Greenspan, Coulter keynotes; PGW's fate; Air America fire sale

Late-breaking news from the ever glamorous world of publishing:

* Alan Greenspan will be the keynote speaker at this year's BookExpo America in NYC on June 1. He's there to hype his book (a Sept. release from Penguin), which is understandable, but the format sounds like a clunker -- a Q&A by his wife, Andrea Mitchell.

* Forget Greenspan, a bigger name in the publishing world, Ann Coulter, will headline News Expo 2007 in Washington DC on May 11. I'm looking forward to attending both events since World Ahead will have a booth at News Expo and BEA.

* There's been another development in the sad saga of AMS -- the parent co. of Publishers Group West -- publishing's equivalent of the Anna Nicole Smith affair. PW reports that the court just ruled that publishers distributed to the retail trade by PGW will be picked up by Perseus, which beat out rival National Book Network (World Ahead's former distributor) for the deal.

* And speaking of bankruptcy judges... One just approved the sale of Air America to real estate developer Stephen Green for $4.25 million. That price probably went up after windbag Al Franken quit earlier this week to run for Senate in Minn. (He looks quite the statesman, doesn't he?)

S&S anonymous hatchet-job on Coulter

For only the second time in its esteemed history, Simon & Schuster is keeping the identity of an author secret. The first time was for a teenage drug addict's diary published in 1971. This time it's for an opus by four authors titled I Hate Ann Coulter. The reason, according to Page Six:

"None of us want our real names in the hands of gun-toting, abortion clinic-bombing, self-proclaimed 'wing nuts,' who follow Coulter," one of the scribes tells us.

Book Standard (heart) Al Gore

I'm not surprised that the breathless headline in the Book Standard's weekly newsletter is "Al Gore To Follow Up 'Inconvenient Truth With 'Assault on Reason'." (I'm also not surprised to learn that Al does not get along with reason.)

There is still no word, however, when the B.S. will investigate the iThenticate allegations against Ann Coulter.



Gore (left), pictured here wearing earth tones and a look-how-somber-I-am frown, will continue his assault on reason with a new book from publisher Penguin, not to be confused with Gore's penguin army (right).

And a reminder to the Book Standard...

Speaking of liberal bias in publishing trade mags, there's still no word as to whether the Book Standard will investigate the motivation behind the iThenticate allegations against Ann Coulter that they published last month. (I'm sure it's coming any day now.)

Book Standard doesn't (heart) Ann

This was the top headline on the Book Standard's weekly "Chart Alert" email today: Cedar Rapids 'Gazette' First to Give Ann Coulter the Boot. An entire week's worth of publishing industry news, and this is their lead story.

More liberal schadenfreude? (Hint: Trade journals don't give a darn about any place outside of Manhattan, much less Cedar Rapids -- unless it gives them an excuse to take a swipe at a conservative.) Given that UPI has joined Random House and vouched for Coulter against plagiarism charges, Godless has sold about a quarter-million copies, and 100 other newspapers nationwide still carry her column, it's a pretty lame cause for celebration.

P.S. So when will the Book Standard investigate the motivation behind the iThenticate allegations?

Random House stands by Coulter

Random House's Crown Forum is dismissing the plagiarism charges against Ann Coulter. NewsMax quotes Steve Ross, SVP of the Crown imprint, as saying, "We have reviewed the allegations of plagiarism surrounding ‘Godless’ and found them to be as trivial and meritless as they are irresponsible."

While it's understandable why liberals and left-leaning publications like Editor & Publisher would want to discredit Coulter, I'm most curious to learn how iThenticate fits into all this. The publishing industry desperately needs IP (intellectual property) software like this. Did the software return a false positive, indicating that it's not ready for prime time? Were its results being manipulated by a left-winger to score partisan points? Or a PR-hungry executive, hoping to get his startup's name in the papers?

Let's hope that Ann and her fans pursue this point. It's not only important because of her reputation, but also because the rest of us in this peculiar industry need to know if tools like iThenticate are something we can rely on.

Coulter plargiarism dispute escalates

The controversy surrounding Ann Coulter's latest bestseller continues to escalate. Last week the NY Post quoted John Barrie, creator of the iThenticate plagiarism-probing system, as claiming that parts of Coulter's Godless as well as several of her syndicated columns were not her own. Now Editor & Publisher reports that her syndicate, Universal Press syndicate, has asked Barrie for the evidence upon which he's basing his claims. Meanwhile, Coulter is hitting back at the Post's credibility.

It's still too early to know what will come of this, but I hope there's no truth to the charges -- both for her sake as well as the publishing industry's.

Coulter is good for publishing. Nielsen BookScan has clocked 171,000 sales for Godless, and given Nielsen's systematic undercounting I'd guess the true number is closer to 225,000 to 250,000. In a tough industry with few growth segments, Coulter is a star and one of the few authors who can bring people into bookstores looking for her latest. Her books make news and influence the rest of the media.

Publishing needs that. What it doesn't need is another scandal like the "memoir" promoted by Oprah's book club or that Harvard student's chic lit rip-off.