From the Substitute Chef
Greetings, Lunch subscribers. I'm Sarah Weinman, entrusted by the management to keep the kitchen in order and the helpings plentiful throughout the week. To do that, I'll need your help, as my own news-gathering system may not pick up everything that merits inclusion. So please send on announcements, tips, suggestions and comments either to info@publishersmarketplace.com or to a dedicated email address I've set up for the week at marketplacetips@gmail.com.

Book Clubs, the Progressive Way
As Bertelsmann looks to sell off its book club arm, a new group plans to enter the fray. Starting today, the Progressive Book Club is inviting readers to join and buy three books at $1 apiece in exchange for the obligation to buy four books over the next two years. The first lead selection is Steven Greenhouse's "The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker", with Jeffrey Feldman's "Outright Barbarous: How the Violent Language of the Right Poisons American Democracy" and Hilary Jordan's "Mudbound" to follow this month. Founder Elizabeth Wagley, a former fund-raiser and communications adviser for nonprofit groups, said that she believed the new book club would fill a void for progressively minded readers. "The right has always understood the power of ideas, the power of books as legitimizers of ideas," she said. "I see the opportunity with the book-club structure to create a powerful tool to showcase the ideas of the left."
 
As with other book clubs, authors will receive royalties of 4 percent of the cover price for books sold for $1 apiece, and 8 percent of the cover price for books sold at regular club prices. The club will also update traditional operation with a social networking component on its Web site, as well as the opportunity for members to form local book discussion groups. Daily Kos blogger Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, one of the book club’s "alliance partners," said he did not expect the club to generate much revenue for his company. "I'm not doing this for financial reasons," he said. "I'm doing it for movement-building reasons."
NYT

Richard & Judy's Instant Summer Bestsellers
The Outcast by Sadie Jones (Chatto & Windus)
No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay (Orion)
East of the Sun by Julia Gregson (Orion)
Down River by John Hart (John Murray)
The Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson (Headline Review)
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller (Canongate)
The Resurrectionist by James Bradley (Faber & Faber)
Addition by Toni Jordan (Sceptre)
The R&J Book Club now accounts for 26% of the sales of the top 100 books in the UK, as reported by the Times over the weekend, and Cactus TV producer Amanda Ross, the club's creator and book selector, is confident the show's move from Channel 4 to a new UKTV channel won't affect its impact on the market. "If the move had happened earlier, it would have affected the book club. But this is a new channel on UKTV, and it will be on the first page of the electronic programme guide. After 10 years, I think the club has a life of its own. What we need is the support of the retailers. If they keep faith and the books are still in the shops, then people will still buy them because they have Richard & Judy stickers."
Times

The Entreprenurial Book Boom
The Wall Street Journal tracks the growing number of books written by consultants, real-estate moguls, retailers and other entrepreneurs. Over the past six years, the number of books written by entrepreneurs or about entrepreneurship has risen steadily, to an estimated 312 in 2007 from 188 in 2002, according to Books in Print, and publishers say there are more on the way. With layoffs and cutbacks dominating the headlines, demand for advice books based on true-life stories is peaking.  "In this economy, everybody wants to be in command of their career and destiny," said Rick Wolff, editorial director of Grand Central's Business Plus Unit. The sales records of books by New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer and Kinko's founder Paul Orfalea seem to illustrate the point, with 90,000 and 50,000 copies in print, respectively.
 
But not all entrepreneurs share in the wealth of book success. Hyperion published 37,000 copies of Gary Hirshberg's "Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World" in January, but BookScan reports the title has sold only 5,000 copies. Hirshberg has upped his lecture appearances and the paperback edition will be issued next April under a new title, "Green Your Business: How to Turn Conventional Wisdom on Its Head, Make Money, and Save the World."
WSJ

The Most News that the Business Uses
Every day, we gather, report, recap and interpret the most publishing news, deal transactions, and job offers anywhere. Today's Lunch Deluxe includes these additional stories and links:

• Ghost of a Chance with Celebrity Books
• Quercus's Rapid Growth
• On Tim Russert
• Persephone, Informa Publisher Profiles
• NYS Wants Overstock and Amazon Lawsuits Consolidated
• Six Figure Advances Redux
• Narnia Website Name Battle
• Portugal Poet Papers Row
• Feeling the Pinch of Amazon's Buy Button
• Not-So-Happy Bloomsday

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Announcements
Books by VanitaBooks, The Museum of Jewish Heritage, and Arnica Publishing will now be distributed by Ingram
 
Backspace founders Karen Dionne and Chris Graham have launched the Backspace Book Promotion Network, a subscription-based searchable database of thousands of lnternet book promotion opportunities.
Book Promotion Network
 

More New Jobs
We've added 8 more new jobs to our industry-leading Job Board just since Friday if you haven't checked in, the latest among over 90 listings 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:
 
Exhibits and Awards Coordinator [Full Time]
NYU Press (New York, NY)
 
Senior Editor/Executive Editor [Full Time]
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (Hoboken, NJ)
 
Editorial Assistant [FullTime]
Rabbinical Assembly/Aviv Press (New York, NY)
 
Editor [Full Time]
Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. (New York, NY)
 
Store Manager - Powell's Books at PDX [Full Time]
Powell's Books (Portland, OR)
 
National Account Manager [Full Time]
Macmillan (New York, NY)
 
Director of Marketing and Trade Sales [Full Time]
Storey Publishing (North Adams, MA)
 
Acquisitions Editor, Content Acquisition [Full Time]
Audible, Inc. (Newark, NJ)
 
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