Spring 2005 BULLETIN

Foundation Symposium:The Rewards and Pitfalls of Collaboration

Fear Peer-to-Peer? The Debate over Grokster

Making FOIA Work

Elizabeth Janeway Remembered

EDITORJn your Winter'05 issue, under the heading OUCH,Iyotr reprint various comments, some erroneous,some just unenlightened, concerningthe 2004 National Book Award for fic-tion. I think your readers are entitledto know the following:

It isn't true that four of the finalists(i.e. all except Kate Walbert) had soldunder 900 copies before the an-nolrncement of the finalists wasmadc'. Lily Tuck's The Neuts fronrParaguny, which eventually won theaward, had reached ner.t' sales (i.e.

The Cuild encouragL's members towrite to the Bulletin. Letters shouldbe sent to "Letters to the Editor." TheAuthors Guild, 3l East 28th Street.NewYork. NY 10016. They can alsobe laxed to (212) 564--5363, or sentvia e-nrai I to stafTG) authorsgu i ld.org(type "Letters to the Editor" in thesubject line). Letters nray be editedfor length, grammar and clarity.

By CnMpsELL GEESLTN

lisher, HarperCollins, reportecl 14,000 additional hard-cover sales. The book has since appeared as a trade pa-

perback, and has reached 87,500copies after four printings (of 15,000;65,000; 5,000; and 2,500). The paper-back edition is, as of this writing, #8on the Boston Globe bestseller list.The NBA has added more than100,000 sales to the pre-announce-ment figure, a very healthy figure,which surely is helping the bookLrusiness. In addition, as a result ofthe award, a good number of foreign

sales after returns) of 3,800 before the list of finalistswas reportecl. That is not a very high sale, but it is over400 percent more than what The New York Times re-portbd (and which then got parroted elsewhere).

It isn't true that only books by mainstream authors(whatever that means-was Faulkner really a main-stream author?) sell when singled out for an NBA.When Tlrc Neu,s fi'om Pnrnguay won the award, its pub-

editions are now under contract.

-Georges Borchardt

New York, NY

Georges Borchardt is Lily Tuck's litcrary agent.

Continued on ptage 44

-lh" endless extension of a book contract is disap-I pearing. According to fonathan Mahler in The

New York Tirnes Book Review, "Literary agents tendto blame the bottom line-obsessed conglomerates thathave been gobbling Lrp once empathetic independentput'rlishing houses. But while it may be endangered,the albatross book is by no mearrs extinct."

Mahle'r names Fran Lebowitz as "America's mostlegendarilv blocked writer." Her last work (except fora children's book) r,vas published in 1981. Then a bookby Lebowitz entitled Prograss was listed in Knopf 's fall2003 catalog, but it failed to appear. Last October's is-sue of Vanity Fair featured an excerpt which suggeststhat a book may be on the way.

In the early 1980s Victor Navasky began a shortbook on the role of opinion journals. He was editor ofThe Nation, and he expected he'd need only a year forhis "meditation." Finalll', last fall, Navasky delivereda 550-page manuscript, AMatter o.f OTtirtiort, which is a

memoir of his career in the world of opinion journal-ism. [t wil] be published this spring. The book fol-lowed its acquiring editor, Elisabeth Sifton, fromV'ikirig to Knopf to Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

ADVICE: Vladimir Nabokov told his students: "Youlrave to saturstc vourself with English poetry in orderto conrytosc Errglish prose . . . . You must study thepoets."

HERO: Kate Atkinson's new novel is Case Histories.Her first novel, Belind the Scenes st the Museunl, wonthe Whitbread Award.

Atkinson told Publishers Weekly, "I thought it wastime to try to write a man who wasn't a wimp or dead.I wanted to write a good man but with a darkness athis core, a world-weary kirrd of hero. I think it's diffi-cult for writers to get into the psyche of the oppositegender."

This new hero is named Jackson Brodie, andAtkinson was asked if there will be more of him in fu-ture books. She said, "l'm just finishing a book calledGood Lttck. After that there's a novel callecl 17 BillionMonkerls, and after thatJacksott itr Paris, which l think isa fairly self-explanatorv title. Even after that I have a

Iot more plans for Jackson. A good man is hard to find."

ALONG PUBLISHERS

Autnors L,urt(t BultL'tur E 51,r,,," i(,(,.'

Corttinued on page 30

THE AUTHORSGUILD BUTLETIN

.: PresidentI NiekTaylor

'., EfitorMartha Fay

: Executive EditorKay Murray

' Back of the BookKarina Hidalgo

Contrlbuting EditorCampbell Geeslin

All non-staff contributors to theBqlletin retain copp'ight to thearticles that'appear in thesepages. Guild members seekingin-fcrnration :on contributors'other publifAtions are invitedto contac! the-Guild office.

Published quaiterly by:.;'1=.

The Audiors Guild, Inc.31 Easl cffth StreetNewYorh NY 10016

li

Tle Bulletin was frst published in191,2 as The Authors League

Newsletter.

Overheard

"V\b must find ways in whidr toremind ourselves, to remind ouryoung people and to remind therest of the world that this diver-sitli'of ours, this pluralistic soci-ety of ourt this free society ofouis has p*oduced marvelouswriters nnd,$4kers."

-U.S. S*preme Court fustice, Anthony M. Kennedy, at a

symposium on integrity,,honor and ethical leadership: at St. Christopher's School

inRichmond, Va.,Februarv 26.2005

SPRING 2OO5

Articles

How to Get What You Want from FOIABy Michael Raanitzlcy

Page 5

FOIAUnder SiegeBy Koy Munay

PageT

Remembering Elizabeth ]anewayBy Nellie Bridge

Page 10

AWhitewashed EarthseaBy Ursula K. Le Guin

Page 11

Keeping Faith with SteinbeckBy Petu Hannaford

Page 12

SymposiumStrange Bedfellows:

The Rewards and Pitfalls of CollaborationPage 15

Departments

Along Publishers Row . ...........2Letter from the Presidenf ....... ...........4CensorshipWatch .........8Legal Watclt ......L3Booksby Members .......45Members Make News ....47Bulletin Board ....48

Copyrighi @ 2005 The Authors Guild. lnc.

About the Cover

Keain Sanchez Walsh is a freelance artist in New York City.

Atrthors Guikl Buth:titt E spri,,o 2tt{].5

From the PresidentBv Nrcx TevloR

rokster, the peer-to-peerInternet file-sharing soft-ware provider, is the lat-

est challenge to conventionalthinking about copyright. As a

case involving Grokster wasmaking its way to the U.S. Su-preme Court earlier this year, itwas the subject of strong debatein the Authors Guild Council,and by sharing some of the de-tails I hope to give you an idea

of how the council functions.The question was whether the Guild should join in

a brief arguing that Grokster should be held liable as acontributor to copyright infringement. Grokster cre-ates a decentralized network of individual computersthat allows one individual to anonymously find andobtain files-usually copyright-protected songs-from another. A federal circuit appeals court, relyingon an old case involving Sony's Betamax videorecordec held that Crokster was not liable becausesome people used the system for legal purposes.Grokster's salvation, said the circuit court, lay in the10 percent of its usage that is legitimate. In legal terms,that is "significant non-infringing uses." The other 90percent is illegal copyright infringement, and the com-pany's business plan-income derived from ad sales-clearly is predicated on the traffic generated by that 90percent.-

The debate within the council actually began lastDecembeq, when the Guild was asked to join the plain-tiffs who were asking the Supreme Court to hear thecase. Some of us, and the Guild staff, thought thechoice was obvious. Whatever else we do, we defendcopyright. Others argued that joining the plaintiffswas tantamount to supporting the music andHollywood giants for whom copyright is more a com-modity than an individual right. We defer-rd copyright,but it's in our nature as writers to side with the littleguy. Besides, in the view of some, the legitimate usesof peer-to-peer file sharing outweighed the infringe-ment.

We decided to join those asking for a SupremeCourt hearing, on the grounds that in an increasinglydigital world, copyright law must continue to evolve,and part of that evolution requires the guidance of thenation's highest court.

Once the court decided to accept the case, we hadto make a new decision: Did we want to join the case,and if so, on which side? To seek clarity, we askedAllan Adler of the Association of American Publishers,and Walter McDonough, one of the founders of theFuture of Music Coalition, to join a speciai meeting ofthe council to give us their perspective. McDonoughrecommended coexistence with infringing file sharers;he is on the front lines of where music is going, withbands using the Internet for self-promotion and expo-sure, but it has to be said that it's being driven thereby the massive theft made possible by digital files.

We defend copyright,

as writers to side

it's in our natare

the little guy.

Adler argued that the overwhelming use of Groksterfor infringement was unacceptable, and that weshould stand on the side of the plaintiffs because weshould be a part of the debatu u, it go"r forward. Andwe could do this in a brief that stressed our view ofcopyright as an individual protection, not a barrier tofair use thrown up by huge corporations.

Our own debate began at the meeting and contin-ued by e-mail. A vocal and articulate minority favoredjoining the case on the side of Grokster, saying that weshould not stand in the way of technological advancesthat promote the free flow of information. The major-ity, including me, favored joining publishers and otherfreelance groups on the side of the plaintiffs. The con-sensus was that a company ought not to be able to cre-ate a business that depends for its success on copyrightinfringement and not be held accountable for the in-fringement it helps make possible. But we also wantedto make it clear that we're not opposed to peer-to-peerfile sharing, only against a business based upon its il-legal uses.

Because of that strongly held concern, the brief wejoined as friends of the court included the statement,"Amici do not believe the courts should discouragetechnological innovations that provide legitimate pub-lic benefits, including innovations that facilitate thelawful sharing of information over the Internet." Itwent on to argue that as an enterprise knowingly de-signed to be used principally to facilitate infringement,

but

with

Authors uurttl buttetur|Il >1rnug ,uul

Continued on page 42

How to Get WhatYou Want from FOIABv MrcHerl Revrurrzrv

ontrary to popular belief, the Freedom of Infor-mation Act (FOIA), a federal law that requiresU.S. government agencies to release their

records, is neither difficult nor expensive to use. Youdon't need a special "form lettel" nor in most cases doyou need a lawyer. What you do need is persistence,and more often than not, patience. Despite the require-ment that FOIA requests be responded to within 20business days, many agencies take much longer. It'simportant that you file your requests as early as possi-ble, and follow up.

\zVho uses FOIA?

Any person or organization can file an FOIA request.Among writers, typical uses would include:

A historian wanting to review internal agencyrecords in order to document a topic or a series ofevents.

A biographer seeking to review her subject's FBIinvestigative records, military service record, Bureauof Prison records, or Social Security records. You canget the FBI files associated with any deceased person(a biographical entry or obituary will serve as proof ofdeath), or for a living person if you have their signed,notarized permission.

A nonfiction writer needing internal source doctr-ments or goverrunent technical data. Agencies like theDefense Technical InJormation Center (DTIC) havemillions of nonpublic reports on all sorts of subjects.

A novelist looking for background data to lendcolor to a manuscript.

FOIA applies to the hundreds of federal executivebranch agencies, boards and commissions (includingthe military). FOIA does not apply to Congress or itscomponent agencies, federal or state courts, or otherstate records. There are also certain federal offices(such as parts of the White House and the SmithsonianInstitution) that claim to be exempt from FOIA. Many

Michael Ravnitzky has filed more than 6,000 FOIA re-quests and more than 1,000 administrative appealsand declassification requests as a journalist, attorney,researcher and former engineer. He is in the process ofpublishing a website with FOIA how-to tips.

congressionally chartered agencies, such as the Gov-ernment Accountability Office (GAO) and the Libraryof Congress are not subject to FOIA but will neverthe-less supply records under their own records policies.

Federal and state courts are governed bv their ownrules: while courthouse records are usually accessibleunless they are sealed, winning access to a court's ad-ministrative (operational) records are more difficult be-cause the courts are not obliged to cooperate.

Though state-level records are not governed byFOIA, a writer can invoke a state public records poliryto request state records. Some states have more liberalrelease procedures than others; a few states mirror thefederal FOIA law. A good guide to the state access lawswas produced by the Reporters Committee for Free-dom of the Press and is posted online at: www.rcfp.org / cgi-local I tappingl index.cgi

A simple reference guide to FOIA is found on the]ustice Department website : www.usdoj. Bov I l{foia I04_3.html. The department's more detailed handbookon FOIA is located at: www.usdoj.gov/oip/foi-act.htm.

Not just paper documents

While the federal agencies have mountains of paper,they are increasingly keeping records you may want incomputer databases, computerized indexes, and evenin individual employee computers. FOIA applies tosuch diverse records as databases and other computerrecords and e-mail (but not personal e-mail unrelatedto government business), photographs, videotapesand films, maps, audiotapes, internal "intranet" webpages-you name it. Under the law, you can specifyyou'd prefer electronic records provided in electronicformat, such as on a disk or by e-mail. Agencies some-times attempt to print out large databases in paperform to rack up large duplication fees, when theycould simply supply an electronic copy at low cost.

Asking for records

Frequently the most difficult part of a FOIA request isdetermining the best office(s) to ask for records.Among the ways of determining which office(s) tocontact is to review a lost of FOIA contacts or a list ofagencies in a government organizational chart.

The Department of fustice has posted a web pagelisting FOIA Office contacts for many (but not all) agen-cies: www.usdoj.gov/O4foia/index.html. A separatepage identifies Department of Justice FOIA contacts:www.usdoj .gov I }Af.oiai 04-4.html. Nevertheless, thebest single guide to federal agencies is the Federal Yel-

Authors Guild Bullet in 3l Spri,rg zoos

Iout Book, found in most libraries, which contains con-tacts for nearly every agency.

The secret of successful FOIA requests is learninghow to negotiate successfully for records after the ini-tial submission of the request. Some of this must belearned through trial and error. Because of the narrow(sometimes hyper-technical) ways that agencies some-times interpret requests, that may mean framing a re-quest somewhat more broadly at the start to ensurethat important records are noimissed. Most agenciesencourage negotiation over the scope of a request, par-ticularly if it appears that the search, as originally de-scribed, may be burdensome or difficult for theagency. Some agencies with voluminous records, likethe FBI, have an FOIA negotiation team whose job isto help requesters pinpoint what they're looking for.

A FOIA request can be made by ordinary letter,which should include:

. contact information for the requester;r the specific records requested;. an agreement to pay fees up to a certain level($SO ls a good starting amount). Ask to be notifiedif the fee will exceed that amount, to protect your-self against an unexpectedly large charge.

The letter and envelope should both be labeled withthe phrase "Freedom of Information Act request."

The request should also state that the request is fornon-commercial purposes and indicate which of thefour fee categories the request falls into. For most writ-ers, the applicable fee category would be "all other re-questers" or else "representatives of the news media."However, agencies may improperly attempt to place awriter's request into the "commercial" fee category.

How to control the costs

There are four categories of user fees: commercial, sci-entific/educational institutions, news media, and allothers. Only commercial requesters are charged for"review" (the time the agency spends reviewing thematerial for release).

Under the fee category "all other requesters," thefirst two hours of search and the first 100 pages of du-plication are free, and you are not charged for reviewtime. The category "representatives of the news media"entitles you to a waiver of all search and review fees.

In a perfect system, the agencies would use com-mon sense to categorize requesters in the propercategory. HoweveD the Bush administration has accel-erated a disturbing prior trend by refusing to place re-questers in the correct, favorable fee category and usesthis route to deny practical access to records.

The fee category is critical because it determinesthe extent to which the agency can charge the re-quester fees. Fee categorization is a prime area foragency mischief: Agencies often provide excessive feeestimates (based on erroneous fee categories) to deterrequesters from pursuing their requests.

Because an agency that can charge virtually unlim-ited search or review fees can create an untenable pricetag for the requested records, Congress specified thatnoncommercial requesters were not to be chargedreview fees, and also, in some cases, search fees. Re-porters, editors, and public interest groups which pub-lish their work are harassed by agencies that refuse tocategorize them as news media representatives. Pri-vate individuals are placed into the commercial feecategory, despite clear evidence of noncommercialintent. Intransigent agencies have recognized that hos-tile fee categorization and fee waiver are the two easi-est ways to bar the doors to release of information.

Beware: Agencies that receive mostly "commer-cial" requests routinely charge "review" fees to non-commercial requesters in error, or mistakenly chargesearch fees for what is really review time; they willusually correct mistakes if you raise the matter withthem. The Justice Department discusses fees at lengthat wwwusdoj.gov I oip lfees.htm

Letters should be concise. Don't explain why youwant the material, only what you want. One page usu-ally suffices. Don't be overly specific; agencies areknown to use over-technical interpretations of thewording of the request letter to deny access.

Under FOIA, a requester is not obliged to explaineither in writing or verballv why they want therecords. Agencies frequently ask the reason for the re-quest either because staff is curious or because theywant to help narrow or clarify the request, but there isno obligation to explain the reason for the request. Oneexception is when the request is made in order for theagency to decide the proper fee category or justify a

fee waiver.It's always useful to call the agency after sending a

request in order to confirm receipt of the request, ob-tain the agency's assigned case-tracking numbeL andget an estimate of the response time. Sometimes youcan even get a reality check on the prospects, cost orschedule for your request from a helpful staff person.

Getting a fee waiver

In addition to seeking a favorable fee category, re-questers can also ask for a fee waiver. Agencies use sixcriteria to determine whether or not to grant a fee

Autlrcrs Gttiltj Builetitr|E sprn,g zous

Continued on page 49

FOIA's New LimitsSince 9 / IIBv Kav Munnav

he Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) waspassed by Congress in 1966 to guarantee Amer-icans broad access to information about how

their government operates.FOIA says that any member of the public who re-

quests and "reasonably describes" records in the pos-session of the federal government has the right to getthem promptly.

Nine categories of documents are exempt fromFOIA. Among them are classified material, records re-lated solely to the agency's internal personnel rulesand practices, information compiled for law enforce-ment purposes, private entities' trade secrets/ person-nel and medical files, information that would beprivileged in a lawsuit, such as attorney-client com-munications, and records relating to supen'ision of fi-nancial institutions. If information does not fall intoone of the exempted categories, the law requires dis-closure.

But since September 2001, the Bush administrationhas acted aggressively to reduce compliance withFOIA. It has expanded the authority of agencies todeem documents "sensitive but unclassified" for na-tional security reasons, and encouraged agency headsto come up with "creative" ways to classify a docu-ment. By some accounts, the number of documentsdeemed "sensitive" or classified-and thus not pro-ducible-has increased twofold as a result.

On October 72,2001., the administration reversed a

1993 directive of then-Attorney Ceneral |anet Renothat agencies should presume information requestedshould be disclosed unless an agency could foreseespecific harm to the interest protected by an exemp-tion. Then-Attomey General John Ashcroft wrote to allgovernment agencies that the Justice Departmentwould defend their exemption claims unless "theylack a sound legal basis." He also encouraged agenciesto consider "other interests" before deciding whetherto disclose information under FOIA.

As the Department of Homeland Security was be-ing set up in 2002, the administration prevailed onCongress to pass two new, broad exempt categories.One covers information voluntarily provided to the

Kay Murray is the assistant director and general coun-sel of the Authors Guild. A version of this article origi-nally appeared in Poets & Writers Magazine.

federal government by a private party that relates tothe security of "vital infrastructure," without specify-ing what constitutes a vulnerability to infrastructure.In the words of a Heritage Foundation commentator,the loophole thus created can be manipulated by bothgovernment and private parties to shield "endless va-rieties of potentially embarrassing [and/or] criminalinformation from public view."

As well, the administration encouraged agencies toslow down the disclosure process by repeatedly deny-ing fee waiver requests by established journalists andresearch groups.

ln a March 2002 memo, the White House instructedagencies to withhold from FOIA disclosure anyrecords about "weapons of mass destruction," "otherinformation that could be misused to harm the secu-rity of our Nation and the safety of our people," and"sensitive but unclassified information . . . related toAmerica's homeland security." The memo did not de-fine these terms. FOIA has no such exemptions, so theWhite House memo encouraged the agencies to claimthat such records fall under the exemption for the in-temal personnel rules and practices of an agency.

