The Ins and Outs of Publishing

Publisher's Weekly has an interesting article about a new hooker memoir. Here's the outtake:

After 26 years of publishing primarily fiction, Permanent Press is poised for a major breakout with a racy memoir, Callgirl. The author is novelist Jeannette Angell, who supported herself as a lecturer at M.I.T. and Boston University, where she got her Ph.D. in anthropology, until her "rat bastard boyfriend" emptied her bank account. Desperate, she answered a Boston Phoenix ad and became a hooker earning $200 an hour. Three years later, her two worlds collided when she began teaching a course on the sociology of prostitution by day, while working as a callgirl at night, and nearly got arrested.
Press co-founder Martin Shepard anticipates that Callgirl will be the house's all-time bestseller, based on early media response, including a taping for Oprah, which may air as early as next week or later in the fall during sweeps week, and bookings on nationally syndicated radio programs like The Bob and Sheri Show. Before its publication in August, the book went back to press for 2,500 copies, bringing the in-print total to 5,000. "Then, depending on how Oprah goes, we'll print 50,000 to 200,000 copies," says Martin, who is keenly aware of the potential pitfalls. "This one could bankroll things for a long time—or could bankrupt them."

Oprah. Can you believe it? Oprah. Queen of all things about womanly empowerment, and now she's talking about Callgirl books. First is was porn stars, now it's hookers. Next thing you know, literary agents will be scamming East LA looking for the next big ho…. Oh, I'm sorry. Is my jealousy showing? OF COURSE IT IS, I (and pretty much every other writer in the world) HAVE BEEN ONE-UPPED BY A PROSTITUTE!!!
Taking a big, calming breath now….

And because not all of publishing is about pimping, an actual story of yes, just a great story. Salon has a review of Susanna Clarke's first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and it sounds like a great fun, romp. Sometimes as an author, you can feel like the playing field is so slanted against you, and then a story like this one comes along (and there's usually about 2-3 stories like this every year), and you realize that it's really not slanted against you, you just think it is, because you're a deluded paranoidal. From the review:

Even if, as adults, we have learned to read differently and to appreciate other books that don't necessarily cast the same spell, most of us continue to yearn for that magic and to cherish the rare book that can still work it. We may admire those other, possibly greater books, but the ones that enchant us -- "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" is destined to join that company -- are the books we love. Some people might call this regressive, and perhaps it is. But the nature of love is to be regressive and irrational and irresponsible, and life without it would be a drab thing indeed.

Can't wait to read it.