May 02, 2008
Lunch for Friday, May 2

Coming Attractions: Barbara Walters to Hit News Cycle
Look for major media with the release of Barbara Walters' book AUDITION on Tuesday, including an Oprah Winfrey feature airing that day. In a transcript from that show given to the AP, they report that "after three decades of keeping mum, Barbara Walters is disclosing a past affair with married US Senator Edward Brooke.... The first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Both he and Walters knew that public knowledge of their affair could have ruined his career as well as hers, Walters says."
 
She explains to an interviewer at the Hartford Courant why she wrote the book after previous delays: "Either don't do it at all, or tell all. I was sidetracked for a while, but once I sat down to do it, I knew the kind of book it was going to be — very, very personal. I thought it was important to tell the story of my sister, her disability, and about my relationship with my daughter. I thought this would be helpful to parents."

Hailing Hay
This Sunday's NYT Magazine profiles Louise Hay: "Hay is one of the bestselling authors in history, and none of the women who have sold more — like J. K. Rowling, Danielle Steel and Barbara Cartland — owned a publishing empire. They did not change the spiritual landscape of America and several of its Western allies. They were not pregnant at 15 and they did not lack high-school diplomas. Finer writers they may have been (depending on your taste), and wealthier women, but it would be hard to argue that any was more interesting than Louise Hay."
 
Founded in 1987, last year Hay House, which she owns jointly with company president Reid Tracy, 45 (who has a 35 percent stake), "sold 6.3 million products, taking in $100 million, 8 percent of which was profit."
 
As for Tracy's contribution, "in a field crowded with visionaries (and intuitives, psychics and angel therapists), Tracy has a strong claim to true clairvoyance. He realized more than 10 years ago that much of the money in New Age was to be made in items other than books: in card decks, audio tapes and page-a-day calendars. Major authors like Wayne Dyer and Marianne Williamson, who first came to Hay House just for ancillary products, later abandoned big trade houses to also do their books with Hay House. Each product helps drive sales for the other products, making Hay House authors less dependent than most on the whims of book-review editors and the buyers for megastores."

The Most News that the Business Uses
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Friday's free version is "lite" as usual, but our full report includes more on these stories already included here, plus these additional pieces and links:
Self-Published Author Wins Canadian Humor Award
Faber Hopes to Find POD Profits
Analyst Downgrades BN Stock
The Most Over-Covered UK Story in Recent Memory Comes to a Close
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June Book Sense Picks
1. THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN: A Novel, by Garth Stein

Edgar Awards
Among the winners: Down River, by John Hart, as best novel.
 

Lots of New Jobs
Our industry-leading Job Board remains busy with 4 new listings just since yesterday morning, joining about 90 opportunities in all still live from the past month.
 
For employers, we provide the unbeatable combination of the largest circulation in the business by far, a total focus on book publishing only, and the best prices anywhere.
 
And for job-seekers, we present great new possibilities every day and conveniences like an RSS ping to keep you posted on every new offering. Among the latest:
 
Subsidiary Rights Coordinator  [Full Time]
Penguin Group (USA) (New York, NY)
 
sales  [Full Time]
Gallopade International Inc. (Peachtree City, GA)
 
Editor-Orbit  [Full Time]
Hachette Book Group (New York, NY)
 
Foreign Special Sales Associate  [Full Time]
becker&mayer! (Bellevue, WA)
 
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