In 2003, the administration created a new FOIA ex-emption to cover all National Security Agency "opera-tional files." The rationale for this exemption was not

Continued on page 50

Libel Continues to Go GlobalPublishing in the U.S. might lead to liability inforeign lands with far less favorable free speechprotections if the publisher has a website. An On-tario court has ruled, in Bangoura a. WashingtonPost, that a Canadian citizen can maintain a libelsuit in Toronto against the Washington Post basedon the online accessibility of the newspaper toOntario residents. The plaintiff, a former UnitedNations employee, had sued over two articles al-leging various improprieties while he was an of-ficer of the U.N.'s drug control program in WestAfrica. The parties to the suit argued the case be-fore an appellate court in early March. A consor-tium of U.S. and Canadian publishers is opposingthe lower court's ruling.

ht 2002, Australia's High Court ruled that a

mining magnate could bring a suit against Dow]ones & Co. for an article appearing in the onlineedition of Barron's. Dow Jones settled that suitlast fall for more than $400,000. Canadian andAustralian libel laws are much more favorable toplaintiffs than U.S. law.

Autlnrs Gtitd BulletinZ spring zoos

CENSORSHIP WATCHColorado School Superintendent Bans Classic AnayaNovel. Norwood, Colorado School SuperintendentBob Conder has banned Guild member Rudolfo Ana-ya's award-winning 1972work Bless Me, Ultirna, fromNorwood High School, though he admitted he didn'tread the entire book. In response to a complaint fromone parent, Conder, who has not banned any otherwork in his six-year tenure, gave more than two dozencopies of the novel to the parent to destroy. Conder'sreasoning: "It's less a matter of censorship than a mat-ter of sponsorship. That's not the kind of garbage Iwant to sponsor at this high school." Anaya's coming-of-age novel includes profanity and features a charac-ter that uses herbs and magic to heal. Conder saidsome parents were offended by its "obscene languageand paganistic practices." The teacher who orderedthe book wrote a letter apologizing to parents. Anaya,who has been called the father of Chicano literatureand is an emeritus English professor at the Universityof New Mexico, suggests that people read the book be-fore condemning it. As of this writing, the book ranked1,109 at Barnesandnoble.com.

Bad Buster. In January, new Education Secretary Mar-garet Spellings reprimanded the Public BroadcastingSystem over the content of an episode of Postcards fromBuster, a children's travel show partly funded by thefederal government through a Department of Educa-tion grant. Each episode features Buster, an animatedrabbit, visiting real life communities around the worldto learn about diverse cultures and people. The episodethat offended Secretary Spellings and others featureda visit to Vermont to learn about maple sugar farming,where Buster meets two families headed by same-sexcouples (who are never identified as such), among oth-ers. Spellings complained that the federal governmentdid not intend its support of Buster to be used "to in-troduce this kind of subject matter to children" andasked that PBS either pull the show or remove theDepartment of Education logo and refund the grantmoney spent to produce the episode. PBS decided notto distribute the episode to its 349 stations, though itclaimed the secretary's objections were not a factor inits decision. Pat Mitchell, head of PBS, ordered an in-ternal review of the events leading to the controversy.WGBH of Bostory which produces the show, said it willrun the episode and many other local PBS stations alsointend to broadcast it. The DOE's grant to PBS expiresinAugust.

Journalists in Peril. 2004 was the deadliest year forjournalists in a decade. At least 56 iournalists and 17

media employees were killed doing their jobs last year.The International Federation of ]ournalists puts thefigure at1.20. At least 26 of the deaths occurred in Iraq,,and 11 in the Philippines. The majority of victims werenot killed in war zones but appear to have been mur-dered by the targets of their investigative reporting,according to the Committee to Protect |ournalists.

Journalism in Peril. According to a survey by theUniversity of Connecticut, more than one in three highschool students in the U.S. believe newspapers shouldget government approval before publishing stories.Fifty-one percent believe the press should be allowedto publish freely. Thirteen percent registered "no opin-ion." The Supreme Court considers government pre-approval of news stories an unconstitutional priorrestraint on free speech. The same survey reports that32 percent of students think the press has too muchfreedom, 37 percent say the press has the right amountand 10 percent say it has too little.

Indecency Will Cost More. In February, the House ofRepresentatives voted 389-98 to increase by more thantenfold the fines the FCC can levy on TV and radio sta-tions that broadcast "indecent" material between 6a.m. and 10 p.m. The current maximum fine of $32,500per indecent incident would rise to $500,000 under theHouse bill. A Senate version would raise the maxi-mum penalty to $325,000 per incident. Network affili-ates would be spared if they were unaware thatindecent programming would be broadcast; networkbroadcasters can get a separate fine for each station itowns. The Associated Press reports that outgoing FCCchairman Michael Powell and his four fellow com-missioners-two Republicans and two Democrats-strongly support the harsher penalties. "Indecency" isdefined by statute as including references to sexualand excretory functions, but not all such references areindecent. The FCC considers the context and decideswhether a reference is indecent. It does not make pre-broadcast determinations, so networks must decidefor themselves whether to air questionable material.

Fear of Fines. Last fall, citing their anxiety over FCCfines, 66 out of 291 ABC affiliates chose not to airSaaing Prittate Ryan on Veterans Day. Following the in-famous |anet fackson incident in2004, the NFL hiredSir Paul McCartney to star in its 2005 Super Bowl half-time show and required him to submit his proposedplaylist, including "every single word" of the lyrics,for pre-approval. A league spokesperson pointed outthat it did approve the former Beatle's songs and that

Attthttrs Gtrilrl Bulletbt|El S1,ri,rg 2005

"[n]ot a single word was changed." In February, PBS

decided to alter its procedure for distributing to its af-filiates an episode of Frontline called "A Company ofSoldiers," which documents the experiences of U.S.soldiers currently serving in Iraq. Against the protestsof the show's producers, PBS cited FCC indecencyrules and deleted the soldiers' expletives in the versionit fed to most affiliates. It also advised those affiliatesthat chose to run the uncensored version that it couldnot defend them against FCC-imposed penalties.

Political Cortectness circa 2005. The South Bend,Indiana, Tribune reports that the Republican NationalCommittee's deputy general counsel wrote to local tel-evision stations demanding that they not air a TV adsponsored by Moveon.org because of a statement itmakes about President Bush's Social Security plan.Calling the spot a "false advertisement" and pointingout that the stations are "FCC licensee[s]," the RNClawyer's letter goes on to "place [the stations] on no-tice that the information" in the Moveon.org ad "isfalse and misleading." A year ago, the RNC wrote to250 local station managers also reminding them of theirFCC licenses and again putting them "on notice," thistime claiming that a different ad buy by Moveon.orgwas "illegally financed," and once again demandingthey not run it. A local station manager interviewed bythe South Bend Tribune acknowledged the "threaten-in6;" tone of the recent letteq, but others claimed to beunafraid to air the spot-if their investigations showthat the challenged statement is "accurate."

Tioubling Trend? In November, Maryland GovernorRobert L. Ehrlich, Jr., ordered all state employees "in theExecutive Department or Agencies" not to speak to tworeporters for the Baltimore Sun, saying that the Sun'sState House bureau chief David Nitkin and columnistMichael Olesker had "fail[ed] to objectively repor/' on hisadministration. The Sun's subsequent lawsuit against thegovernor to gain access to state employees was thrownout of court in February by Judge William Quarles, whowrote that the press was seeking "a privileged status be-yond the right of a public citizen," which the SupremeCourt hasn't recognized. In an editorial, the Sun vowedto continue covering state govemment aggressively andto appeal the ruling, arguing that this is a "clear case of agovernment official retaliating against people basedon what they write and say," and that it is only seekingthe same access to state officials that any ordinary citizenwould have. In February, Mayor George M. McKelvey ofYoungstowry Ohio banned city employees from speak-ing to the reporters of the Business |ournal, a twice-monthly local newspapeq, implying that the paper was"r.rntrustworthy."

Update on the "Trading with the Enemy" lawsuit.In the Winter Bulletin, we reported on the lawsuitbrought by several publishers and Iranian Nobel Peace

Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi against the U.S. TreasuryDepartment's Office of Foreign Assets Control over itsrestrictions on editing and publishing works by au-thors from sanctioned nations such as Cuba, Iran andSudan. Not only did the regulations violate the FirstAmendment and the Trading with the Enemy Act it-self, according to the suit; they were also counterpro-ductive because they prevented even the works ofdissidents in the sanctioned nations from being pub-lished here. In December, in response to the lawsuit,OFAC announced it had rewritten its regulations toexplicitly permit Americans to engage in "all the trans-actions necessary and ordinarily incident to the pub-lishing and marketing of manuscripts, books, journals,and newspapers in paper or electronic format." Ac-cording to the publishers' lawyers, American publish-ers and authors may now substantively edit andmarket written works, collaborate with authors fromsanctioned nations, and pay advances and royaltiesto them.

-Kay Murray

Preliminary Approval for$18 Million Freelance Settlement

At long last, the many parties to the class action suitbrought in 2000 by freelance writers and by the Guild,the ASJA and the NWU have reached a settlement. Aswe go to press, the settlement, which is worth up to $ 18

million, has received preliminary approval from Judge

George M. Daniels of the Southern District of NewYork. We believe the settlement is the largest ever on be-

half of freelance writers. The suit was brought againstthe major online news databases for unauthorized digi-tal use of freelance articles.

Our special thanks to the Guild members who have

been acting as class representatives in this case: DerrickBell, Lynn Brenner. E.L. Doctorow, James Gleick,Ronald Hayman, Robert Lacey, Leny Cottin Pogrebin,Donald Spoto, Robley Wilson and Marie Winn.

We' ve created a website, www. freelancerights.com,to keep writers up to date on the settlement. We encour-

age members to sign up for the free newsletter at thatsite for news on when (assuming the settlement receives

final approval) writers can file claims.

We'll be writing more about the suit and the

settlement in our summer issue.

Authors Guild BultetinE sprirg zoos

RememberirgEhzabeth ]anewayBy NellrE Bnroce

lizabeth Janeway,respected author,critic and feminist,

Eliznbeth laneiL,aq

died January 15 at theage of 91. Janeway wasthe author of three nov-els, T/rc' Wnlslt Cirls, DnisyKenyon and The Questiortof Gragory, and of the in-flnential Mnn's World-Womatr's Plnce, whichappeared in 1977, as thewomen's movement wasgathering strength. Sheserved as president of the

Authors Guild from 7965-7969, and was dedicated topreserving the rights and independence of authors.

Janeway understood well the role of an advocacyorganization in preserving writers' rights. "Writers areloners," she wrote in her first Bulletin address as pres-ident. "Even those who work in collaboration i/rinkseparately. And God bless the work. But once the workis done, r,r'riters lose nothing of their independerrce ifthey band together to establish standards, and to pro-tect their rights, in our enormolrs and complicated so-ciety. In fact, it is the only way that they can protectthat independence."

She worked tirelessly as Guild president. HerbertMitgang, who served as vice president during Jane-way's presidency, said that he "had very little to do,because she was so hard-working. She showed up atthe office almost every day to write letters to . . . mem-bers and to remind thern of the n'ork that we did."

She reached out to groups that she saw as "naturalallies" and spoke frankly on contentious issues ofcopvright and the then still-developirrg problem ofphotocopying. Speaking at a conference of college li-brariarrs in 1966, Janeway explained why manv au-thors preferred a life-plus-50 copvright term to thesingle fixed term of copyright that many librariansthen favored. She looked aheacl to "the library of thefuture," which, she said, "seems tobe pretlicate'd on theidea of publishing or copying what a reacler wants of

Nellie Bridge is an Authors Guild staff member.

a work and selling it to him." If users of literary works"are willing to pay for photocopying the words theywant, they ought to be willing to pay a royalty for thewords too. You know about throwing the baby outwith the bathwater. This is like paying for the bath,and the water in it, but demanding the baby free ofcharge. Ii our work is important enough to be used, it'simportant enough to be paid for."

Jarreway was also devoted to the growth of theGuild, and established a "Committee on the 1980s.""A half-dozen of us would meet to talk about the fu-ture of the Ar-rthors Cuild," recalled Mitgang. "It waslargely Elizabeth who expanded the role of the Guildto include members all over the country. She was awonderful person to work with and totally dedicatedto the Guild. Those of us who worked with her, includ-ing me, will always remember her dedication."

In addition to her work vvith the Guild, Janewayserved the writing communitv as a member of theexecutive board of PEN, as a judge of both the Na-tional Book Awards and the Pulitzer Prizes, and as alongtime member of the board of directors at theMacDowell Colony.

Janer,r'ay was also a founding member of the Au-thors Cuild Foundation. Sidney Offit, current AuthorsGuilcl Foundation president, remembers her as "oneof the people who welcomed me so graciously when Ifirst became a member of the Guild, and later, of theGuild council, introducing me to John Hersey, JohnGurrther and Jean Stafford. She made me feel asthough I was entering a family." *

Registry Seeks AuthorsDue $100,000

The Authors Registry, the not-for-profit clearing-house that has paid out more than $3.5 million inphotocopying and electronic rights permissionfees to writers, announced on March 8th that it isseeking help in locating about 300 writers owedmore than $100,000 in rovalties. The Registry hasbeen unable to locate some of these authors; oth-ers have failed to respond to mailings concerningthese payments. The list of writers is available atwwr.v.authorsregistry.org.

The Authors Registry is supported by the Au-thors Guild and was founded by the Guild, theAmerican Society of Journalists and Authors andthe Association of Authors' Representatives. Au-thors Cuild members are automatically listed inthe Registry's database, which does not makecontact information public without permission.

Arttlrors Grrittl Brrlletirt|@ s1r'iug ztlos

A WhitewashedEarthseaHow the Sci Fi ChannelWrecked My Books

Bv Unsule K. Lr Guru

This piece originally appeared on Slate on Decernber 16,2004 and is reprinted zuith permission of the author antlof Slate.

n December 14 ihe Sci Fi Channel aired its fi-nal installment of Legend of Eartlnea, the minis-eries based-loosely, as it turns out-on my

Earthsea books. The books, A Wizard of Earthsen andThe Tombs of Atuan, which were published more than30 years ago, are about two young people finding outwhat their powet their freedom, and their responsibil-ities are. I don't know what the film is about. It's fullof scenes from the story, arranged differently, in an en-tirely different plot, so that they make no sense. Myprotagonist is Ged, a boy with red-brown skin. In thefilm, he's a petulant white kid. Readers who've beenwondering why I "let them change the story" may findsome answers here.

When I sold the rights to Earthsea a few years ago,my contract gave me the standard status of "consult-ant"-which means whatever the producers want itto mean, almost always little or nothing. My agencycould not improve this clause. But the purchaserstalked as though they genuinely meant to respect thebooks and to ask for my input when planning the film.They said they had already secured Philippa Boyens(who co-wrote the scripts for The Lord of the Rlngs) asprincipal scriptwriter. The script was, to me, all-impor-tant, so Boyens's presence was the key factor in my de-cision to sell this group the option to the film rights.

Months went by. By the time the producers gotbacking from the Sci Fi Channel for a miniseries-and another producer, Robert Halmi, Sr., had comeaboard-they had lost Boyens. That was a blow. But Ihad just seen Halmi's miniseries DrenmKeeper, which

Ursula K. Le Guin is the author of the Earthsea seriesand many other books. Her most recent book is Grfis.She has been a member of the Guild since 1972. Slatearticle reprinted by permission of United FeaturesSyndicate, Inc. O2005 Washingtonpost.NewsweekInteractive Co. LLC. All rights reserved.

First U. S. Edition, Parnasstts Press,1968

had a stunning Native American cast, and I hoped thatHalmi might include some of those great actors inEarthsea.

At this point, things began to move very fast. Earlyon, the filmmakers contacted me in a friendly fashion,and I responded in kind; I asked if they'd like to havea list of name pronunciations; and I said that althoughI knerv that a film must differ greatly from a book, Ihoped they were making no unnecessnnT changes in theplot or to the characters-a dangerous thing to do,since the books have been known to millions of peo-ple for decades. They replied that the TV audience ismuch largel, and entirely different, and would be un-likely to care about changes to the books' story andcharacters.

They then sent me several versions of the script-and told me that shooting had already begun. I hadbeen cut out of the process. And jtrst as qr-rickly, race,which had been a crucial element, had been cut out ofmy stories. In the miniseries, Danny Glover is the only

a wtzaRo o[ eapths€a

UpSLtl.\ k. [g ('iUlll iRr\\'t)es ri\ Rutlr RL)titin)s

Authors Guiltl Bullctin E spri,,g:oos

Continued on page 43

Keepirg Faith withSteinbeckThe Campaign to Keep

S alinas's Libr aries Open

By Prrgn HaNNRroRo

ff-fhe National Steinbeck Center straddles one end

I of Main Street in Salinas, California. All steelI and glass, it is the biggest thing in sight, looking

out over several blocks of neatly restored late 19th andearly 20th century buildings housing restaurants,stores and businesses. The center celebrates the lifeand times of the biggest man in Salinas's history, fohnSteinbeck, author of The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice andMcn and Carmery Rozu, and the 1962 Nobel Laureate inLiterature.

A few blocks away is the Steinbeck Library, one ofthree pubic libraries in this agricultural comrnunity of150,000. Another is named for Cesar Chavez, thefounder of the United Farm Workers. In December,facing an $8 million budget shortfall caused in part bythe California state government's habit of dipping intocounty and city funds to pay its own bills (a state bal-Iot issue passed last Novernber will halt this practice,but its effects won't be seen until the beginning ofFiscal Year 2008), the Salinas City Council voted toclose the city's libraries.

"The Council faced a very painful set of decisions,"said Salinas Mayor Anna Caballero, who presidedover the City Council vote to close the libraries lastDecember. "But it came down to a choice betweenrnaking these cuts or allowing the city to go bankrupt."

The libraries' annual budget of $3.2 million madeit the largest of several programs the council wasforced to cut in order to balance its budget for the fis-cal year that begins fuly 1. Other cuts included closingrecreation centers, eliminating several senior policepositions and reducing street and tree maintenance.

Such draconian remedies are becoming increas-ingly common around the country. The New YorkTimes reported recently that, "According to an Aprilstudy by the American Library Association, Iibrariesin 41 states absorbed more than $50 million in financ-

Peter Hannaford is a member of the Authors Guild.His latest book is Rttnsld Reagan and His Ranch: TheWestern Wtite House, 1981-89.

The 1939 first cditiott of The Grapes of Wrath (Vikittg).

ing cuts in the last year, and more than 1,100 librarieshave reduced operating hours or trimmed their staffs."

Even as library use soars-the ALA says nationalcirculation now exceeds a billion items a year-libraries often find themselves forced to choose be-tween investing in and maintaining the new technol-ogy demanded by library users/ and buying books. It'sa no-win situation for communities; it's also very badnews for writers, for many of whom library sales are anrajor source of income.

"Libraries are reducing their hours, cutting staff orclosing their doors," says the ALA, "drastic measuresthat were not taken even during the Great Depres-sion." Two years ago, the ALA launched a nationalcampaign to help local communities raise money tooffset library cuts.

On February 3, two months after the vote on thebudget, Mayor Caballero held a news conference atthe Steinbeck Center to announce the city's own home-

feffi

Anthors Gttild Bulletirr@ sprirrg zoos

Continued on page 47

LEGAL WATCHReporters Miller and Cooper Remain inContempt for Refusing to Name Sources

In re: Grand lury Subpoena,lttdith MillerU.S. Court of Appeals, District of Coluntbia Circuit

Jn a strongly-worded opinion, the appellate courtIoverseeing the government's investigation of theValerie Plame leak ruled unanimously in February thatNew York Times reporter Judith Miller and TimeMagazine reporter Matthew Cooper have no right orprivilege to withhold the identity of their confidentialsources from a grand jury. Unless the decision is re-versed by the entire panel of judges of the D.C. Circuitor by the U.S. Supreme Court, the two must tell thegrand jury who gave them information on the under-standing their identity would be protected. If they donot disclose their sources, as both have ir,dicated theywill not do, Miller and Cooper face up to 18 months infederal prison for contempt of court.

The case arose after President Bush's 2003 State ofthe Union address, in which he said: "The British gov-ernment has learned that Saddam Hussein recentlysought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."Questions about the accuracy of that statement led tothe publication of a New York Times editorial byJoseph Wilson in ]uly 2003, in which the authorclaimed he had been sent by the CIA to Africa to inves-tigate whether Iraq had tried to purchase uraniumfrom Niger, and reported back that the allegationhad no credible support. Eight days later, syndicatedcolumnist Robert Novak wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times that "two senior administration officials" toldhim the selection of Wilson to send to Africa had beenmade at the suggestion of Valerie Plame, Wilson'swife, whom Novak called a CIA operative "onweapons of mass destruction." Later media accountssaid "two top White House officials" had told severalother reporters the same thing about Plame.

