways in which over the last four decades patriotism as an idea has been hijacked by the right and surrendered by the left—to the detriment of both. We put the book out there to reframe the conversation and take it out of the realm of reflex and gauzy cliché and reground it in a set of moral principles. People have a list of clichés built up in their mind, either positive or negative, and they’re far removed from truly revisiting the moral core of what it truly means to put country before self.

PW: What impelled you to write the book?

EL: Both Nick and I agreed that, out of deep frustration with the course of our politics both left and right, there was the absence of a clear, compelling framework of principles. Before we start throwing stones we have to figure out what we believe. What we thought was going to be a quick two-week whiteboard session turned into a month turned into a year and before we knew it we had this document. Initially we just published it ourselves and shared it with some folks and realized there was a real appetite for this, given the political season and I think given even longer-term trends in our politics. With the onset of the campaign we wanted to get this out in a hurry nationally. So we looked to Sasquatch because they’re in our area and could do it on a hurry-up time frame. They were able to help us seize the moment. Read on »

Web Exclusive Reviews
This week on the Web: a vaccine and pediatrics expert on the latest autism myths, an activist on America's fossil fuel addiciton, a bad-boy screenwriter's path to God, a Jewish typographer's memoir of survival in the Nazi counterfeiting operation, a French marine biologist explains the origins of life, and a multi-talented UK writer takes a trip through the human head. Plus: doughnuts, dogs, green cosmetics, farming, Richard Nixon and exquisite Chinese food. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Diahann Carroll; Warren Buffett, Unwrapped; Tuna, Too
Authors on today’s Good Morning America: Entertainment veteran Diahann Carroll discussed her memoir The Legs Are the Last to Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying, and Other Things I Learned the Hard Way (Amistad, $24.95; HarperAudio CD, $34.95), which pubs tomorrow. After the jump: Jenny McCarthy, Paul Begala and Dr. Phil. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Scieszka Celebrates
First Lady Laura Bush looked on as Jon Scieszka proudly displayed the medal just awarded to him as the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, at a gala kicking off last weekend's National Book Festival. More than 70 authors and illustrators took part, and an estimated 120,000 people attended. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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