Doubleday

There's a myth among book publicists that if a title gets coverage before it hits stores then the press has been wasted. This is an absurd notion, not only because advance press can stir anticipation but because these days, people just go online after they read about a thing and preorder it on Amazon.

Kudos, in light of the conventional wisdom, to Doubleday's Alison Rich, who has managed to place not one but two major pre-pub features—one in The Wall Street Journal on June 20, the other in this morning's USA Today—about Andrew Davidson's historical thriller The Gargoyle. It's a coup, really, to have two pieces like this comparing the thing to The Da Vinci Code and asking whether it will be a massive best seller, and it'll be interesting to see whether it becomes one as a result.  read more »

Here’s a fairytale: A 28-year-old Columbia M.F.A. student named Reif Larsen wrote a novel about a whimsical child from Montana who likes maps, and suddenly all kinds of famous editors in New York were calling his agent, Denise Shannon, and telling her they really wanted to publish it.

Norton offered to preempt with an advance in the neighborhood of $400,000 if Ms. Shannon took the book off the market and sold it to the publisher right then and there. The editorial director of Dial Press, an imprint of Random House’s Bantam Dell Doubleday group, offered to pay half a million for the same privilege.  read more »

Janet Silver, who lost her position as publisher of Houghton Mifflin's trade division last month when that company was merged with Harcourt, has landed firmly on her feet, joining Nan Talese's eponymous imprint at Doubleday as editor-at-large.

At Houghton, Ms. Silver edited books by Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Jonathan Safran Foer, and a score of other well-known writers. Many in the publishing industry were dismayed when news of her ouster broke. 

In a statement from Doubleday issued this morning, Ms. Talese is quoted as saying, “Over the course of her distinguished career, Janet has nurtured an impressive array of talented writers, providing them the level of support and care their work so richly deserved... Her now joining our imprint is such a natural match, and I am thrilled to welcome her as a colleague.”  read more »

Doubleday threw a party last night for Cindy Spiegel and Julie Grau, who were celebrating the official launch of their new imprint at Random House (read all about it).

Wait, no, it’s not an imprint—Doubleday Broadway president Stephen Rubin made a point of this during his speech. “A new publishing house!” he said, twice. “Not an imprint.” He emphasized that this does not happen every day.  read more »

Novelist Carolyn Parkhurst, bestselling author of The Dogs of Babel and Lost and Found, has moved from Little, Brown to Doubleday, where she is now under contract for a two book deal that one knowledgable source said is worth $1.3 million dollars.

According to Alison Rich, Doubleday's director of publicity, Ms. Parkhurst's first book for Doubleday will be called The Nobodies Album, and it is scheduled for publication in 2010. Her editor will be Alison Callahan.

Ms. Rich declined to comment on Ms. Parkhurt's advance, citing corporate policy.

The deal was brokered by literary agent Douglas Stewart of Sterling Lord Literistic.

Tina Brown, who edited The New Yorker during all but two of Bill Clinton's years in the White House, will write a book about the former President and his wife for Doubleday, it was announced today.

The book will be called The Clinton Chronicles--just like Ms.Brown's last one, which came out this summer, was called The Diana Chronicles. Maybe she is starting a franchise?

Phyllis Grann is the acquiring editor, just like she was on Diana, for which she paid a reported $2 million dollars. The book--which, according to the press release from Doubleday, will explore "not just the enthralling story of the Clintons themselves but the social, political and media context of the times"-- is scheduled for publication in 2010.