Wilson publicly accused the White House officialsinvolved of trying to punish him by publicizing hiswife's secret occupation, and questions arose as towhether those officials had broken the law by disclos-ing the identity of a covert agent. The Justice Depart-ment began an investigation into the leak andappointed Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney for theNorthern District of Illinois, to investigate and prose-cute, if necessary. A grand jury was convened in Janu-ary 2004.It issued several subpoenas to Miller, Cooperand Time Magazine that requested both documents(such as notes, emails, and recordings) and testimony

that would have identified their confidential sources.The two reporters and the magazine moved to quashthe subpoenas.

Cooper and Time lost their motiorrs to quash, re-fused to comply, and were held in contempt of court.Before their appeals could be heard, one of Cooper'ssources agreed to allow him and Time to comply. Onlythen did he testify and provide documents, which ledto those appeals being dropped. Thereafter, new sub-poenas, broader in scope than the first, were issued to

If the reporters do not disclose their

sources, as they have said they will not do,

they face up to 18 months in prisort.

Cooper and Time. Similar subpoenas were issued toMiller. who has never written about the relevantevents but who had apparently talked with confiden-tial sources about it. Both reoorters and Time movedto quash these subpoenas, lost their motions, and wereheld in contempt for refusing to comply.

In their appeals to the D.C. Circuit, the reporters ar-gued that the First Amendment guarantee of freedomof the press and federal common law protect their con-fidential sources from disclosure. The appellate courtdisagreed. The court wrote that the Supreme Courtruled in similar circumstances in1972 that neither theConstitution nor common law allows a reoorter towithholcl a source's identity in a grand jury ii-rvestiga-tion. Because all courts must defer to the SupremeCourt, the D.C. Circuit concluded that its hands aretied; it could not rule otherwise.

The 7972 Supreme Court decision, Brnnzburg u.

Hayes, involved reporters who had investigated andreported on possible criminal activity and who werelater subpoenaed to disclose the identity of theirsources to grand juries. By a 5 to 4 majority, the Su-preme Court rejected the reporters' claims oi privilege.Although it recognized certain privileges of confiden-tiality, such as for communications between lawyerand client, doctor and patient, and spouses, the Courtexpressly refused to create a new privilege for re-porters. In doing so, it made a policy decision that "the

Attthors Guild BulletitrE S1,rirg zoos

public interest in possible future news about crimefrom undisclosed ... sources.... [does not ] take prece-clence over the public interest in pursuing ... thosecrimes reported to the press by informants ... thus de-terring the commission of such crimes in the future."It recognized no distinction between news reportersarrd ordinary citizens when it comes to giving evi-dence to grand juries.

The D.C. Circuit court concluded "there is no ma-terial factual distinction" between that 33 year-old caseand this one. The fact that since Brnruz&lrg was de-cided, the Watergate. Lewinsky and Abu Ghraib scan-dals have been brought to light by confidentialinformants, and the fact that more than 30 states havesince passed laws that allow reporters to withhold theidentities and information of confidential sources, didnot signify to this court. There is as yet no federal lawprotecting reporters'confidences, although such a billhas been introduced in Congress because of this case.

So for now Matthew Cooper and Judith Miller arethe only people facing jail time because of the outingof Valerie Plame.

- Kav Mw'rau

California Supreme Court Hands thePress a "Truth Shield" AgainstPrivacy Suits

Stettc Gntes t,. Discoperrl Comntuniccttiotts, Ittc,Sttprenta Court ttf Cnlifornia

l\ 7funy writers operate under the assumption thatIYltruthiul reporting automatically shields themfrom lawsuits by the subjects of iheir stories, and thisis generally true with regard to defamation claims.When it cornes to invasion of privacy complaints,however, the law is murkier.

The'California Supreme Court recently cleared uprnuch of the confusion in its state when it dismissed aninvasion of privacy suit brought against DiscoveryCommunications, Inc. by an ex-convict, basing its de-cision on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows pub-lication-in most cases-of any information availablein the public record.

In 2001, Discovery Communications aired an ac-count of a 1988 murder-for-hire scheme in which theplaintiff- Steven Gates, was involved. Gates served athree-year prison term after pleading guilty to beingan accessorv after the fact.

Gates sued Discovery, alleging that he had led anobscure, productive and law-abiding life since his re-lease irom prison, and that Discovery's program had

defamed him by falsely depicting him as participatingin a telephone wiretap to develop evidence, as well as

falselv suggesting that he was a self-coufessed mur-derer. He also asserted an invasion of privacy claim,saying he was damaged by Discovery's broadcast ofhis photograph and its on-air revelation that he hadpleaded guilty.

Discovery moved to dismiss both causes of action,and filed an anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit AgainstPublic Participation) motion to quickly dispose of thesuit. (Califorrria is one of 23 states that have anti-SLAPPstatutes to deter lawsuits brought primarily to chill thevalid exercise of free speech. These laws enable a de-fendant to have such lawsuits quickly dismissed.)

Although the trial court dismissed Gates' defama-tion claim, it sustained the invasion of privacy action,stating that in California, there is "no authority whichprecludes civil liability for the truthful publication ofprivate facts, regardless of whether the infonnationpublished is actually deemed newsworthy." In fact, a7972 California Supreme Court decision held a pub-lisher liable for invasion of privacy for what it calledthe "reckless, offensive, injurious publication of true,but not newsworthv informatiorr concerning the crim-inal past of a rehabilitated convict." The court also de-

Legal Services ScorecarH

From November 10 through February lO, zOO+,

the Authors Guild Legal Service Departrrlent han-I

dled262legal inquiries. Included were: I

32 book contract reviews

8 agency confract reviews

15 payment problems

17 reversion of rights inquiries

27 copyright inquiries, including ffiinge-ment, registration, duration and fair use

14 inquiries regarding securing permissionsand privacy releases

7 First Amendment inquires I

142 other inquiries (for example, estites, con-tract disputes, periodical and m{timediacontracts, movie and television @tions,Internet piracy, liability insurancb, find-ing an agent, and attorney referrfls)

Authors Guiltl Bulletin|E Spri,,o 2tltl5

Corrtinued ort page 44

AUTHORS GUILD FOUNDATION SYMPOSIUM

Strange Bedfellows: The Rewardsand Pitfalls of Collaboration

How collaborative projects are born, thrive, and sometimes unravel, was the subject ofan Authors Guild and Authors Guild Foundation-sponsored discussion at ScandinaviaHouse in New York November 11, 2004. The panelists were Lawrence Malkiry a formerforeign correspondent who has collaborated on books with Paul Volcker, former chair-man of the Federal Reserve, Anatoly Dobrynin, former Soviet ambassador to Wash-ington, Markus Wolf, former East German spymaster, and Stuart Eizenstat, U.S.Undersecretary of State in the Clinton Administration; Laura Morton, who has written18 books with celebrities, including foan Lundery Diahann Carroll, Melissa Etheridge,Jerry Springer and most recently, with Ed and Lois Smart, the parents of ElizabethSmart, Bringing Elizabeth Home. Peter Petre, a senior editor at large at Fortune, who wasco-author with former IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson of Father Son and Conryany: MyLife at IBM nnd Beyond, and with General H. Norman Schwarzkopf of It Doesn't Take a

Hero, and Sarah Wernick, who specializes in medical collaborations, and has had threebestsellers: Strong Women Statl Young, Strong Women Say Slim, and Strong Wonten, StrongBones. The evening was moderated by Guild President Nick Taylor, co-author with fohnGlenn of lolur Glenn: AMemoir.

NICK TAYLOR: I want to start by asking each panelmember how they became involved with collaborationas opposed to writing solo. Larry?

LAWRENCE MALKIN: My first collaboration waswith Paul Volcker on his memoir of the postwar inter-national monetary system, which doesn't sound like abestseller, but it did sell about 25,000 copies. I knewhim from the Nixon administration, when he was thepoint man for devaluing the dollar and I was the na-tional economics correspondent for Time magazine inWashington. Later I also knew him as chairman of theFederal Reserve. He was giving a rather ramblingseminar at the Woodrow Wilson School in Princeton,his alma mater, and he called me up and said heneeded help to turn it into a book because he was notgood at editing his own copy-which turned out to beexcessive modesty, because he's very good at it. But hisself-awareness was both admirable and rare for suchpeople. I attended the seminars and I made sure thateverything was taped, typed and transcribed onto a

computer disk, which is very important for productiv-ity. You couldn't do this kind of collaboration quite as

easily if you had to do it all by hand. The economicsmight make it prohibitive.

Earliet we were all talking about how to persuadepeople to say things they don't want to, especiallypublic men. I noticed that when I'd ask Paul to includethis or that subject, he would often wave me away. Buthe would answer any question posed by a student, nomatter how irrelevant, with great clarity and grace. Itwas just his nature. So I planted my questions with thestudents.

My job was to organize all this into coherent drap-ters and-this is harder than it sounds-put it intostraightforward language. I think it takes some of thetechniques of poetry to catch sentence rhythms, be-cause we don't really speak prose, we speak dialogue.Paul took what I drafted, then redid it, with great skill.It was as if I had constructed a fine wooden chest andthen watched a master craftsman carve the design onthe face of it. When drose people at the Fed doubletalkCongress-or talk what they call "Fedspeak"-it's onpurpose, believe me.

TAYLOR: Laura, how about you? You've had an ex-

Authors GLrLt(l buttetutGl ,prrng trw

tremely active career and gone from one celebrity tothe next. I think a lot of writers would envv vou forthat...ormaybenot.

LAURA MORTON: It all depends on your perspec-tive. I've always worked with celebrities. I'm the girlthat brought you Richard Simmons. I pioneered thecelebrity exercise video market. So I've always workedin the entertainment business around celebrities, cre-ating niche product for the marketplace. That's how Imet ]oan Lunden. I had produced her exercise video,called "Work Out America," and we became friends.Like any project, when you work with someone, youforge very interesting relationships. Post-production,Joan and I had dinner one night. She had just gonethrough her divorce, she had just lost 50 pounds, shelooked amazing. She was starting to date again, and Ithought that she spoke to a very large percentage ofthe population. And she had 20 million viewers aweek. I thought it would be a great idea to write a

book. I came up with the idea of writing a cookbookbecause it complemented the exercise video. My mindworks very much from a marketing standpoint. Andwhen we told her lawyer that |oan wanted to write acookbook, he started laughing because |oan doesn'tcook. But I convinced him that America believed shecooked because every morning she was with Wolf-

gang Puck in the kitchen of Good Mornitlg America.Whether Joan cooks at home or not didn't leally mat-ter. I felt that there was a market for it.

It was a tough sell to the lawyer. It was an eventougher sell to her agent at William Morris. I ended upshopping the book proposal myself, without represen-tation. When I ended up getting a $350,000 offer fromone of the publishing houses, that's whe4 everyonestarted taking it seriously. At that point, her lawyerstepped up and said, You know, I've got an agent. Hejust sold Diana Ross's book. I think maybe:we shouldtalk to this agent. We ended up selling that first bookfor about $750,000. Having never written a book be-fore, it was a quick learning experience., And Joantaught me one thing: You always say yes and figureout how to do it later. That book was on The New YorkTimes Best Sellers list for, I think, 7'L or 1.2 weeks,

TAYLOR: Had you done any writing in your televi-sion production career before you started? '

MORTON: I was a frustrated producer qho wouldpay writers for scripts and end up reworking them.They were never exactly what I wanted. At theeleventh hour, I was reworking everything. People askme all the time if I've always had an interest in writ-ing. I guess I did have some interest in it bqt I always

Panelists Peter Petre, Latttrenca Malkitr, Snrnh Wernick, ntoderntor andAuthors Cuild presitlent Nick Tnylor, and patdist Laura Morton

Atillnrs Guild BuLletinl@ sprirg zotls

say to my clients,I'm an OK writel but what I do bet-ter than most is capture the voice of the person I'mworking with. As Lawrence said, we write in dialoguewe don't write in prose. I think capturing the voice isthe essence of a true collaboration.

TAYLOR: Peter, what about you? Of course, you'llwant to tell us at some point how you went from TomWatson and the miracle of IBM to General Schwarz-kopf and the Gulf War.

PETER PETRE: It seemed like the thing to do at thetime. The obvious point about collaboration is that it'svery different from what most writers do, and it takesa certain kind of writer to do it and a certain kind ofwriter to love it. The way collaboration came into mylife was over a plate of sushi. I was eating lunch withthe then executive editor of Fortune and I was the per-son on the computer beat. He mentioned in passingthat Tom Watson, Jr. had been by a year before to see

the managing editor of the magazine. And I said, Oh,what's he want? He said, Well, he wanted to work onabook. And I said, Oh.

Tom Watson was the man who took IBM, whichwas a punch card company, and put it into the com-puter business. If you remember when computers tookover the national imagination, in the'60s and '70s, thatwas Tom Watson's work. So I said, Gee, what did yousay to him? He said, I think the editor told him that wewere in the magazine business and not in the bookbusiness and to come back when he was finished withthis book. And I said, If he ever does come back couldyou please let me know. Sure enough, about a monthlater he did come back. He had been terribly crushedthe first time around, but we had changed managingeditors since then. And the new managing editor,Marshall Loeb, had a real sense of marketing. So Ifound myself in a room with Marshall and Tom Wat-son. I had a terrible case of the flu, and I kept my dis-tance. So Marshall said, Well, we're in the magazinebusiness and not in the book business, but if youwould agree to write a magazine article for us, I willgive you a writer to work with. And there I was. So

that was how I made my connection with Tom. And heand I clicked. We did an article together which was acover story in the magazine. There was never anyquestion that there would be a book there.

TAYLOR: So serendipity had a lot to do with it.

PETRE: A lot.

MORTON: How did you snag Schwarzkopf?

PETRE: The same publisher bought Schwarzkopf'sbook as had published Watson's. So I was one of a

number of writers who auditioned with the general for

that job. Auditioning meant flying on very, very shortnotice from a dude ranch in Montana, where my wifeAnn was assigned to do a travel story. I was along as a

dutiful spouse. I had to fly from Bose, Montana toTampa, Florida, which was the headquarters ofCentral Command. The general was in his windingdown phase just before retirement. This was right af-ter the Gulf War, so they were in a very high state ofmobilization. One of the general's aides met me at theairport wearing desert fatigues. I was wearing the onlyclothes I had with me in Montana, which were bluejeans and cowboy boots that I had bought just for that

"I'll be blant: I do it for the money.

You mentioned that there weren't quotes

sbout collaborution but my favorite,

from George S. Kaufman, is that

collaboration is 'gelt by association."'

-SarahWernick

trip. As I got off the plane, thir gry took one look at meand burst out laughing. He said, Did you see ClfySlickers? So that was how I met the general. The reasonthat book came together was that he did not want a

military writer. He said, Look, I know the military youknow how to write, so let's divvy up the labor thatway. That was fine with me. We never touched on thefact that I'm of the Vietnam generation. What I was do-ing during those years never came up.

TAYLOR: Sarah, you seem to specialize more than theother panelists. I wonder how you carved out thisuruu, u.rd how you decided to seei out the people youcollaborated with in the beginning.

SARAH WERNICK: I'll be blunt: I do it for the money.You mentioned that there weren't quotes about collab-oration, but my favorite, from George S. Kaufman, isthat collaboration is "gelt by association." [Gelt is theYiddish word for money.J

In the late '80s I had been doing magazine free-lancing, mainly for women's magazines, for about 10

years. At the same time, my children were getting tothe age where their friends'older siblings were gradu-ating from college and their first job offers were for

Atthors Grtild BulletirrV spring zoos

more money than I was making. There was a certainitch of dissatisfaction. So I started propositioning ex-perts I was interviewing for articles. I propositionedtwo academics, for example, who had written on deci-sion-making, because I had interviewed them for aParents magazine article on the subject, and we almostcame together on a collaboration. Then I propositioneda prominent pediatrician. The major award in adoles-cent medicine had just been named for her. We tried todo an article together and had trouble finding a marketfor it. The third person I propositioned seriously wasStanley Turecki, who was a child psychiatrist. He hadwritten a book calledThe Dfficult Child, and was inter-ested in writing another one. We wound up writing TfteEmotional Problerns of Norntal Children together. Afterwe finished I vowed I would never collaborate again.

Then, several years late1, I read an absolutely fasci-nating article in the |ournal of the American MedicalAssociation by Miriam Nelson, who had found that avery simple strength-training program, which tookonly 20 minutes twice a week, had remarkable health

"[Dohrynin] reacted to my question as ifit were the most ordinary thing in the

world to attend the Politburo and tell

people about it. I don't think I had

ever seen any descrafion of the

Politburo from the inside. . . . He told

me everlthing-about what kind ofherring they ate for lunch, the relation-

ships among various ministers. . . ."

-Lawrence Malkin

benefits. My first thought was, Well, I could do thatprogram. Then I thought, If I could do it anyone woulddo it. So I wrote to her and she was interested in writ-ing a book. Basically, that's how I found most of mycollaborations-by finding experts and propositioningthem. It's kind of like dating in junior high, where theperson you want doesn't necessarily want you. Andmeanwhile, you're getting offers from other peoplewho don't interest you.

TAYLOR: Before we start talking about qgme of thedifficulties in dealing with celebrities who ire used tobeing catered to, and politicians, and generfls who areused to having their orders followed, I wadt to ask forsome anecdotes. What are some of the brightest andmost surprising moments you've had wit\the peopleyou have collaborated with? When perhap{somethingwas revealed that you didn't expect, that fiou recog-nized as a jewel that was going to make ttf book dif-ferent and better.

i

MALKIN: I have a really good story about[hat, and itstill gives me great pleasure. The memoi* of publicmen usually are based on written records. Anatoly Do-brynin, the Soviet Ambassador to Was\ington for25 years and a delightful mary was allowedlby his for-eign ministry to look through the files of hls own dis-patches. They were always very frank bdcause thatwas the way Gromyko [the Soviet Foreign Minister]wanted them. I got from him about a thousand pagestranslated into rough English, on a disk. I r6wrote, cut,organized, inserted background. When I do that, mytechnique is to put my insertions into squa{e brackets,and the author can accept them, reject them] or rewritethem. Usually drey accept or rewrite. One dAy we weretalking and he said, "So, when I went to thl Politburo. . ." Really? "All the time-whenever I was it't Moscowand my subject would come up'/-and sinfe his sub-ject was America it would always come up.

He reacted to my question as if it were the most or-dinary thing in the world to attend the Politburo andtell people about it. Wait a minute. I don't lhink I hadever seen any description of the Politburo flom the in-side-how they reacted to each other as politiciansand as individuals. And he said, "Oh, I'lltr tell you."And he told me everything-about what klnd of her-ring they ate for lunch, the relationships arrong vari-ous ministers, and especially how each wotrld almostalways accept the other's proposals becapse, in ex-change, they did not want any of the othets on theirown turf. I got four or five fascinating p4ges abouthow the Politburo worked, at least during fte time ofBrezhnev. To my knowledge, there's never Sen a clearand objective account in print anywhere iri the West,of how these people actually sat down and net in theKremlin and worked out policy. It was verf satisfyingto do, like a good piece of reporting. The bobk eventu-ally was chosen one of the 10 best of the ydar on TheNew York Times list.

TAYLOR: Laura, what about your better su{prises?

MORTON: I had a book last year that wasbne of the10 worst books of the year. Does that count?

TAYLOR: Which one was that? I

Authors Guikl Bulletin

"Jerry Springer. . . was the biggest

surprise of anybody I've worked

with-s very likable man.

It was like hanging around

with my favorite uncle."

-Inura Morton

MORTON: That was the Elizabeth Smart book. Butwe were in good company. Hillary's book was on thelist, Mitch Albom's book was on the list. It was USAToday, so I didn't put a lot of credit in it.

Every book I've written has had a moment that Ican look back on and know it changed the project. Iknow it changed the focus of the book.

I'll give you four very quick examples. With theJoan Lunden book, I was sitting in the back of a carwith her driving to her home in Connecticut. I took outa piece of paper. We were trying to document herweight gain and weight loss. When she had babies andwas trying to lose the weight but was now 20 poundsheavier, then the second child, and then the third child.It was interesting to see that timeline because I knewthat the reader would identify. I knew the reader couldmake that timeline for her own life. That timeline ulti-mately ended up getting us a little extra money for thebook, which was great. It was very open. It was a veryhonest and open moment and I knew that it changedthe approach to the book.

When Melissa Etheridge had the courage to tell methat she had been sexuallv abused bv her sister, a book

that was supposed to be about her music ended up be-ing about her life. Of course if you're familiar with hermusic at all, it is her life. This was,I think, at our sec-ond meeting, and she knew I would do the right thingwith it. She handed me her diaries from when she was15 years old, and said, I never want to talk about it, justdo the right thing. Those to me are golden moments.

