Books
Email
Print
Say What? Authors watching hot topics turn cold and go awry
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: September 12, 2008
WASHINGTON
A financial crisis, a historic presidential campaign and a series of political scandals have scrambled how people understand the world in the past few years.
For some authors, that presents a ticklish problem.
"Obviously I would change the title," said David Lereah, the former chief economist of the National Association of Realtors and author of Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust -- And How You Can Profit From It, published in paperback in February 2006. "There are places in the book where I actually say the boom is not healthy. But people don't read the book, and they just look at the title and they criticize it."
Brooke Masters, the author of Spoiling for a Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer, said that her book was right at the time it came out -- 18 months before Spitzer, then governor of New York, was brought down by a sex scandal in March of this year. In any case, she said, "Spoiling for a fight is totally accurate."
This election season will likely bring more casualties. Among Why the Democrats Will Win in 2008: The Road to an Obama White House; A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win; and Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, someone has to be wrong.
Politics, economics and social-science books are a mainstay of adult publishing, an increasingly lucrative market. Nonfiction sales in the U.S. have risen steadily to 311 million books in 2007 from 270 million in 2004, according to Nielsen BookScan.
But with tens of thousands of new titles competing for attention each year, authors have to make some bold claims -- and fast. It's possible to turn around a topical book in weeks. What was once written as history is now appearing as prediction.
"It was more timely than a monthly magazine," said Steve Gill, a conservative radio host and author of The Fred Factor: How Fred Thompson May Change the Face of the ‘08 Campaign, which was published by Mr. Gill's business partner in May 2007.
The book "blew through" its first print run of 10,000 copies ahead of Thompson's declaration in September 2007 that he would run for president, Gill said. The Thompson campaign lasted barely four months. The book sold about 2,000 of its new run and the remainder were given away or trashed.
"You hope that the book, even if it's about current affairs, will stand as a record of that event," said Carol Schneider, the executive director of publicity and public relations for Random House Publishing Group, a division of Bertelsmann AG's Random House Inc.
But she acknowledges that accidents happen. "You're talking about life."
That doesn't sit well with authors, who often blame their publishers when books are overtaken by events. "We argued back and forth," said Lereah, the real-estate author, who said he didn't want the titles to be so bold. "But you know, I'm a big boy, I agreed to what they told me to do and you've got to live with it," he said.
Publishers say they're under pressure to craft titles that can quickly launch a book. "There is a trend of subtitles getting longer and longer and publishers insisting that a subtitle needs to explain everything about the book," said Bruce Nichols, vice president and publisher of Collins, a division of News Corp.'s HarperCollins.
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
N.C. Politics
Federal Politics
See community events or add your own! Click here!
Advertisement