Also Jerry Springer, who was the biggest surpriseof anybody I've worked with-a very likable man. Itwas like hanging around with my favorite uncle. Hehas never spoken publicly about his private life, abouthis familv and his wife and his daughter. He was aboutto do his first love scene for his movie /e rry Springer, tlrcMoaie, and he called me up five minutes before he wasgoing out onto the set and he said, "Get your taperecorder because I want to talk about my family." Ithought the timing of him wanting to do that was in-credible. I opted not to send that tape to the transcriber.

There were many moments working with theSmarts, but I think it was a moment that had nothingto do with writing. It was meeting Lois Smart, Eliza-beth's mother, who wanted nothing to do with me,who wanted nothing to do with writing a book butknew that they were faced with having to write a bookbecause somebody else was about to. It was preemp-tive on her part: to protect their daughter and to pro-tect the integrity of the story and what happened toher. But I made the fatal error of insulting Lois the firsttime I met her. It was very unintentional. Ed, the hus-band, is very emotional and cries very easily, andeverything was still very, very raw when I met them.He was weeping at the dinner table. I just looked athim and said, This must have been so hard for you.And Lois slammed her hands on the table and said,Hard for him? What about me? I'm the mother. I justwanted to sink under the table. I think my greatest ac-complishment in that was turning this woman aroundand having her trust me with words and with a storythat was so hard for her to tell. That experience waslife-changing.

TAYLOR: Peter?

PETRE: Collaborating with someone was kind of un-known territory for me when I started working withTom Watson. There were two great moments that in-volved our spouses, which taught me a lot about theprocess of collaboration and the relationship with a

collaborator. The first was very, very early on. Watsonhad a place up in Maine where he liked to go in thesummertime. We'd gotten a little way into the bookproject and he asked me on rather short notice to comeup to Maine to meet with his wife. I later learned thatMrs. Watson had gotten a little concerned about howintimate the details were that he was starting to go into

Atttltors Guilti BuiietinEl S1,rirg zaus

"About I5 minutes later

this little stunt biplane comes

zooming over the pool and stqrts

doing these amazing loops and

barrel rolls and that was

Tom [Watson]."

-Peter Petre

about their life together, their family, his relationshipwith his parents, etc. I don't know what the conversa-tions were, but Tom decided I had to go up there andmeet with Olive. I didn't know any of this going upthere. I learned after he picked me up from a small air-port in New England in his airplane. He flew me up tohis place in Maine and then disappeared. I had to findmy way with Olive Watson, who is a dear woman, butI had to pass muster. He was so nervous about it thathe couldn't stand the idea of being around when wemet.

The second spousal experience also took placein Maine and Ann [my wife] remembers this veryvividly. Tom invited Ann and our daughter Kate tocome up because we were basically handcuffed toeach other. As you know, when you're collaborating,you spend an awful lot of time together and yourspouse wonders what the hell is going on. Tom was a

l

very gracious guy, and he said, You k o-d your wifeand daughter must be curious about mel and aboutwhat we're doing, so why don't you have them comeup and spend a couple days? It was beautiful summer-time. We went up and the first morning weiwere there,we all got up for breakfast and Tom said,tWhy don'tyou come outside and sit by the pool? So Ann and Iwent out by the pool, and Tom disappeareil. About 15

minutes later this little stunt biplane comes zoomingover the pool and starts doing these amazing loopsand barrel rolls and that was Tom. He was up in hisstunt plane. And he put on an amazing display of aer-ial acrobatics. About 45 minutes later he came back tothe house. When he came back he said to Ann-he wasa guy of about 75 years old at this point-I iust wantedyou to know that I can go the distance. l

There was a second lesson in that st0ry. I don'tthink Ann or I understood how central avidtion was toTom's life and his identity, although theqe were air-planes all over the place. But that turned out to be oneof the central narrative strands in the book; that this isa story of a person who is not only a business giant butalso someone who had loved aviation fromrthe time hewas a little kid and learned to fly in colle$e and flewduring World War II. You could just see that he wasgiving us something vert very personal about him-self. He was enacting it rather than saying it, but it re-ally helped structure the book.

TAYLOR: All this is really, really interesting. Sarah,what about you? Do you have any stories?

WERNICK: I'm in a panic at the idea of this elderlyguy in a plane doing acrobatics when you know thatyour book contract depends on his being a[ive.

PETRE: It did. Absolutely. I begged him totake me upthere with him. But he never would do it, which reallymade me nervous.

MORTON: With your tape recorder?

PETRE: Yes-with or without liability insurance. If hehad said yes, I don't know what I would have done.

WERNICK: For my lung cancer book I had some in-teresting conversations with Claudia Henschke abouther family. She was the doctor whose resebrch on us-ing CT scans to find early lung cancer was front pagenews in the New York Times. It turned outlthat her fa-ther was a pioneer in researching lung canrer as well.She described how as a child she would darn moneyfrom her father by reading radiation badges. She alsodescribed how he invented a technique of pmbeddingradioactive pellets in plastic rods, which were used intreatment. In order to develop the rods, he jwould boilthem up with pellets that weren't radiopctive, like

Arfthors Guild Buuetin@ sprrrg zoos

spaghetti in a big pot. Her childhood memories wereso interesting that I decided to include a biographicalbox with some of these anecdotes in the lung cancerbook. I did a biographical box for the other coauthoras welf in which she described being in a sorority andbeing pressured to smoke and how her children madeher give up smoking by flushing all her cigarettesdown the toilet. I think that it added something to thisprescriptive medical book to have such personal state-ments from both of the expert authors.

TAYLOR: Let's talk about butting heads a little bit.When I was working with John Glenn I was trying toget him to say something that he didn't want to say.Finally, in frustration I went arrggghhh. He said, "Don'tball your fist up at me! I'll ball my fist up at you!" Thatwas not a typical response of his, but it did showwhere he had drawn the line. Has anyone on the panelexperienced that kind of frustration, when you'vetried to lead the person to say something that youknow would make the book better that they absolutelyrefused to say?

WERNICK: I have a different kind of example, agairybecause of the kind of books that I do. My most recentbook is called Quick Fit.It's about a lS-minute exerciseprogram that was developed by Rick Bradley, who ranthe fitness center at the U.S. Department of Trans-portation. The program he used at his fitness centerstarted with 10 minutes of walking on a treadmill.When we were writing the chapter with exercise in-structions, I said, "Not everybody has a treadmill."Rick said, "Well, they can go find a treadmill. " I said,"Not everyone has access to a treadmill. We need analternative." He said, "They can go out and take awalk." I said, "That's going to be a deal breaker on arainy day. They need something that they can dostanding in their living room in front of the television."I just pestered and pestered and finally he agreed thatwe would have something like that.

TAYLOR: What was it?

WERNICK: Just a simple step-kick routine that getsyour heart rate up. It doesn't require equipment andyou can do it if it's raining outside. Our target audi-ence was people who don't exercise, so the bookneeded something of this nature.

MALKIN: I use a technique that works most of thetime if you're working on a typed draft. When I sendit back to the authoa I put my questions in capital let-ters: But what did you tell Kissinger then? Or, didn'tyou think he was lying? What did you think thePresident really meant at that point? More often thannot, you will receive an illuminating reply.

There's a quote from George Orwell that all of usshould remember. When he reviewed the autobiogra-phy of Salvador Dali, a great self-promoter, he pannedit so thoroughly that the review was suppressed atfirst. Orwell wrote: "A man who gives a good accountof himself is probably lying, because all life whenviewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats."There's a certain truth to that. I usually follow up byasking: Do you want people to read this as a seriousstory of your life or do you want them just to throw itout?

MORTON: I have many good examples-many ofwhich I can't share. One that stands out is the clientwho spoke about herself in the third person for sixmonths. How does one speak of oneself when one isspeaking of oneself? I said one starts by calling oneselfme or I. Most of the people I work with are so

"When I was working with John Glenn

I was trying to get him to say something

that he didn't want to say. Finally,

infrustration I went arrggghhh.

He said,'Don't ball your fist up at me!

I'll ball my frst up at you!"'

-Nick Taylor

guarded-they are used to speaking to the media, tothe press. They are used to giving snippets, soundbites. I try to get them to understand that I'm not ajournalist, I'm not out to write an article about them,they have editorial control. Once they get past that, itworks. And if that doesn't work I break out tequila.

TAYLOR: That's the best suggestion I've heard yet.Peter?

PETRE: What I've found helpful is to have a simplerule that there's no law that says that someone has totell everything in a book. What is important is that a

reader who's going to plunk down $27 for a book feelthat for the two or three or four hours they're going tobe reading this book, they are actually going to hearsomething authentic from the person. So the rule I tryto get people to follow is, It's okay not to talk about

Authors Guitrl BuuetinE sprirg zoos

things, but it's usually a strength to tell people whatyou are going to talk about and not talk about. Just layit out honestly.

MORTON: I disagree somewhat. I essentially tell myclients ihat if they feel comfortable enough-and ulti-mately they do, surprisingly quickly-they can tell meeverything. I don't have to put everything in the book.But it gives me the full story and I can figure out howto share that story without sharing all the intimatedetails.

I set ground rules when I work with someone. I tellthern that if I think they're lying that I'm going to tellthem. I have called numerous people out on it, becauseI think a lot of times when a celebrity decides to writea book it's usually a spin piece or they need the money.Sometimes their publicist has more to say about themthan they do, or the reality of what they seem to besaying just isn't there. I think the public is very smart,and I think they understand when they're being liedto. I don't want to put my name on a book that getspanned because it's not rooted in reality. A lot of thesepeople don't live rooted in reality.

TAYLOR: Along those same lines, I'm wondering ifany of you have had trouble convincing people thatwhen they embark upon a book, their obligation is tothe reader. And that obligation has to do with tellingthe truth. I collaborated with a helicopter pilot whotold me, Well, I'm a military guy and you're a writer.And I said, You're a writer too. You signed a contractthat says you are going to write this book under yourname. And your obligation now is to tell readers thetruth. How difficult have any of you found it to get a

coauthor to recognize that new role-that they're notjust the politician they were, or the general, or the cor-porate head, but author?

MALKIN: I have found that the grander the person-Dobrynin and Volcker for example-the easier it is.Because they get the point very quickly that if they'regoing to write a book with their name on it, it has tohave human texture and a sense of things as they re-ally saw them. I had a slightly different experiencewith somebody I won't name, another financial whizin Washington whose manuscript I was asked to do alot of work on. I started putting in various things Iknew to be true and asked him, "Is that all right?"Finally, he said, "No, I've got to stay in good with myfriends." [He meant his Republican friends. ] "I can'thave this left-wing propaganda." So I left the projectand was paid off in full. i got my revenge when thebook came out and vanished without a trace-but Ihad written a chapter based on things he had said withconsiderable pride about organizing economic policy

in the White House, even bringing in Dpmocrats tospeak. It was quite a good chapter. I was {till workingas a correspondent, and I happened to attdnd a talk byRobert Rubin [then chairman of President Clinton'sNational Economic Council]. i identifiedlmyself andmy comection with this particular book pecause Ru-bin had mentioned it. He said, "I probaQly broke allthe copyright laws because I xeroxed that phapter andpassed it out to my staff as an example o$ how to runan economic cotrnci-l in the White House."l

TAYLOR: I'm wondering how you antici{ate some ofthe difficulties of working with named ar{thors. Howdo you head off potential problems? Whait do you docontractually to make sure that you enfl up out ofcourt? |

WERNICK: Handshakes are very nice, $ut a hand-shake is really not an adequate basis for p collabora-tion-unless you're collaborating with a spouse,perhaps, where there's another whole icontract inplace. The people I know who've had the mosthideous collaboration experiences are thb ones whohave not had collaboration agreements. You have torealize that usually you're collaborating with thisother person because you bring very diffprent skillsand experience to the table. And because Qf these dif-ferences, you are likely to make different agsumptions.You need to come to agreement on some df the basicsat the outset. It's extremely important to have a writ-ten agreement. But having said that, I also must addthat no written agreement can every covep every sin-gle kind of possibiiiry just as it can't in a mhrriage. Butthe collaboration agreement is the best proJection youcan have.

MALKIN: Sometimes, as with Stu EizenFtat, a veryhonorable man and a lawye4, an exchangelof letters isfine. But probably the worst experience I'i'e ever hadinvolved an extremely complex collaboration agree-ment, which I made the great error of not phowing tomy own lawyer. It was negotiated througli an agencyknown for handling people in the enftrtainmentworld. Stay away from all such people, pecause allthey care about is production values; it'g not aboutfacis or even tryinglo tell the truth. The hindcuffs onthat agreement caused me more trouble than any otherarrangement I've ever had.

i

PETRE: What sort of handcuffs? I

MALKIN: Cross-ownership of the materidl; no copy-right in my name; the possibility that I might be re-sponsible for returning even the coautho{'s share ofthe advance if the project didn't work out-which itdidn't. I could go on. It turned out that thb coauthor

Atrtltors Gttild Btlletin@ sprirg zoos

was-I hesitate to use this word except that other peo-ple have used it-really a pathological liar. He was soentertaining and credible at first that it took me a whileto realize that. I think it even took the agent a while torealize that he was being taken for a ride. This wassomething I never dreamed would happen. It's beenthe one really unpleasant experience I've ever had-and it was all covered by contract! The rule on this isreally that your reputation is the most valuable thingyou've got. And even if you've got to walk ouf returnthe advance and drop a few thousand in lawyers' fees,it's worth it.

MORTON: I think the best advice I can give when itcomes to collaboration agreements, particularly ifthere is an agent involved or an agency that's repre-senting both parties, is to remember that there is nopossibility that they can play Solomon. They will al-ways, always cater to the celebrity, to the "autho1," notto the collaborator.

MALKIN: Amen.

MORTON: It is essential to have outside counsel,somebody who is there to represent your interests inthis deal, because your agent is not going to do it. It isof the utmost importance that you learn from every ex-perience as well. I now have my own boilerplate con-tract that really just doesn't get moved around thatmuch anymore, because I can command that. No con-tract can cover every weird thing, but mine comesdarn close. Every time you go through a collaborationyou will learn good things, you will learn things younever want to do again, you will make mistakes thatyou won't repeat. I think anybody here who has rep-resentation will agree: You must control the agent,your interest, your reputation. Every contract I havenow gives me an out. When I first started I had no out,I was stuck. That is a terrible place to be, particularlyif you're working with someone who's not beingtruthful, or with someone who is just not going to puta product out that you want your name on. I havepulled my name off numerous books. That for a whilewas my out, because I had done the work and Iwanted to get paid, but I didn't need my name on it. Idon't care if my royalty checks come, if the book sells.I just didn't want my name on the cover of that book. Icannot stress to you enough the importance of havingyour own outside counsel when it comes to contractnegotiations.

MALKIN: Let me second thatby saying we're actuallyboth talking about the same agent, who said to me, "Ican represent you." In fact, it ended up in a huge con-flict of interest. As you said, it's not you he's going tofavor, it's the big name.

"Probably the worst experience

I've ever had involved an extremely

c o mple x c ollab o ratio n egre e me nt,

which I made the great error

of not showing to my own lawyer.

It turued out that the co-author

was-I hesitate to use this word

except that other people have

used it-really a pathological liar.

-l,awrence Malkin

MORTON: At the end of the day if you're with a largeagency, and particularly one that deals in entertain-menf they're about annuity income, and about gettinga three-picture deal for this person, a two-book deal, areality show, a this, a that. It's all about packaging.And they are not going to throw up that relationshipthat means millions of dollars to the agency for the 10

or 15 or 20 percent that you're paying them on yourcollaboration fee.

MALKIN: As far as they're concerned, you and I aredispensable.

MORTON: From that point of view, yes. But at the endof the day, these people are not authors. They are ac-tors and actresses or politicians or pilots, or businessgeniuses, whateveq, health experts, and they need you.If you don't make your deal, somebody else will make

Authors cuiltl Bulletin @ sprrng zlos

a crappy deal and learn from it. One hopes we're all alitile bit ahead of that curve. We are replaceable tosome degree, but also to some degree each of us hereis an expert in our own fields, which is the reason thatwe can get the fees that we get, the splits that we canget, and that we can negotiate the contracts we negoti-ate now. I know that when my clients, particularly big-ger name clients, want to write a book, it's like goingin and cutting an album, they want to workwith who-ever the hot music producer is right now. If they're do-ing a film, they want Steven Spielberg. And if they'rewriting a book, I'd like them to call me. So there's a

lot to be said about carrying yourself that way too.Audition meetings are a huge part of the collaborativeprocess, because you're both sizing each other up.

I've always likened the collaborative process todating. I've likened it to going to summer camp. Thesepeople are your best friends for eight weeks and at theend of eight weeks you go home. They say, Well, I'llwrite you. And then you don't hear from them untilnext summer. You really have to have thick skin to bea collaborator. You know the work that you put into it,you know the time that you put into it, you're proudof these projects. To some degree it's thankless, and tosome degree there's nothing better-to me, anyway-than going on Amazon and reading those reviews thatpeople write, to know that something I wrote changedtheir life. To me there's no greater reward than that.

TAYLOR: And knowing what a good writer you madeMelissa Etheridge.

MORTON: She's a beautiful writer. I mean she reallyis. Most of my clients, interestingly, do take an interestin their book. I've never had a client not read theirmanuscript. I've had a client read parts of their manu-script. They're all laughing because you know whatI'm talking about.

PETRE: When they claim they were misquoted in theend.

MALKIN: And then there was the baseball playerwho was asked about his own autobiography-ghosted-and said something like: "I don't know. Ididn't read that part."

MORTON: Most of my clients, if they've made thecommitment, they're in it. It's hard to see your wordson the page. It is hard to see your raw emotions on thepage. I often find that I make connections in their lifethat they've never made. I tell everyone I'm the cheap-est therapist they've ever had. As difficult as it is forthem to go through it and relive all of these memories,it's really cathartic for them and they come out on theother side in a place they never expected.

MALKIN: I think you're dealing with diof people than Peter and L

TAYLOR: I'll tell a story here. I collabordted with a

doctor who was the chief of gastroenteroloiy at SloanKettering, and his wife was diagnosed wilh stomachcancer, the very kind of cancer that he tre{ted. Beingunable to treat her because of the ethical p,ftoblems ofthat kind of relationship, he became her he'$mate. Sheled him into complementary or alternativ| therapiesand it expanded his medical horizons. Br$ when wefirst began to meet and I was interviewifg him, heasked me, "Have you been in therapy?" I said,"No, I haven't." And he said, "You sound [ike you'vebeen in therapy." Because of the question$I was ask-ing to get his story. And in a sense it was a $erapy ses-

I

"I've always lilrcned the collabof,ative

process to d.ating. I've likened itto going to summer camp. These people

are your bestfriends for eight rryeks

and. ai the end of eight weel&

you go home. They say, wel{

I'll write you. And then you don'lhear

from them until next summeft"

-Laura Morton1

rent kinds

sion. He was describing this extremely u* fo.,ut ri*"when he was confronting his wife's illness a{nd becom-ing not the doctor in control but the helpmpte that hewas. So it can certainly happen. I

Laura, you said yo" hi"e no problem t{lling yourclients when you think they're lying. Larry hnd I haveboth worked with someone who was noi abquaintedwith the truth except peripherally.

MALKIN: He literally could not tell the difference be-tween fact and fiction.

TAYLOR: Exactly. He was always at the center of verydramatic stories, but what he was doing wbs placinghimself at the center of stories that you corild read in

Arthors Guitd Butletin@ spr;rg zoos

"What do you do when the person

you're working with tells a story

that you know is not true yet he

izsists on wanting to use it?"

-Nick Thylor

any newspaper. What do you do when the personyou're working with tells a story that you know is nottrue yet he insists on wanting to use it?

MORTON: I weigh several different factors. First ofall, who gets hurt by using this story? If it's a story Ithink their children won't want to read when they'reold enough to read the book, I approach it from thatpoint of view I always look for tabloid headlines. So ifit's p story that is front-page fodder for the tabloids, Ibri4g that up and ask, Can you live through the storm?Bechuse they will find out everything you are nottelling me. Or they will find out that everything you'retelling me is not true. I've used that device to get themto either back down or fill in the blanks. As much of aproblem as telling a story that isn't true is not beinggiven all the details, which also puts a spin on thestory. It's a judgment call. I think you have to weighwho gets hurt by it, what the fallout is.

TAYLOR: Sarah, you mentioned the importance ofhaving an indemnification agreement earlier when wewere in the green room. Can you go into that further?

WERNICK: I work with experts, and our books reflect

their expertise. But I don't want to be responsible fortheir errors. So part of my collaboration agreement isthat they have the final say on content and they in-demnify me against their mistakes. I think this provi-sion is very important in the kind of collaborationsthat I do. which involve fitness and health.

MORTON: I think the collaborative process is a pro-cess thafs based on trust. There is a great deal of trustthat's established very early on-especially for thekind of books that I do-when someone chooses toopen up their life. I go into these people's homes. I see

their dirty laundry literally and figuratively. There's a

great deal of trust based on either track record or therapport that we've established. The quick establish-ment of that rapport is what I need-to know thatthey're giving me what I need and to have them knowthat I will do the right thing with it.

I often find that things change over the course of theproject. The book that you end up writing is not nec-essarily the book that you planned on writing. Some-times it's a much better book and sometimes it's a

pulled-back version of the book. That's when you re-ally have to deal with the publisher because what yousold is not what you deliver. I have a knack for findingcelebrities who go through breakdowns in the middleof working things out. Every process is different.

MALKIN: Do you usually put together your own proj-ect, rather than a publisher coming to you?

MORTON: It works both ways. Doubleday came tome with the Smarts'book. An agent who did not rep-resent me came to me with the Melissa Etheridgebook, Mort fanklow. Sometimes there is a need to havethe right writer involved- knowing that the subjectmatter is going to be sensitive, or that there's a partic-ular kind of personality to work with this person. Theysay, Well if I do this, I need to know that I can workwith this person. You spend a lot of time with thesepeople. They're intimate relationships, any way youlook at it. I tell people that I get to live a lot of life ex-periences without actually having to go through them.

Questions were inaited from the audience.

Q: How much do you fact check what you're told?

PETRE: It's one of those ground rules questions. I tryto get agreement on what the standard is going to beright at the beginning of a project. It's one thing to rep-resent something as a memoir, where the rules aresomewhat looset than to say this is going to be a full-blown autobiography that will stand as an historicaldocument and therefore has to meet the rules of his-tory. I've found that as long you're clear about that go-ing in, then you can estimate what kind of research has

Authors GrLild BulletinGil Spring ZOOS

to be done. One of the two books I've worked on tooktwo-and-a-half years; one took eight months. Obvi-ously there was a lot more leeway for research in thelonger project. But in both cases, we did try to docu-ment everything.

MALKIN: It depends on who you're dealing with. Iwas brought iry I later discovered, as the third writeron the memoirs of Markus Wolf, the retired chief offoreign intelligence for the Stasi [the secret police] inEast Germany. He was called "The Man Without a

('It's one thing to represent something

as a memoir, where the rules are

somewhat looser, than to say this is

going to be afull-blown autobiography

that will stand as an historical

document and therefore has to

meet the rules of history."

-Peter Petre

Face"-I made that the title of the book-because formany years not a single person in Western intelligenceknew what he looked like. Anyway, it's no surpriseand no disgrace to anyone that he wore out the firsttwo collaborators. Peter Osnos, the publishe4, who is amaster at managing these things, and Geoff Shandler,who is now the editor-in-chief of Little Brown, and Itook a plane to Berlin, because the CIA wouldn't letWolf into this country. I think they still won't. Wespent four or five fascinating days with this elegantsnake in his riverside apartment overlooking the Spreetrying to find out whether he was lying to us. The mostdifficult pari had to do with the Stasi's relationshipwith Middle East terrorists, Carlos the Jackal, and oth-ers. I put everything together and by pure coincidence,when I returned to New York, a man I knew of wasvisiting town; he was the former head of operationsfor the Mossad. I asked him to look at the chapter. Afew days later he came back to me and said: "Every-thing he [Wolf] tells you is coherent and correct, but heis not telling you the full story. " Surprise. That's as faras we could get. You just have to live with that.

Q: Why do you use the word client fo. {h" personyou're collaborating with? How do you dorelop a re-lationship of tmst?

MORTON: I view anybody I work with asra businesspartner, but my contract usually tells me that they'renot. You'd think they'd love that, right. Cdling themclients is a habit that I developed workin$ as a pro-ducer in Hollywood. I view my coauthord as clients.And I cater to them as if they are clients. I take theirphone calls at four in the morning as I would a client's.You try to set boundaries, but when somebody isready to talk you want to be ready. The second half ofyour question is developing trust. I think alll relation-ihips need trust, whethei they're client{ businesspartners, coauthors, collaborators, whatevef it is. But Ithink relationships in which you're divulgirig intimatedetails of your life, particularly for public {igures, re-quires a great deal of trust. In any client sitiuation, I'dstill want trust from the person selling meithat prod-uct. I am to some degree selling. I'm sellingithe personI'm working with, and I'm taking their m{terial andselling the reader on the idea that what welre writingis worth reading.

PETRE: There is no good word for the perfon you'reworking with, and in a way it gets back to tle fact thatwe're talking about a relatively new kind of literarywork. If you look at the process we all go tliroug[ it'san outgrowth of two things: the tape recorder and theword processol which make it physically fossible tocapture somebody's voice with the kind of fldelity thatwe try to evoke in these books. It's sort of Ske "namethat puppy," right? Whafls a good name forlit? There'sno good name for a half-marathon. There's ia 10K raceand a marathon, but a half-marathon is kinid of in be-tween. In a way, we're all sort of pioneering a kind ofIiterary expression that's still taking shape.

MORTON: I think "client" also connotes a businessrelationship. Because of the intimacy there's a lot ofconfusion. And there really is a lot of cohfusion inthese relationships. For me, it's a safe way fOr the rela-tionship to have a definition. I can't speak {or anyoneelse, but for me, because these people ate not myfriends, I'm not their friend. I am there to work withthem on this project. It's just business, it'sijust a job.Everything that I do is no different than thf guy whobrings my groceries every day. That's his job. It is very,very easy to be tempted to blur that line, b€cause it isvery sexy to be woiking with some of theie people,but if you blur that line, you make a coloss{l mistake.I am as good as the last book I've written.

I

MALKIN: I'd like to say I think Peter was hbsolutelycorrect that we can do these books now $ecause of

Au thor s Guild Blllet i n

technical capabilities, but also, more and more pub-lishers want known brand names to sell books. Ratherthan a biography, they would rather have that personwrite under his or her own name.

MORTON: Absolutely.

MALKIN: That's all part of the game. Where I partcompany with you, is that I would say that not only doI regard Paul Volcker as a friend, but he actually saidso in the booKs acknowledgment that he had knownme as a good journalist and now regarded me as afriend. I was very pleased and quite proud of that. Isee him from time to time and have asked him to helpme, and I'm very grateful. I think it's a different worldthat you live in and work in, which is not to denigrateit, but it just is.

MORTON: Yes. These are people that are used to be-ing on a movie set, and they go onto their next project.That's really where it's at.

Q: What kind of understanding do collaborators needto have about a book's content before they begin?

PETRE: You get at a really important point, which is ifyou don't agree at the beginning, it's very, very un-likely this project is going to work. Laura made anequally important point that you may not end up withthe book that you thought you were going to be writ-ing, but it's important to have a clear understanding ofwhat you're trying to accomplish from the beginning.You talk about kissing a lot of frogs. We all look at a lotof projects, and one of the key things that I've alwayslistened for in that first meeting is whether this personhas something they want to tell. It can have somethingor nothing to do with the book they think they want towrite, but you have to have a feeling that they havesomething in them that they want to express, and it'snot just a matter of their friends getting together andsaying, You know, you've had a really interesting lifeand you should write a book, you could do a book.They have a slightly stricken deer-in-the-headlightslook if that's why they're there in that meeting.

WERNICK: I'm less interested in the question of,"Does he have a book that he wants to write?" andmore in "Is this a book that will sell and make moneyfor us?" I had a call from a prominent cardiologist inBoston a couple of years ago. She wanted to write a

book in which she was going to make the startlingpoint that people need to eat right and exercise. Sheseemed to feel that this hadn't been done before. So Iasked her what was new and different about the book.She was annoyed that I was asking such a presumptu-ous question. I said, "Well, you're not going to be ableto sell the book unless it offers something new and dif-

"I had a callfrom a prominent

cardiologist in Boston a couple ofyears ago. She wanted to write a book

in which she wss going to make the

startling point that people need to eat

right and exercise. She seemed to feelthat this hadn't been done before."

-SarahWernick

ferent." And then she went off on some incomprehen-sible speech about enzymes. I told her I didn't think Iwas the right writer for this project. That was the endof that.

I think that it's important, as Peter said, to be veryselective. I don't expect that every blind date is goingto produce the match of my dreams. In fact, I kind ofexpect the opposite. I go in looking to see if this is aperson who has an idea that will appeal to a suffi-ciently large book-buying public to get us a big ad-vance. If not, I'm not the right writer for the book. I'minterested in authors who are going to promote a book,because that's part of what goes into determiningwhether or not the advance is going to be big. I'mlooking at it in a cold-blooded way. I'm auditioningthat person just as they're auditioning me.

MALKIN: There's a whole subset of books for which]ohn Skow coined a special name years ago in Time.

Authors Guitd Bulletin@ sprirrg zoos

He called them "non-books." Mv connection withthem is there's a woman up in Boiton named DonnaCarpenter, who I think is called the Queen of theGhosts. Basically she deals with businessmeru or peo-ple like them, or consultants, who want to write a bookbecause they will make the real money, not on thebook, but on the lectures that they will get by havingwritten a book. I prefer to stay away from that, but itis a way of making money.

Q: What's the difference between collaboration andghostwriting?

TAYLOR: I would describe a ghostwriting job as onethat is done for a person who doesn't really participateto a great degree in the process of writing. There are

"I-ast year I met briefly with a doctor

and he tol"d me he was very eager

to work with me; I was eager to work

with him. Then I wasn't hearingfrom

him, and the agent who had brought us

together said, (Well, I'm going to call

him and really pester him.'I sai.d,

'Don't do that. . . . If this guy

can't get back to rne now, he's

not going to be good to work with."'

-SarahWernick

best-selling novelists about whom it is rumored thatthey don't put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard atall-that the work is done by others and just marketedunder a more prominent name.

Q: Are you able to get a feel for the project and theperson you'll be working with before you sign thecontract?

WERNICK: I think of the proposal as an engagementperiod. All of the interaction that takes place betweenyou as you work on the collaboration agreement beforeyou begin work is data. If you see that somebody

as you go along. Glenn went back into s in 1998.The book needed to come out before the followingChristmas to take advantage of the Christ{nas sales,and that's one of the things, obviously, that fublishersare interested in doing. But after the space com-pleted its missiory because there were mem$ers of thecrew from Japan and Spain, the crew ked on aworldwide tour. At the same time Glenn waf windingup his Senate career and trying to organize$ lifetimeof mementos and it was deep into the spri{g of 1,999

before he was prepared to sit down and . FinallyI had to go to Bethesda, Maryland, where hefives, andsay, I'm not going away until we make a s$bstantialinroad on this book. Of course, there were d lot of 12-hour days before we finally finished in Ar.ftust, andthe book came out in November. You donlt want tohave to do it, but you want to make your publisherhuppy too, and you do want those sales.

MALKIN: Sometimes you can't control it. l

Q: What's the typical percentage split in a dollabora-tion? -

|

I

WERNICK: The American Society of fournflists andAuthors tallies paycheck reports from its rirembers.The single mostiommott rpiit is fifty-fifty. f,Io*ever,the arrangements range from the writer gettfhg practi-cally the whole advance or even the entird advanceand more from the expert, to the writer get$rg a verysmall percentage. It's all up for negotiation. It dependsvery much on the project. Let's say it's somF obscuredisease and you're working with a doctor w$o's eagerto do a book for professional reasons, but ids not go-ing to be a big advance book, the writer migltt get justabout all of it. If it's a celebrity who has theirichoice ofmany different writers, then the collaboration splitmay be less favorable to the writer because of that.

doesn't have time, that's information. Last frear I metbriefly with a doctor and he told me he was iirery eagerto work with me; I was eager to work with him. ThenI wasn't hearing from him, and the agen$ who hadbrought us together said, "I'm going to ca$ him andreally pester him." I said, "Don't do that. Tt$s is infor-mation that I need. If this guy can't get bfck to menow, he's not going to be good to work *iq't." I thinkyou need to pay attention to the signals t$at you'regetling, and to have an exit strategy built intQ your col-laboration agreement, so that if you feel th{t the pro-posal process has been intolerable you can gtt out of itand be paid appropriately for what you've done.

TAYLOR: If you've been approached by an dgent whohas an arrangement with a publisher, as I {vas in thecase of |ohn Glenn, sometimes you have to {ork it out

Autlrors Guild Bultetitr|Ifl Sprirg ZOOS

MALKIN: It also depends on whether it's a book inwhich the "author" just babbles into a microphone ora book in which you get some shaped or half-shapedmaterial and your job is to edit it into good, publish-able shape. It also depends partly on the size of the ad-vance.

I actually start negotiating from this point: I saythat if I were doing this sort of work for the Times, theWashington Post or whatever, I would probably bemaking about $100,000 a year. So that means, let's startfrom $2,000 a week. Now actually I reached an agree-ment with an author that earned me $25,000 for whatwas essentially 1-2 weeks' work. It was spread out overa period of time and I felt myself quite well compen-sated. It was more or less what he was prepared to pay,which was slightly more than a third of his advance.But he had already done a great deal of the work him-self. I'm also willing to put in one week's work for nomoney at all, to help prepare the proposal, because it'spart of the game.

WERNICK: Most of the time people are paid for writ-ing the proposal. When I'm dealing with an expert I'meager to work with who may not have a lot of monetbut I'm absolutely positive that the book is going tosell, I may have an exit fee rather than an entrance fee.

In other words, they don't have to pay me up front,but if the collaboration dissolves or the book doesn'tsell, I will be compensated. The lowest fee I've heard

of for writing a proposal is $3,000, but experiencedwriters with a track record can charge 10 times that.

MORTON: In the celebrity market, if you are doing a

collaboration as opposed to being a ghostwriter wherethere is a fee, you're working on the sale of the book.So there is no money paid unless that book sells. Onething that I've done to protect myself is set a mini-mum. In order for me to continue beyond the proposalphase, the minimum has to be met. Which means thatif the book sells for half of what my minimum is, theyhave the option of making up the deficit, or I have theoption of bowing out, or I have the option of doing itfor half the money, which is rare.

MALKIN: I think that'll tell you that there can be anynumber of business arrangements. I've just learned ofsome that I haven't heard before.

PETRE: May I jump in here with a message from theAuthors Guild? The Guild has very sophisticated le-gal resources and can often give you advice and alsopoint you in the right direction if you need more sus-tained help from lawyers.

MALKIN: I would like to say that I did not know thatuntil after I got myself into, and out of, a mess, and Iwish I had known. I think anybody who does this workcan't do better than starting at the Authors Guild.

TAYLOR: Thank you and good night. i

Autlrcrs Guild Bulletin@ sprrrg zoos

Along Publishers Row

Corttinued front pnge 2

BIG CAP: Marianne Robinson'snovel, Good Hottsekeeping, appearedin 1981. Her new novel, Gilead, waspublished in the fall, 23 years later.

Asked about this time lag by aninterviewer for The Boston Globe,Robinson said, "The book worldseems to be a little indignant withme for having spent my life as Ihave. I toyed with fiction during thattime. Nothing took hold of me. . . .

There are people who think of me as

a nonfiction writer and are amazedI'd written fiction. I think of my writ-ing not as a career but the expressionof my thinking and my trying tolearn things and understand things."

COPING: In The New Yorker, nov-elist and playwright Michael Fraynwas quoted talking about his char-acters: "You have to come to somearrangement with them, as it were.You have to persuade them to com-mit the murder or whatever youwant them to do, and in return youhave to concede that they will getsomething they want. Writing fic-tion is like industrial management.You've got this plan for work youwant done, and you've got a work-force that just wants to get throughthe job and go home and get on withtheir lives. Somehow you've got topersuade them, cajole them, bullythem, bribe them, or sometimes todo at least part of what you want."

DOG MAN: Jon Katz "is one of a

crowded kennel of dog authors," ac-cording to The New York Times.There are now more than 4,500books on clogs in print. Katz is theauthor of A Dog Year (2002), The Nezu

Work of Dogs (2003) and The Dogs olBedlnm Farm, published last October.He is under contract for two more,and A Dog Year has been optionedfor an HBO movie.

Katz has two border collies,Orson and Rose, and a Labradorpuppy, Clementine. They look afterthe animals on his Salem, N.Y., farmand provide material for Katz'sbooks. Katz said he bought the farmas a second home and a place towrite. His wife is associate professorat the Columbia School of Journal-ism and their daughter is a screen-writer. Katz said, "Up here I'm justthe dog man. I love being the dogman."

PREQUEL: Edward Wyatt led off aNew York Times article with this ad-vice: "In the age of Harry Potter,building a new children's book fran-chise requires following a few sim-ple rules: Stick with a popular genrelike fantasy, right now the hottestthing going. Start with a familiarstory. Rely on a proven cast of char-acters."

The article was an interview withDave Barry and Ridley Pearson,who wrote Peter and the Starcntchers,the first of a three-part prequel tof. M. Barrie's Peter Pan.lt made theTimes' best-seller list for children'schapter books last fall with morethan a half-million copies in print.Barry and Pearson wore pirates' eyepatches to pose for the photogra-pher.

The authors said their job wasmade easier because so many ele-ments were already in place. Barrysaid, "I've never had a book thatwas easier to explain to people. . . .

This is a myth that everybodyknows. It's built into evervbodv'scircuits."

MOVIE TO BOOK: Novelist IsabelAllende was invited to write a novelabout Zorro-the mythical Mexicanhero played in films by TyronePower and Antonio Banderas. Sheagreed to do it, and PublishersWeekly said that she has invented a

childhood and background for thecharacter. The book is due out inMay. Another Zorro movie-not

based on Allende's story-is due inthe fall.

WRITERS' LIVES: Novelist StaceyD'Erasmo, author of A Seahorse Yenr,

wrote in The New York Times BookReview, "In the lives of writers whoflame out early, Sylvia Plath andher kind, we may think we see a les-son about the impossibility of thisdouble state: the fundarnental sav-agery of art, the way it consumes itsmortal vessels, the way oppressionconstructs lethal conditions for cer-tain artists and so on. But in the livesof writers who last, we are pre-sented with a more complex mys-tery. What makes a survivor?"

STARTING POINT: San FranciscoChronicle book columnist HeidiBenson interviewed Sam Tanen-haus, editor of The New York TimesBook Review. He told her, "I have a

feeling that some of the new fiction,some of the new voices, are beingheard most clearly in San Franciscofirst-books that do well out there.then start to make their wav intothe marketplace and the world ofreaders.

"It's not shocking-New York iskind of an old town. The tastes canbe rigid and preformulated."

Michael Pietsch, senior vicepresident and publisher of LittleBrown, told Benson: "When wehave a writer we think is a real tal-ent, we always make a point ofsending them to San Francisco,where readers are oDen to newwork. It's something I;ve seen con-firmed again and again. Look atAnne Lamott-she was on the local[bestseller] list, then went on to con-quer the world."

REWRITE MAN: In a note writtenfor a revised edition of the 1936 clas-sic Bread nrtd Wine, author lgnazioSilone wrote, "If it were for mealone to decide, I would willinglypass my life writing and rewritingthe same book-that one book that

Atr!lrors cttiltl Bulleti, E sprir.g zoos

every writer carries within him, theimage of his own soul and of whichhis published works are only moreor less approximate fragments."

LUCKY: Even before the writingwas finished, Stephen King andStewart O'Nan had a bestsellerentitled Faithfttl: Truo Die-Hard Bos-

ton Red Sox Fans Chronicle the 2004Season. During the October playoffswith the Yankees, the book jumpedinto the top 50 on Barnes & Noble'sonline bookstore.

The two writers started the bookwhen spring camp opened lastFebruary, conducting a running e-mail dialogue about their favoriteteam. The Red Sox won the WorldSeries for the first time in 83 years.Books arrived in the stores onDecember 2 in a blast of publicity onthe Today TV show, TV news showsand newspapers.

Janet Maslin, in The New YorkTimes, noted that "Mr. King's much-vaunted retirement appears to beover. Beyond this book and the twobest sellers that conclude his 'DarkTower' series, he now writes (inEntertainment Weekly) the savviestpop-cultural criticism this side ofWilliam Goldman's. He also refershere to a novel in progress andtosses off viable material at theslightest provocation. While watch-ing the Red Sox on television oneday, for instance, he comes up witha not-half-bad plot about a man whoglimpses dead friends and relativessitting in the stands at a ballgame."

INSPIRATION: Graham Greenesaid of Leon Edel's editions ofHenry James's letters: "Thev moveme to write."

A SHAMEFUL THING: DaphneMerkin wrote a profile of AliceMunro for The New York TimesMagazine. When Merkin told Mun-ro that her much praised modestystruck Merkin "as a canny form ofprotective coloration to keep other

people's envy at bay," Munro nod-ded her head in agreement.

Munro said, "I'm frightened ofbeing overvalued. Someone willshoot you down. Being a writer is ashameful thing. It's always pushingout your version. I try to correct forthis."

ADMIRED: Louis Auchincloss'snew novel is Ensf Side Story. The au-thor practiced law until he was75,and for the last 15 years, he has con-centrated on writing.

Publishers Weeklv asked him toname writers who had influencedhim, and he said, "It's very hard toknow what that means. Henryfames is perhaps the novelist I getmost pleasure out of, and yet Iwouldn't for a minute say he's influ-enced me. I could never try to writein the lacquered style that he so

beautifully commands, and that no-body's ever been able to imitate."

UNBANNED: Comic Jon Stewart'sAmerica (The Book), a No. 1 bestseller,was banned by WalMart and eightlibraries in Jackson and GeorgeCounties near Mississippi's GulfCoast. Robert Willits, director of thelibrary system, told the AssociatedPress, "I've been a librarian for40 years, and this is the only bookI've objected to so strongly that Iwouldn't allow it to circulate. We'renot an adult bookstore." Willits wasoffended by a photograph thatshows faces of the nine SupremeCourt justices superimposed atopnaked bodies.

A couple of days later, The NewYork Times reported that there hadbeen so much pressure on the li-brary that America The Book) hadbeen returned to the shelves.

QUOTE: Michael Dirda in TheWashington Post quoted from Ed-mund White's collection, Arts srrdLettcrs: "lt is Nabokov's genius (as

one might speak of the genius of a

place or of a language) to have kept

alive almost single-handedly in ourcentury a tradition of tender sensu-ality. In most contemporary fictiontenderness is a sexless family feelingand sensuality either violent orimpersonal or both. By contrast, Na-bokov is a Pascin of Romantic car-nality. He writes in Spring in Fialta:'Occasionally in the middle of a con-versation her name would be men-tioned, and she would run down thesteps of a chance sentence, withoutturning her head.' Only a man wholoved women as much as he desiredthem could write such a passage."

TWO FOR ONE: When Bill Clin-ton's memoft, M1l Life, comes out inpaperback this summer, the 957-page book will be split into two vol-umes at $7.99 each. The intention,The New York Times reported, "wasto make it more portable and moreattractive to different retail outlets.The small paperbacks sell better innontraditional book settings likegrocery stores and newsstands."There will also be a trade paperbackin a single volume for $17.95.

Sales of the best-selling hardbackhave earned back the record $10 mil-lion advance that Clinton received.

Its Spanish translation, Mi Vida,is 150 pages longer than the Englishversion.

BIG BUCKS: The Dylan ThomasPrize of $180,000 will be given everytwo years to a published writer inEnglish under the age of 30. The firstaward will be presented in Swansea,Wales, on Thomas's birthday, in2006. Novels, short stories, poetry,prose and drama will be eligible.

PRICE HIKE: Oscar Wilde's 150thbirthday was marked last fall by anauction at Sotheby's London. A 19-page manuscript copy of a chapterfrom Wilde's The Picture of DorinnGray, with the author's 1890 revi-sions in longhand, sold for $132,300.ln 7907, Sotheby's sold the samecopy for 26 pounds. The 100 arti-

Atttln rs Cutld Bulletnr|El Sprrrg zuus

facts auctioned in 2004 brought in a

total of nearly $1.6 million.

MYSTERY: On January 18, EdgarAllan Poe's birthday was remem-bered once again when an unknownman in a black coat left three redroses and a half bottle of cognac onPoe's Baltimore grave. The traditionbegan in 7949, the Associated Pressreported.

STILL GOING: Muriel Spark is theauthor of 23 novels. The most recentis The Finishing School. She's at workon her 24th, which "is going verywell indeed." Spark is 86 years oldand lives in Tuscany.

Spark told The New York Timesthat she doesn't start a novel untilshe has a title. "It arrives as if bymessenget" she said. She explainedher process (a pen on paper) with"while I write, I invent, the ideas al-most flowing through my fingers."

The Finishing School is about a

creative-writing teacher who is con-sumed by jealousy of his star pupil.But now Spark says that there areenough novels about writing a

novel. "It's too easy when you're notvery mobile to think only of yourwriting, that this is the pivot of allaction-and it isn't, of course.There's a danger of too much writ-ing about writing about writing. Idon't want to do that anymore."

BEHAVIOR: Lynne Tiuss had a best-seller with Eats, Shoots and Leaaes, a

book about punctuation. Her nextwill be about the importance ofgood manners, due out in the fall.

OBSERVATION: Leonard Riggio ischairman of Barnes & Noble, thebook-selling chain. In a New YorkTimes op-ed page essay/ Riggiowrote that in book publishing "thehumor category is dominated by lib-erals and left-leaning authors. Infact, 95 percent of the sales in the po-litical humor section come from the

Ieft. Whether this means that conser-vative writers have no sense of hu-mor, or that publishing houses failto recognize it, is worthy of study-or even loud protest from the right."

After mulling this over, Riggioconcluded: "Liberal books sell atlower price points, and especiallyin paperback, while conservativebooks sell mostly in hardcover.Whether this suggests impendingclass warfare is not yet clear."

FESTIVAL FUN: The Texas BookFestival, initiated eight years ago byLaura Bush, was held last Novem-ber, the weekend betore the presi-dential election. An article in theAustin American-Statesman saidthat "behind the scenes, the festivallooks very different [this year]. In re-sponse to a recent financial decline,the festival has created its first boardof directors."

In a profile of the First Ladyin the November issue of TexasMonthly, Mimi Swartz wrote:"Occasionally [Laura Bush's] loyal-ists can go too far in their self-imposed protectiveness, as when agroup of Laura's friends took overthe Texas Book Festival . . . and triedto institute a plan to ban politicalbooks." They failed.

ALLABOUT SEX: Novelist GrahamGreene is the subject of a three-volume, 2,251-page biography byNorman Sherry a Iiterature profes-sor in San Antonio. The third vol-ume, published last fall, annoyedGreene's son, Francis Greene, 67,who told The New York Times,"This book is not about GrahamGreene, but about Sherry. His obses-sion with brothels far surpasses thatof his supposed subject."

Sherry said, "You can't allow thefamily to dictate to you what youwrite. If you are going to writeabout a man who is highly sexed,you can't change that." Besides,Sherry added, "you can't help but

admire him for having sex witheverything in sight."

REWRITE: The Texas Board of Edu-cation protested the wording inhealth textbooks for the state's highschools and middle schools, andtwo publishers rewrote the offend-ing passages. The decision could af-fect hundreds of thousands of booksin Texas alone.

Offending passages used termslike "married partners" instead of"husband and wife." Marriage willnow be defined in the books as a"lifelong union between a husbandand a wife." Phrases like "when twopeople marry" and "partners" willbe changed to "when a man and a

woman matry" and "husbands andwives."

Randall Ellis, executive directorof the LesbianlCay Rights Lobby ofTexas, said the board had over-stepped its bounds. "Their job is toreview for factual information,"Ellis told the Associated Press, "andinstead what we see is the insertionof someone's ideology and agendainto the textbook."

SPY TALES: Stella Rimington is theauthor of a new spy thriller, At Risk,which followed her autobiography,Opert Secret, about her career withthe British M15.

She told Publishers Weekly:"When I started the novel I realizedit was a separate skill I hadn't imme-diately got at my fingertips. It waseasy to contrive the characters andwork out what I wanted to havehappen; the difficulty lay in keepingthe threads together. . . .

"I'm a chronic reader of thrillers.When I was in India in the'60s, Iread Kipling's Kitn, about the GreatGame of espionage, and that got mestarted. fohn Buchan created bril-liant chases; someone's being pur-sued, something has to be preventedfrom happening; who's going to getthere first? Then Dorothy Sayers,

Attthors Gttitd BultetirtSi| Spri,,g ZrOS

Margery Allingham, and, of course,

fohn LeCarre, who I think is ab-solutely brilliant."

HOT: Chipp Kidd, associate art di-rector at Knopf/Pantheon, wasasked by Publishers Weekly what'shot in book jacket design. Kidd said,"Ugly is back with a vengeance.Ugly is working really well. The DaVinci Code is proof positive that jack-ets don't sell books. It's the ugliestgoddamn thing you've ever seen,and no one cares."

DISPUTE: In Atlanta, the AmericanCivil Liberties Union filed suitagainst the Cobb County SchoolDistrict board for allowing stickersin biology textbooks saying thatevolution was "a theory, not a fact."E. Linwood Gunn, a lawyer for theboard. told The New York Timesthat, because the books gave a thor-ough treatment of evolution, thestickers were intended only to " ac-knowledge that it may hurt somepeople's feelings."

Marjorie Rogers, a parent andself-described "six-day literal cre-ationist" led the drive that promptedthe stickers in2002. She said she wasnot advocating the teaching of reli-giory but more theories besides evo-lution. "I just want an even footing,if there's any kind of science to sup-port it," she testified.

A judge ruled in January that thestickers must be removed becausethey supported religion.

AFRAID: The Nobel Laureate inLiterature fot 2004, Elfriede Jelinekof Austria, did not go to Stockholmto receive her prize, but Swedish tel-evision recorded her speech in Vi-enna, and the tape was shown at theceremony. Before the awards werehanded out, Jelinek explained to TheNew York Times: "I did this becauseI cannot go to Sweden because ofmy'social phobia.' I cannot standcrowds. I hope this will end some-day, and I can have my life back."

VIVA THE SPLIT: The political di-vide in this countrv provided a

bounty for publishers. jack Roma-nos, chief executive of Simon &Schuste(, told The New York Times,"Good or bad, the split in Americaright now creates a publishing op-portunity on both sides of the fence.To publish for the middle of theroad right now would be suicide."

Marji Ross, president and pub-lisher of the conservative Regnery,said, "Any book needs to have a

sense of vitality and energy. Wedon't want to be publishing boringpolicybooks. We want people to feeltheir blood pressure rise when theyread our books."

BEST FRIENDS: Larry McMurtryhas written 28 novels and won a

Pulitzer Prize. His latest book isLoop Group. An interviewer for Pub-lishers Weekly commented that hehad often been praised for writingwell about women, and he replied,"I like to write about women. Myfriends are all women, my life hasbeen lived among women. If you aregoing to find anything out aboutemotion and how it functions in hu-man life, you're going to have tofind out from women. You won'tfind out from men."

THE BIG ONE: Last November, 365authors from 30 countries took partin the eight-day Miami Book FairInternational. There were readingsin five languages: English, Spanish,Portuguese, Creole and French.

Novelist Russell Banks, whowas there to promote his novel TheDarling, told The New York Timesthat Miami's Fair is "the best one inthe country. It doesn't feel regional,or even nationalistic. You get thesense of being in a more interna-tional setting."

At past fairs, the late poet Oc-tavio Paz, trailed by mariachis, sangrancheras. Judy Collins, there totalk about her book, sang "AmazingGrace," and when the late author

Hunter S. Thompson announcedthat he needed a drink, someone inthe audience went oLlt for a gallon ofWild Turke!, "from which the au-thor swigged during his talk."

FEUD: Charles McGrath, formereditor of the Book Review and nowa writer-at-large for The New YorkTimes, gave Tom Wolfe the full pro-file treatment on the occasion of /Am Charlotte Simmons, Old WhiteSuit's latest novel.

McGrath took the opportunity toretell how Wolfe once took on JohnUpdike, Norman Mailer and johnIrving by writing that "they'vewasted their careers by not engag-ing the life around them. . . . TheAmerican novel is dying, not of ob-solescence, but of anorexia. It needs. . . food . . . Food! Foodl Feed me! isthe cry of the 21st century in litera-ture and all the so-called serious artsin America."

The trio struck back. In a NewYorker review, Updike dismissedWolfe's A Man in Full as "entertain-ment." Mailer said that Wolfe wasnot a novelist but a "journalist."And lrving declared on TV: "Wolfe'sproblem is he can't . . . write. He'snot a writer!"

Recently Wolfe was quoted: "IfMailer attacks you, that must be be-cause you're good. When he ap-proves of you-that's when youshould start to worry."

QUARTET: Best-selling novelistGail Godwin has signed with Bal-lantine for four new books. The first,a novel entitled Queen of the Under-world, wlll be out in January 2006.

At the same time, according toPublishers Weekly, she will publishthe first half of a memoir, T/reMaking of n Writer. Then a secondrrovel, The Red Nun, will be pub-lished alongside the second half ofher memoir.

WORDMAN: David Shulmanhunted down the first use of thou-

Authors Gttitrl BullatinSil Spriug ttlOS

sands of words for the OxfordEnglish Dictionary. Some of histreasures include: The Great WhiteWay, BigApple, doozy, and hoochie-coochie. He found that "hot dog"was college slang before it was ap-plied to a sausage.

Shulman died in Brooklyn, hishome, last fall at the age of 91. In hisobituary, The New York Times saidhe "considered the New York PublicLibrary on Fifth Avenue his realhome. He commuted by subway toits rare books room, to which he do-nated valuable volumes."

Paul LeClerc, president of the li-brary said, "l never knew anyonewho thrilled to bookish discoveriesas he did."

When asked in a 1989 interviewwhat difference persnickety picki-ness makes, Shulman said, "Why,the same difference as being literateor illiterate, accurate or inaccurate,telling the truth or spreadingyarns."

EXPERIMENTER: Douglas Coup-land's new novel is Eleanor Righy.He told Publishers Weekly, "l comefrom the art school tradition. whereexperirnentation is the norm and thelait thing you want is to get into a

sort of rut. And I think, much to theanlroyance of my publisher, everybook I do is completely different intexture and content. And that justsort of reflects my attitude, which isfairly experimental. I am very lucky.I get to experiment for a living."

ABOUT WAR: Andrew Carroll, ed-itor of the best-selling War Letters:Extraordinartl Correspondence fromAmericstr Wars, will edit the NationalEndowment for the Arts anthologyof wartirne stories and reflections.The title will be Operation Home-coming: Writittg tlte Wartime Experi-ence.The anthology is intended topreserve firsthand battleground ex-periences in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Workshops by writers such as

leff Shaara, Tobias Wolff and

Richard Bausch are being con-ducted at about 20 military bases,and the book is scheduled for springof 2006. Carroll told The New YorkTimes that the troops' perspective"on war, combat, and life in the mil-itary represents the most authenticand insightful voices we have onthese subjects."

OUT OF PAIN: When Brent Run-yon was 14 years old, he dousedhimself with gasoline and set him-self on fire. Thirteen years later, hewrote about the experience in a

book, The Btrrn lournsls.He told Publishers Weekly that

writing the book "was absolutelyawful. It was all I could do to write500 words, then I would be emo-tionally ruined for the rest of theday.

"What I truly wish could happenwould be that this book could some-how travel back in time and land inthe hands of me when I was thirteenyears old. Then I would read thebook and not set myself on fire."

ACHE: William Trevor once told aninterviewer for Women's WearDaily, "I think of myself as a shortstory writer who also writes novels.A short story is manageable andeasy to carry around, while a novelis this great project that never seemsto have an end. The short story islike a sharp pain in the mind, whilethe novel is a long ache. But both aresurprisingly pleasurable."

BAD TASTE: According to Pub-lishers Weekly, comic George Car-lin's latest title, Whcn WilI lesusBrirrg the Pork Cltops, was intended"to piss off everyone (he figures thetitle would offend Christian, ]ewsand Muslims)." But the book be-came a bestseller before Thanks-giving with 375,000 copies in print.

Carlin promoted Wrcn Will JesusBrittg the Pork Chops in 18 citieswhere big crowds attended his sign-ings. Seven hundred fans turned up

at the Barnes & Noble in Manhat-tan's Union Square and 500 boughtcopies.

REACTION: Augusten Burroughsis the author of RunningWith Scis-sors, Dry and a new book of essays,Magical Thinking.

He told Publishers Weekly thatworking as an advertising executiveprepared him for critics. He said,"Advertising ideas that you workreally hard on are immediately shotdown, and then you have five min-utes to come up with somethingnew Similarly there are going to bepeople who really love every word Iwrite and those who think I'm thebiggesthack who ever lived, but myself-esteem doesn't come from mywriting. It's not my life."

BRUTAL PAST: f T LeRoy, 24, wasthe subject of a major article in TheNew York Times Sunday Style sec-tion. His initials have no periods af-ter them. J is for Jeremiah, his givennarne, and T is for Terminator, a

nickname he had on the sheet.LeRoy is the author of Sarah and

The Heart ls Deceitful Aboae AIIThings. His books have been trans-lated into 20 languages, and anovella, Harold's Ettd, was publishedin November. The Times said hisbooks are autobiographical, and"his mother was a drug addict andprostitute and . . . he spent his youthas a cross-dressing hooker, turningtricks in truck stop parking lots."

LeRoy was rescued from thestreets of San Francisco by outreachworker Emily Frasier who, with herhusband, served as surrogate par-ents. LeRoy saw Dr. TerrenceOwens, a child psychologist, andwas in therapy for three years.LeRoy began writing down histhoughts, a process that he creditswith helping him wean himself fromheroin. "I couldn't write when I washigh," he said.

TITLES: Christopher Moore has a

Atttlnrs Gtrilct Bulletirt|E spri,rg zoos

way with titles: Tfte Last Lizard ofMelanclrcIy Coae (1,999), Lanfu: The

Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Child-hood Pal (2002) and Fluke, Or, I KttowIMy the Winged thhale Sings (2003).

His latest, published just beforeChristmas, was The Stupidest Angel:A Heartwarming Tale of ChristmasTerror.

FREE: One of the fall's bestsellerswas the 567-page official report ofthe September 11 Commission. Ithas sold more than a million copies,"reads like a thriller" according toThe New York Times, and RonHoward and Brian Grazer plan toturn it into a television miniseries.The government document is in thepublic domain so the producers canuse the material without payingfor it.

The 91L7 Comntissiort Report wasconsidered a favorite when it wasnominated for the National BookAward for nonfiction, but it failed towin. The Times said that "some crit-icized its nomination because it waswritten by a committee with noidentifiable author."

WEIGHT GAIN: TV salesperson forPier 1, Kirstie Alley, has written abook entitled How to Lose Your Assand Gain Your Life. Publishers Week-ly says it should hit the bookstoresthis spring, at the same time hernew TV series, Fat Actress goes onthe air.

PROMOTER: )oe Meno's thirdbookis Hairstyles of the Damned, a paper-back original. Publishers Weeklydescribed the novel as an "autobio-graphical tale of a neurotic teen try-ing to figure out how to deal withgirls." The author says "it's abouthow punk music changes this par-ticular character's life."

Meno has promoted the book in30 cities, in bars as well as book-stores. The marketing tactic wasdescribed as "guerilla," and his pub-lisher's spokesman says, "]oe isn't

afraid to get in his car and drivewherever [we want] him to go."

SUIT: Glynn Wilson, an Alabamafreelance writer, contended thatKitty Kelley plagiarized materialfrom one of his articles in her best-selling The Fnmily: The Real Storyof the BushDynasty. According to TheNew York Times, "Seven paragraphsof material in the book, totalingabout 400 words, repeat verbatimor closely track sections of Mr.Wilson's article, titled 'George W.Bush's Lost Year in7972Alabama."'

Peter Charles Hoffer, a profes-sor at the University of Georgia whohas written about plagiarism, toldthe Times that Kelley's use appearedtroublesome. Hoffer said it consti-tuted plagiarism if an author re-peated quoted material from a

secondary source without citing thatsource, thereby making it appear asif the author interviewed the personherself.

Hoffer said that in addition, bor-rowing text from a source withoutputting the material in quotationmarks and without a nearby citationalso constituted plagiarism. Headded that including a source as oneof the many in a list at the end of thebook is generally considered inade-quate documentation. Hoffer is theauthor of Past Imperfect: Fscts,Fictio'tts, Fraud.

PRIZE: The National Book Awardceremony was showrr on C-SPANTV and Garrison Keillor was themaster of ceremonies.

What the winners were givenlooked like a bud vase, shiny brown,with a flared top. Keillor picked upone of them and said it was as heavyas a bowling ball. "lf you hit some-one with this ihey will stay downfor a long while," he promised.

MACHINED: Daniel Akst is authorof two novels, Webster Chronicle andSt. Burl's Obituary. He wrote an es-sav for The New York Times entitled

"Computers as Authors? LiterarvLuddites Unite!"

In it, Akst claimed that comput-ers "are perfectly capable of nonfic-tion prose, and while the reputationof Henry james is not yet threat-ened, computers can even generateoutbursts of fiction that are proba-bly superior to what many humanscould turn out-even those not inmaster of fine arts programs."

Akst quotes from a storywritten by Brutus1, a computer pro-grammed by Selmer Bringsjord ofRensselaer Polytechnic Institute andDavid A. Ferrucci, an I.B.M. re-searcher. The story begins:

"Dave Striver loved the univer-sity-its ivy-covered clock towers,its ancient and sturdy brick, and itssun-splashed verdant greens andeager youth. The universitv con-trarv to popular opinion, is far fromfree of the stark unforgiving trials ofthe business world; academia has itsown tests. and some are as mercilessas any in the marketplace. A primeexample is the dissertation defenseto earn the Ph.D. to become a doctor,one must pass an oral examinationon one's dissertation. This was a testProfessor Edward Hart enjoyed giv-i.9."

Steven Pinker, the Harvard psy-chologist, told Akst that while it isconceivable that computers willeventually write novels, "I doubtthey'd be very good novels by hu-man standards." He pointed outthat the human brain has 100 trillionsynapses that are subjected to a life-time of real life experience.

ABOUT BLURBS: Amy Einhorn, ex-ecutive editor of Warner TradePaperbacks, told Publishers Weeklythat she had not expected "estab-lished, respected authors such as

Frank McCourt or Anne RiversSiddons Ito] be incredibly generouswith blurbs. while much less suc-cessful authors say they don't givequotes, even though their ownbooks are covered with blurbs."

Ar.rthors Gttild BtrlletirtGEl spring zoos

WITNESS: Terry Iacuzzo is a psy-chic. Publishers Weekly interviewedher in her sixth-floor tenementapartment in Manhattan's LittleItaly. Her book is Small Mediums atLarge: The True Tale of a Family ofPsychics,

Iacuzzo said, "Writing was natu-ral. I would always tell stories in mytarot readings, so I can pull a storytogether. But I didn't just rememberthese stories from my life. I'm ableto call up things, to go back and bein that room. I did that for myclients. I would remember otherrooms, a moment in their life, andthey would say, 'You know aboutthat?' When I was writing I could goback in time and see everything andfeel it through my body. I have nofear. That's the key to everything."

PW asked if she could see whatwas going to happen with her book,and Iacuzzo said, "Of course I cansee it-I'm a psychic. It's going io bebig."

PLENTIFUL: In a roundup of 15

new self-help books, New YorkTimes reviewer Janet Maslin de-clared that "we are so inundated byguides and rules and manuals thatwe grow ever more difficult tosnooker. Sure, there are authorswilling to tell you how to date,break up, eat, diet, get rich and keepthe wolf from the door. But howmany of them have anything gen-uinely helpful to say?

"As a general rule in the world ofadvice-giving, plain old celebritiescan't match people who became fa-mousbecatrse they give advice. . . ."

THE WINNER: "As grateful as I amfor the award," novelist Lily Tucktold The New York Times, "I have toadmit it's been slightly destabiliz-ing." She was talking about theNational Book Award for fiction. a

controversial selection because Tirckwas one of five New York womenwhose books were nominated.

Tuck, a grandmother, tried to

In Memoriam

Jonathan AurthurJerome BrooksEster BuchholzPeter Burchard

josephine CarsonBruce Cassiday

Stephen ChristiansonTheodore Clymer

Babs DealRobert FusonTed GottfriedCharles fones

Richard KarlanKevin KelleghanLeonard Koppett

Keith MonroeLilian Moore

Stanley Moore

|ohn MorganKaylan PickfordMaia RodmanKris Rosenberg

fohn RyanHerbert Shore

John TebbelRichard Thorman

Dave Wheeler

write her first novel at age 10. Themain character was a horse. Hernovel Siam, or tlrc Woman Who Shot a

Man won a PEN/Faulkner nomina-tion in 1991., and she published twoother novels before The News fromParnguay won the National BookAward. Tuck, who was born in Parisand lived in Peru. attended Radcliffeand moved to Thailand with her firsthusband. They divorced and shemoved to New York City in1.977.

In7989, she studied writing withGordon Lish. She said, "He not onlytaught me how to write, but hetaught me to take myself seriouslyas a writer. Until theru when peopleasked me what I did. I'd tell them Ityped."

INK DROP: Lord Byron wrote:"Words are things, and a small dropof ink falling like dew upon a

thought produces that which makesthousands, perhaps millions, think."

NEW SHOP: Sarah McNally, whosefamily owns four bookstores inCanada, has opened an independentbookstore between Greenwich Vil-lage and Wall Street in Manhattan.

Since Barnes & Noble and Bor-ders invaded the city, independentshave been dying off, and The NewYork Times asked Bob Constant, co-owner of St. Mark's Bookshop, an in-dependent in the East Village, howMcNally could succeed. He said thechain stores "are the equivalent of abig supermarket or network televi-sion. We're a cable station or a gour-met store in comparison."

McNally agreed, but said herstore, like the big chains, would havea caf6, reduced prices on best-sellinghardcovers and a membership pro-gram offering further discounts. Sheadmitted that when she told peopleshe was opening a bookstore, "theyrespond as if I'm doing the most in-sane thing in the world. Even my ac-countant tried to talk me out of it."

THE END: There is a big hole on tel-evision at eight p.m. on Sundayevenings. After 15 years, BrianLamb, interviewer for C-SPAN'sBooknotes, ended the program. "Itwas time," he told The New YorkTimes. "Now I won't have to read abook a week just for the show."

Booknotes was devoted mostly tohistory, politics and public policy.C-SPAN 2 continues to devoteSaturdays and Sundays to nonfic-tion books.

BIRTHDAY FETES: Throughout2005, the Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha will celebrate the 400thanniversary of Cervantes's Don Qui-xofe. Activities will relate to the leg-endary knight's travels with SanchoPanza. Concerts will be held in town

A u tlrors G uild Butltt itr @ s1,ri,rg zoos

squares and 30 Quixote-themedplays will be performed in open-airtheaters.

NEXT: Ian McEwan's new novel,Saturday, is to be published inMarch. He is the author of Atonementand other dark novels. McEwan toldThe New York Times, "The novel isa very personal form. Perhaps I amful1 of fears. As a child I was a com-pulsive daydreamer. I spent a lot oftime thinking about the worst out-comes."

Saturday takes place on a singleday in February 2003 when morethan a million people took to thestreets in London to protest the warin Iraq.

TOUGH JOB: When an interviewerfor The Paris Review asked novelistRobert Stone if writing was easy forhim, Stone replied, "It's goddamnhard. Nobody really cares whetheryou do it or not. You have to makeyourself do it. I'm very lazy and Isuffer as a result. Of course, whenit's going well there's nothing in theworld like it. But it's also verylonely. If you do something you'rereally pleased with, you're in thecrazy position of being exhilaratedall by yourself."

BEING A BOOK: Israeli authorAmos Oz writes in his new book, ATaIe of Loue and Darkness: "I hoped Iwould grow up to be a book.

"Not a writer but a book. Andthat was from fear.

"Because it was slowly dawningon those whose families had not ar-rived in Israel that the Germans hadkilled them all. . . . if I grew up to bea book there was a good chance thatat least one copy might manage tosurvive, if not here then in someother country, in some city, in someremote library, in a corner of somegodforsaken bookcase. After all, Ihad seen with my own eyes howbooks manage to hide in the dustydarkness between the crowded

rows, underneath heaps of offprintsand journals, or find a hiding placebehind other books."

PIGEONHOLES: In his BostonGlobe column, "The ReadingLife,"fames Sallis observed: "Quite asidefrom blind chance and catastrophicclimate change such as wiped outdinosaurs, there are many reasons a

writer fails to receive the recognitionhe or she warrants. He may . . . [ike]Calder Willingham, be too much ofa particular time, sporter of spatsand ascot in a running-shoe, T-shirtsociety. He may, like TheodoreSturgeon, work in a genre that mar-ginalizes him a priori. His very pro-lificacy may have exhausted readers,as I suspect was the case for someyears with Anthony Burgess andnow may be with fohn Updike. Hiswork like that of |oseph McElroy,may prove too unconventional andchallenging, or like that of PercivalEverett, too wildly unpredictablefor mass consumption.

"He may, with an odd mixture offortune, become so well known foran early work, so intimately identi-fied with same, that later worknever quite gains its footholds."Christopher Isherwood, with The

Berlin Stories, was placed in that lastcategory.

AFFAiR: The aborted nomination ofNew York's former police commis-sioner Bernard B. Kerik to headHomeland Security unleashed a

flood of stories about Kerik's past.One was about an apartment inBattery Park.

According to The New YorkTimes, "During his use of the apart-ment, Mr. Kerik and Judith Reganengaged in an extramarital affairthere . . . Ms. Regan published hisbest-selling autobiography in 2001."At the time, Kerik was married withtwo children and lived in the Bronx.

Regan has her own imprint atHarperCollins. Her books often fo-cus on celebrities and scandals.

SERIAL: Brad Meltzer, a thrillernovelist, is author of ldentity Crisis, a

seven-part comic-book series aboutsuperh-eroes and a murder. The firstinstallment was released in fune2003 and the last came out in De-cember, when the murderer was re-vealed.

Meltzer told The New YorkTimes, "I can't tell you what it's liketo keep a secret going for this long.When I write one of my novels, thebook comes out all at once, and peo-ple can react to it all at once. It waslike releasing the work and waitingseven months for people to give youa full review."

POLITICS: From Judy Alter's col-umn in The Dallas Morning News:Lou Dubose, coauthor of Shrub(about President George W. Bush),and fan Reid, author of The Improba-ble Rise of Redneck Rock, will cowriteThe Hammer,Tom DeLay: God, Money,and the United States Congress. "Itgoes without saying," Alter com-mented, "that this new book by thetwo is not a defense of Mr. DeLay."

VIA BLOGS: Marrit Ingman, a

Texas journalist, used her blog'sreaders to convince a publisher thata memoir of postpartum depressionwould sell. Ingman said she askedher readers "to comment onwhether a book like mine would berelevant to them. Readers wroteback expressing why they wanted toread about the experience of mater-nal anger. I stuck their commentsinto my proposal as pulled quotes."

Ingman and her agent, IimHornfischer, sold her book, Incon-solable, to Seal Press Iast August.

Last June, a former Senate aide,

|essica Cutler, sold a Washington-focused novel to Hyperion for a

six-figure advance. She had beenwriting a blog about her sexual ex-ploits with politicos.

A British call girl who calls her-self Belle de Jour created a sensationwith a blog about her experiences,

Authors Gttrld Brtllctut|El spr,,,g arw

and Warner Books will publish hermemoir. AmyEinhom, executive ed-itor at Warner Books said, "l down-Ioaded the whole site, read it thatnight and then bought the book."

In October, Ana Marie Cox, edi-tor of a racy Washington-based blog,sold her first novel, Dog Days, toRiverhead for a$275,000 advance.

Kate Lee, an assistant at ICMagency, surfs the web for the bestwriters online and then suggests thatthey work with her to develop andsell a book. Lee represents ElizabethSpiers, a blogger who is now writinga satirical novel about Wall Street,and Glenn Reynolds, a Universityof Tennessee law professor and po-litical blogger. Lee said, "Word-of-mouth buzzis much more valuablethan paid advertising. I think ifthere's a reason people come to yoursite, there's a built-in audience."

HOT COPY Aset of 744page proofsof Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tlrc Scar-let Letter was sold for $545,100 at aChristie's auction in New York. Thepages are heavily marked with ad-ditions and corrections by the au-thor and proofreaders.

The buyer was a Baltimore bookdealer, The New York Times re-ported.

THE IRON IS HOT: The new sena-tor from Illinois, Barak Obama,made a $1.9 million deal with Ran-dom House for three books. TheAssociate Press reported that he willget $850,000 for each of the adultbooks and $200,000 for a children'sbook to be written with his wife andchildren. It will be based on his ex-periences as the "skinny young kidwith big ears and the funny name"who grew up to be a senator.

Obama's first book, Dreants FromMy Fnther, was a bestseller.

NEW SELLER: Peter W. Olson,chief executive of Random House,disclosed plans to sell books directlyto consumers through its own web-

site. The New York Times reportedthat "the book business is sufferingthrough a second consecutive yearof almost-flat sales. The average ageof book consumers continues toclimb, and except for children's andrelip;ious books, few areas of thebusiness seem to be picking up newreaders."

Steven Riggio, head of Barnes &Noble Inc., said he was "deeply con-cerned" by Ranclom House's plansto enter his business. Barnes &Noble, meanwhile, has increasedthe number of books it publishesand promotes them heavily.

TOUCHY: Holly McGhee, an agent,told Publishers Weekly: "There areless publishing houses, but morehigh-profile editors under fewerroofs. It's particularly challenging tosubmit to the appropriate editorwithout stepping on any toes."

SOLD: Bloomsbury Publishing, aBritish firm with a division inthe U.S., has purchased WalkerPublishing Company, a New Yorkindependent, for $6.5 million. NigelNewton. founder ancl chief execu-tive of Bloomsbury, told The NewYork Times, "In America, unlike inEngland, we're a small publisheraiming to become a medium-sizedone. Medium-sized is beautiful inpublishing."

George Gibson, publisher atWalker, said, "We didn't have themeans to publish [books] the waywe wanted." Now, Walker bookswill be distributed by St. Martin'sPress. Gibson said, "They have anextraordinary sales network. St.Martin's reaches everv known partof the book world."

SHIFT: Richard North Patterson ismoving from Random House toHenry Holt with Trial, a novel thatwill feature a trial that could have animpact on international relations. Itwill be published in February 2007.

A second book. with the tenta-

tive title ACertairt God.wlll be abouta candidate for president who risksall by confronting the Christianright. It's due out in 2008, just intime for the next campaign.

NLII\4BER 6: Httrry Potter nnd theHalf-Blood Prince , the sixth in the se-ries. will hit bookstore at 12:01 a.m.on July 16. The Times reported thatauthor ]. K. Rowling "delivered themanuscript before the birth of herthird child," in fanuary 2005.

The secretive Rowling gave onehint: The prince of the title is neitherHarry Potter nor the villain, Volde-mort.

MOTIVE: Curtis Sittenfeld, authorof a novel, Prep, kicked off an essayin The New York Times Book Re-view with: "During my first year atthe Iowa Writers' Workshop, a fewof us were sitting around one after-noon when several of my maleclassmates announced-with farless irony than vou'd imagine-thatthey had become writers in order toattract women. I believe the wordthey used was'babes,' as in,'l'm init for the babes."'

Sittenfeld complains that womensuffer from "groupie inequity." Shequotes fim Behrle, who works atBookCourt In Brooklyn: "There'ssomething charming and forgivableabout the slacker rock star literaryguy who shows up in his AC/DCshirt and hasn't washed in a coupleof days. But I don't think womencan pull that off as easily."

MESSAGE: Francine Prose, authorof Blue Angel, has published a newnovel entitled A Clnnged Matr.

She told Publishers Weekly, "Inever think of myself as having amoral. But certainly what seems soimportant to me now is what itseems we're losing in our culture:the very basic ability to empathize,to feel that others are human beingsjust as we are, though they may Iookdifferent and have a different set of

Atrthors Guiid Bullt,tm E Sl,ring zoo.;

beliefs. Everything, to me, comesfrom that: civility, democracy, civicresponsibility and peace."

KAFKA SINGS? Zadie Smith. au-thor of the novels White Teeth andThe Autograph Man, is writing a mll-sical about Franz Kafka. She wasquoted in The New York Times: "It'snot exactly a cheery, high-kicking af-fair. . . . God knows who wants towatch a musical about Kafka. We'llhave to wait and see, I guess."

Smith, whose new novel, OltBeauty, will be published in 2005, isa Radcliffe fellow at Harvard.

SEQUEL: Kaye Gibbons, author ofseven bestsellers, has written a se-quel to her first and most popularnovel, Ellen Foster. It will be pub-lished in the fall.

PROLIFIC PRES: The New YorkTimes Book Review's "Inside theList" column noted that formerPresident fimmy Carter "has be-come the foyce Carol Oates ofAmerican ex-presidents. He haspublished no fewer than 19 books,17 of them since he left office, andmore than half have made the Times

[bestseller] list."

TEAMWORK: Caroline Todd andher son Charles Todd wrote A CoIdTreachery, a mystery that says on thecover it's by Charles Todd.

A reporter at Publishers Weeklyasked them how they divided thewriting, and Caroline Todd said:"We don't actually divide it. If wecan get the first page dowry the restof the story falls into line, the firstpage sets the tone, and we startthinking what would come out ofthe situation or conversation. We'lIwrite something and discuss some-thing and see if it sounds the way itwould happen in real life. Whoevercomes up with the best solution,that goes into the manuscript."

Charles Todd added, "One of thegreatest compliments we get is

when people tell us they can't tellwhere Charles stops and Carolinebegins."

OY VEY: Number 23 on the ex-tended bestseller list during the hol-idays was YiddishWith Dick and Jane,by Ellis Weiner and Barbara Davel-man. The book is a parody of the oldchildren's books intended to teachreading.

A sample from the Yiddish ver-sion: "See |ane schlep./Schlep, Jane.Schlep. / Schlep, schlep, schlep." Thepublisher of the original Dick and

Jane books is suing.

POLITICAL NOVEL: CaliforniaSenator Barbara Boxer has written a

novel (with help from Mary-RoseHayes) about a woman who stepsinto her dead husband's politicalshoes and has to fight for her ownpolitical life. The book is due out inthe fall.

TRIBUTE: The Bosnian city of Sara-jevo has named a street for Ameri-can author Susan Sontag, who diedin December (see Deaths below).During the war in Bosnia from\992to 7995, Sontag visited the city manytimes and helped stage a productionof Waiting for Godot there in 1993.

The New York Times quoted a

statement from the mayor's office:"The city of Sarajevo and its citizensexpress their sincere thanks to anauthor and a humanist who activelyparticipated in the creation of thehistory of Sarajevo and Bosnia."

Sontag once wrote: "My idea ofa writer: someone interested in'everything.' I had always had inter-ests of many kinds, so it was naturalfor me to conceive of the vocation ofa writer in this way. And reasonableto suppose that such fervencywould find more scope in a greatmetropolis than in any variant ofprovincial life, including the excel-lent universities I had attended. Theonly surprise was that there weren'tmore people like me."

NEW WORK: fose Saramago, win-ner of the 1998 Nobel in literature, isauthor of The Intennittencies of Death,

a new novel to be published inOctober. Saramago's books l'ravebeen published in more than 30 lan-guages and sold 3.5 million copies.

Speaking in Rome, before a per-formance of a musical based on a

children's story he wrote 30 yearsago, Saramago, 81, said of children'stales: "They are rnoral fables thatteach values which we consider in-dispensable, like solidarity, respectfor others and goodness. But after,we as adults forget these lessons inreal life."

TRANSPLANTED: Chicago writerAlex Kotlowitz is the author ofNeaer n City So Real: A Walk irtChicago. Although he was born inNew York City, Kotlowitz told TheNew York Times: "I love the messyvitality of [Chicago], the energy ofthis city. You do feel the fissureshere. All the contradictions in thiscountry, all the paradoxes, arewithin the boundaries of this city."

A WORD: ln One Writer's Begin-rrings, Eudora Welty recalls becom-ing aware of the word "moon"when she was six years old: "Therecomes the moment, and I saw itthen, when the moon goes from flatto round. For the first time it met myeyes as a globe. The word'moon'came into my mouth as though fedto me out of a silver spoon. Held inmy mouth the moon became a

word. It had the roundness of a

Concord grape Crandpa took off hisvine and gave me to suck out of itsskin whole, in Ohio."

NEW EDITOR: Publishers Weekly'scirculation of 25,000 has lost about3,000 subscribers, and so what hasReed Elsevier, the owner, done?Hirecl a new editor-Sara Nelson,former books editor of The NewYork Post, who moved to PW inTanuarv.

Atrthors cttilrl Butletin@ sT,rirg zoos

The New York Times reportedthat the circulation decline wascaused by competition from Internetsites, e-mail newsletters and dailynewspapers. "The consolidation ofthe publishing business and the de-mise of many independent book-sellers has eaten into the magazine'spool of potential subscribers," theTimes said.

William McGorry, PW's pub-lisher, told the Times: "We want togive a perspective on the industrythat is different from the traditionaltrade press. Sara, first and foremost,loves books, and clearly that willcome across."

JOB CHANGES, NEW TITLES"

Children's book agent PaulRodeen has opened an office forSterling Lord Literistic in Chicago.

Beth Sutinis/ senor editor at DK,has been promoted to publishing di-rector.

Kathryn Belden, former senioreditor at Four Walls, Eight Win-dows, is executive editor at Blooms-bury, acquiring both fiction andnonfiction.

Michael Fisher has been namededitor-in-chief at Harvard Univer-sity Press.

Tracy Behar, editorial director ofAtria and Washington Square Press,has moved to Little Brown as execu-tive editor. She plans to create andshape a list of books on parenting,spirituality and science.

*Compiled from Publishers Weekly

DEATHS

Henny Backus,93, died Decem-ber 9 in Los Angeles. She was authorof Care for the Caretaker (1999),and, with her husband, comic |imBackus, coauthor of Whnt Are YouDoing After the OrgyT (7962), BackusStrikes Back (1984) and Forgiue UsOur Digressions (1988).

Pierre Berton, 84, died Novem-ber 30 in Toronto. The historian wasauthor of more than 50 books, in-cluding The Nationnl Dream (1,974)

and Klottdike: The Life and Death of the

Last Great GoId Rush (1958).

Neil A. Campbell, 58, diedOctober 21 in Redlands, Calif. Histextbook, Biology, was published in1987, and he also wrote EssentialBiology and Biology: Concepts andConnections. Total sales reached fivemillion copies.

Humphrey Carpenter, 58, died]anuary 4 in Oxford, England. Hewas the author of W. H. Auden: ABiography (7981.), A Serious Character:The Life of Ezra Ponnd (1988), Ben-jamin Britten (1992) and many otherbiographies.

Iris Chang 36, died November 9in Los Gatos, Calif. She was the au-thor of Thread of the Silkworm (7995)and the best-selling The Rape ofNanking: The Forgotten Holocaust ofWorld War n 0997).

Peter Davison,76, died Decem-ber 29 in Boston. He spent 40 yearsas a literary editor of the AtlanticMonthly Press and Houghton Miff-lin and was the author of 11 vol-umes of poetry. He wrote a memoir:The Fading Smile: Poets in Boston,From Robert Frost to Robert Loutell toSylu in P I a th, 19 55-19 60 (1964).

Douglas Day,72, died October10 in Charlottesville, Va. He was theauthor of Mslcolm Lowry: A Biogra-phy (1,972), Swifter Than Reason: ThePoetry and Criticisrn of Robert Graaes(1963), and two novels, lourney of the

Wolf (1.977) and The Prison Notebooksof Ricardo Flores Magotr (1981).

Frederica de Laguana, 98, diedOctober 6 in Haverford, Pa. The pro-fessor at Bryn Mawr College wasauthor of Voyage to Greenland (7977),

The Archaeology of Cook Inlet (1934),The Prehistory of Northern NorthAmerica as Seen from the Yukon (1947)and the three-volume Under MottntSnint Elias: The Historv and Culture ofthe Yakutttt Tlingit (igZZ). She also

wrote two mystery novels; TheArrout Points to Murder (7937) andFog on the Moutttsin (i938).

Otis Dudley Duncan, 82, diedNovember 16 in Santa Barbara,Calif. The social scientist was coau-thor of The Atnericnn OccuaationalStructure (1967).

Paul Edwards, 81, died Decern-ber 9 in Manhattan. A professor atthe New School and Brooklyn Col-lege, he was also the author of Re-incarnation: A Critical Examintrtion(1,996). Heidegger's Confusions, a col-lection of his articles, was publishedlast November.

Dennis Flanagan, 85, died fanu-ary 14 in Manhattan. The editor ofScientific American for 37 years wasauthor of Flanagan's Version: ASnectator's Guide to Science on the Eae

of the 21st Century. (1988).

Harry Fleischman, 90, died No-vember 1 in Manhattan. He wasthe author of Normnn Thomas: ABiography (7954) and Let's Be Human(7960), a collection of his syndicatedcolumns.

Lucy Freeman,88, died Decem-ber 1 in the Bronx. She was the au-thor of Fight Agninst Fenrs (1951) and77 other books, including a memoir(1989), and mystery novels.

Joseph Ffansen, 81, died No-vember 24 in Laguna Beach, Calif.He was the author of 40 books. in-cluding 12 Brandsetter mysteriesabout a gay detective. The first wasFndeout (1970) and the last was AConntry o.f Old Men (1991).

Frank Harary,83, died January 4in Las Cruces, N.M. The mathscholar was the author of GrapltTheort1Q969).

Gene R. Hawes, 82, died Sep-tember 4 in Chappaqua, N.Y. Hewas the author of Hswes Contprehen-sizte Guide to Colleges (1978), HswesGttide to Successfttl Study Skills(1981), Hazoes on Getting lnto College(1983) and other how-to books.

Anthony Hecht, 81, died Octo-ber 20 in Washington. The poet was

Authors Guitrl Bulletitt|@ sprirrg zoos

author of A Summoning of Stones(1954) and a half-dozen more booksof poetry. He also wrote two booksof critical essays and a study of W.H. Auden's poetry, The Hidden Law(1983). He was awarded the Bollin-gen Prize and the $100,000 TanningPrize for lifetime achievement.

Robert L. Heilbroner, 85, died]anuary 4 in Manhattan. An econo-mist and professor, his first bookwas a bestseller, The Worldly Philo-sophers: The Liaes, Times and ldeas ofthe Great Economic Thinkers (1953).

He also wrote 19 more books, in-cluding The Limits of AmericanCapitalism (1966) and 27st CentnryCapitalism (1,993), which sold morethan 10 million copies.

John Hess, 87, died ]anuary 21 inManhattan. The former food criiicfor The New York Times was coau-thor, with his wife, of The Taste ofAmerica (7977).

Tracy Hogg,44, died November25 in northern England. She wasa nanny for several Hollywoodcelebrities and coauthor of the best-selling Secrets of the Baby Whisperer:Hozp to Calm, Connect and Communi-cate zuith Your Baby (2001). The BabyWhisterer Sohses AII Your Problemswas published in fanuary.

Reed lrvine, 82, died November16 in Rockville, Md. Founder of a

group that criticized the media,Irvin was author or co-author ofseveral books, including Media Mis-chief and Misdeeds (1984).

Elizabeth ]aneway, 91,, diedfanuary 15 in Rye, N.Y. Her novelsincluded The Walsh Girls (7943),Daisy Kenyon (1.9a5), Leaaing Home(1953) and Accident (7964). Her non-fiction included Man's World, Wo-

ntsn's Pltrce (1,971), Between Myth andMorning: Wonrcn Au,akuing (7974)and lmproper Behnaiar (1987). Shealso wrote several books for youngpeople.

Charlotte Macleod, 82, died|anuary 14 in Lewiston, Maine. Shewas author of more than 30 mvstervnovels, which sold more than a mii-lion copies in the U.S. She also wroteunder the name of Alisa Craig. Herobituary by the Associated Presslisted no titles.

]ackson Maclow, 82, diedDecember 8 in Manhattan. The poetand composer was author of morethan two dozen books of poetry, in-cluding Pieces o' Six: Thirty-ThreePoems in Prose (7992).

]ohn McNamara,92, died Octo-ber 15 in the Bronx. He was the au-thor of History in Asphnlt: The Originof Brottx Street and Place Names (1978)

nnd Ttuogs Neck, Pelhnm Bay (7998).

David Nyhan, 64, died January23 in Brookline, Mass. The BostonGlobe columnist was author of a bi-ography of Michael Dukakis, T/rc'

Duke (1988).

Noel Perrin,77, died November21 in Thetford Center, Vt. The pro-fessor at Dartmouth was author ofFirst Person Rural ('1.978), AmateurSugar Maker (1.972), Dr. Botttdler'sLegacy: A History of Expurgated Books

in England and America (1969) andSoIo: Life u,ith an Electric Cnr (1992).

Miriam Schlein, 78, died No-vember 23 in Manhattan. She wasthe author of nearly 100 books, in-cluding A Dny at the Plnyground(1951), Discoaering Dinosaur Bnbies(1991,), The Dino Quiz Book (1995)and Before the Dinosaurs (1996). Herlast two books appeared last year:

The Story About Me and Little Rac-coon's Big Qtrcstion.

Harry Schwartz, 85, died No-vember 10 in New Rochelle, N.Y.The editorial writer for The NewYork Times was author of Rttssia'sSoztiet Econonnl (.951.), The Red Phoe-nix (1961) and The Cnse for AntericanMedicine (7972).

Susan Sontag, 71, died Decem-ber 28 in Manhattan. She was thear"rthor of Illness as Metaphor (1978),Against Interpretation (1966), Styles ofRndical Will (1.969), Ott Pltotography(1977) and three nouels, Desth Kit(1967), The Volcano Loaer (1992) andln America (2000).

Frank Vandiver, 79, diedJanuary7 in College Station, Texas. He wasauthor, coauthor or editor of twodozen books. His books includedPloughshnres Into Stt'ords (1,952),

Mighty Stonezttall (7957), Rebel Brass:The Confederate Commnnd Systent(1956) and Blood Brothers: A ShortHistorr1 of the Ciuil Wnr (1.992).

Mona Van Duyn, 83, died De-cember 2 in St. Louis. She was theauthor of eight books of poetry,many of them collected in SelectedPoenrs ((2002). She was named U.S.poet laureate in 1992, the first wo-man to be chosen. Near Changes wonthe Pulitzer in 1990. Her obit in TheNew York Times quoted two linesfrom one of her po"*r' "The worldis perverse,/but it could be worse."

Arthur C. Walworth, 101, diedJanuary 10 in Needham, Mass. Hewas awarded the Pulitzer Prize forhis two-part biography of WoodrowWilson. and later wrote Wilson andHis P eacenukers: American Diplonucyat the Paris Peace Conference, 7919(1986). +

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From the President

Continued f'ront page 4

Grokster should be held liable as a secondary copy-right infringer.

In spite of the fact that we weren't unanimous (thevote was 16 to 3), I believe the Grokster debate was anexample of an organization functioning at its best.Good minds were working to defend writers and de-code important issues that affect writers' livelihoods.Council members devoted much time and attention toan important decisiory and it's a function of their ded-ication to the Guild and its mission that they werefully engaged.

It's certainly not the last question we'll face involv-ing copyright and the dilemmas created by our in-creasingly digital world as we continue to assess theopportunities and liabilities created for authors by theInternet. We may even have to learn to live withGrokster, depending on how the Supreme Court rules;the justices hear arguments on March 31 and a rulingis expected thereafter. No matter how that case turnsout, I'm grateful that we have so many capable peoplethinking about these matters on behalf of writers.

In January, the Guild ""4

;" Association of Authors'Representatives sponsored a panel on authors andbook publicity. Its title was "Standing Above theCrowd: Platforms and Publicity in a Crowded Market-place." Put another way, it was about brand-build-ing-how authors increasingly have to work tobecome brand names if they want to be successful.

The panelists were all terrific. Beth Dickey, the di-rector of publicity for Hyperion, related some starktruths: She reminded the audience that in-house pub-Iicists have a dozen or more books to promote at atime, that you're going to get a limited amount of at-tention, and that the more you nag for more, the lessyou're likely to get. Novelist and African-American so-cial and music historian Nelson George provided con-crete examples of what it means to build a brand in theprocess of your writing. He talked about specializing,so that you get calls from the media when your area ofexpertise is in the news. But it was E. Jean Carroll, Ellemagazine advice columnist, biographer of Hunter S.

Thompson, and website entrepreneul who reallyshook the audience. This womary replete with leather

jacket, snakeskin boots, chunky glasses, and a collec-tion of exclamations and exasperated sighs that ex-ploded out of her like bombshells, was a force ofnature. She was utterly convincing when she talkedabout the constant demands of self-promotion, andwhen she related how hard it was to keep up all theballs she was juggling-the appearances on Oprah, thewebsites that attract millions of hits, the cheeky advicecolumn-you glimpsed a reality that authors shy fromat their peril.

The next day, we received an e-mail from someonewho had been disturbed by Carroll's presentation. Sheobjected to Carroll's view that authoring a book is of-ten only a part of a person's "brand" development, butprimarily her reaction was to a question from the au-dience. The young, attractive questioner wanted toknow if she could be part of the campaign for a bookshe had ghost-written. "You should be because you aregreat-looking. And I swear to God, that's 94 percent ofit right there," Carroll said. "You should be on TV justfor the way you look." It was the bald emphasis on su-perficiality that I think most upset our e-mail corre-spondent, the idea that appearance rules. We laborover our words, and believe they should count for atleast as much as a sexy look and a flawless smile. Shealso resisted Carroll's notion that authors have tospend as much time or more on promotion as they doon writing. "The majority of writers don't do this.They can't," she wrote. "They try to find enough timeto WRITE the books and then do a little pr."

Too true. And it's also a fact, among many of theauthors I know, at any rate, that they don't really rel-ish the demands of publicity. We all want to be read,to be literary stars, to discuss our work and share ourviews of it. But we don't all have the taste or the timefor beating our own drums. And part of that is the fearof the trap of superficiality.

But Carroll was simply revealing one example ofwhat writers have always had to do to catch the pub-lic eye. Charles Dickens and Mark Twain were espe-cially good at it, lecturing and giving readings onextended tours. E. B. White once wrote, "No oneshould come to New York to live unless he is willingto be lucky." The same can be said of writing. We wantour words to speak for themselves, but the reticence ofa J. D. Salinger is not allowed these days. No oneshould spend the time to write a book unless he or sheis willing to be successful, and that means pouring ourtime and hearts and souls into the things that bring at-tention-not to us, but to the work we do, so that inspite of all the odds, we, too, might get lucky. *

Autltors Gttitd Bultetin|E| s1rri,,g zoos

A Whitewashed Earthsea

Continued from pnge 11

man of color among the main characters (althoughthere are a few others among the spear-carriers). A farcry from the Earthsea I envisioned. When I lookedover the script, I realized the producers had no under-standing of what the books are about and no interestin finding out. All they intended was to use the nameEarthsea, and some of the scenes from the books, in a

generic McMagic movie with a meaningless plot basedon sex and violence.

Most of the characters in my fantasy and far-futurescience fiction books are not white. They're mixed;they're rainbow. In my first big science fiction novel,The Left Hand of Darkness, the only person from Earthis a black mary and everybody else in the book is Inuit(or Tibetan) brown. In the two fantasy novels the mini-series is "based ory" everybody is brown or copper-redor black, except the Kargish people in the East andtheir descendants in the Archipelago, who are white,with fair or dark hair. The central character Tenar, a

Karg, is a white brunette. Ged, an Archipelagan, is red-brown. His friend, Vetch, is black. In the miniseries,Tenar is played by SmaIIoiIIe's Kristin Kreuk, the onlyperson in the miniseries who looks at all Asian. Gedand Vetch are white.

My color scheme was conscious and deliberatefrom the start. I didn't see why everybody in sciencefiction had to be a honky named Bob or |oe or Bill. Ididn't see why everybody in heroic fantasy had to bewhite (and why all the leading women had "violeteyes"). It didn't even make sense. Whites are a minor-ity on Earth now-why wouldn't they still be either a

minority, or just swallowed up in the larger coloredgene pool, in the future?

The fantasy tradition I was writing in came fromNorthern Europe, which is why it was about whitepeople. I'm white, but not European. My people couldbe any color I liked, and I like red and brown andblack. I was a little wily about my color scheme. I fig-ured some white kids (the books were published for"young adults") might not identify straight off with a

brown kid, so I kind of eased the information aboutskin color in by degrees-hoping that the readerwould get "into Ged's skin" and only then discover itwasn't a white one.

I was never questioned about this by any editor.No objection was ever raised. I think this is greatly tothe credit of my first editors at Parnassus and Athe-neum, who bought the books before they had a repu-tation to carry them.

But I had endless trouble with cover art. Not on thegreat cover of the first edition-a strong, red-brownprofile of Ged-or with Margaret Chodos Irvine's fourfine paintings on the Atheneum hardcover set, but alltoo often. The first British Wizard was this pallid,droopy, lily-like guy-I screamed at the sight of him.

Graclually I got a little more clout a little more say-so about covers. And very, very, very gradually pub-

"The fantasy tradition I was writing in

came from Northern Europe,

which is why it was about white people.

I'm white, but not European. My people

could be any color I liked,

and I like red and brown and black."

lishers may be beginning to lose their blind fear ofputting a nonwhite face on the cover of a book. "Hurtssales, hurts sales" is the mantra. Yeah, so? On mybooks, Ged with a white face is a lie, a betrayal-abetrayal of the book, and of the potential reader.

I think it is possible that some readers never evennotice what color the people in the story are. Don't no-tice, don't care. Whites of course have the privilege ofnot caring, of being "colorbLind." Nobody else does.

I have heard, not often, but very memorably, fromreaders of color who told me that the Earthsea bookswere the only books in the genre that they felt in-cluded in-and how much this meant to them, partic-ularly as adolescents, when they'd found nothing toread in fantasy and science fiction except the adven-tures of white people in white worlds. Those lettershave been a tremendous reward and true joy to me.

So far no reader of color has told me I ought to buttout, or that I got the ethnicity wrong. When they do,I'll listen. As an anthropologist's daughter, I am in-tensely conscious of the risk of cultural or ethnic im-perialism-a white writer speaking for nonwhitepeople, co-opting their voice, is an act of extreme arro-gance. In a totally invented fantasy world, or in a far-future science fiction setting, in the rainbow world wecan imagine, this risk is mitigated. That's the beautyof science fiction and fantasy-freedom of invention.

But with all freedom comes responsibility. Whichis something these filmmakers seem not to under-stand. i

Atrtlrcrs Guild Buttetirt|E sprirg zoos

Letters

Continued from page 2

I good editor once taught me that the most effec-fltive essays or opinion pieces always contain truefacts or anecdotes, not just generic personal opinion.President Nick Taylor's message (Winter 2005) is shorton facts and anecdotes but plumped full of thinlyveiled prejudice against political conservatives-ironicin a message devoted to the lack of tolerance in our po-litical discourse.

Mr. Taylor writes, ". . . tolerance is not ascendant inour national life today. It's intolerance that sells, draw-ing listeners to talk radio and viewers to cable newsnetworks." "Talk radio" and "cable news networks"are obviously code for "conservative." But I wonderhow often Mr. Taylor listens to talk radio, whose mostpopular hosts, such as Michael Medved and HughHewitt, regularly encourage opposing points of viewfrom callers and guests. Has it occurred to Mr. Taylorthat in the arena of talk radio and cable news, it maysimply be that the conservatives are winning thebattle of ideas and audiences? I agree with Mr. Taylorthat writers are often rebels who must be prepared toresist intolerance. As a politically conservative writer,

Legal Watch

Cotttinued frorn page 74

nied Discovery's anti-SLAPP motion, because Gatesshowed he might prevail on his invasion of privacyclaim.

The Court of Appeals, relying on a 1.975 U.S. Su-preme Court decision, Cox Broadcasting Corporation a.

Cohn, dismissed the invasion of privacy claim. Corheld that "the states may not impose sanctions [includ-ing tort liability] on the publication of truthful infor-mation contained in official court records open topublic inspection." As a matter of law, therefore, Gatescould not prevail on the invasion of privacy claim be-cause Discoverv had broadcast truthful informationcontained in official public records.

The California Supreme Court affirmed the dis-missal of Gates's claim, concurring with the appealscourt that the holding in Cor was dispositive. It further

though, I find the preponderance of intolerance com-ing from the left, not the right, and in the communityof writers, it has become as tiresome as it is reflexive.If Mr. Taylor really values tolerance, I suggest he listento or read some of the intellectually honest and re-freshing ideas coming from the right. If he can manageto do so, he may be less inclined to malign conserva-tives so regularly in the pages of the Authors GuildBulletin.

-Judy Gruen

Los Angeles

l) e: Winter 2005, Along Publishers Row item on TheI\National League of American Pen Women

Every professional group filled with talented;charismatic; intriguing; exciting; forceful; variedpeople have occasional flare-ups. The last thing thisstunning group of distinguished women need is anapologist to speak for them. The NLAPW will weathertheir current legal troubles and all of us who are proudto be members will be writing, painting, designing,creating on all levels and enriching our communitiesand ourselves.

-Mary L. Margrave-JohnsonPast President,

Sacramento California Branch. NLAPW

explained that in the aftermath of Cox, the U.S. Su-p.e*" Court has held that if the media "lawfully ob-tains truthful information about a matter of publicsignificance then state officials may not constitution-ally punish publication of the information, absent a

need to further a state interest of the highest order."In this case. the court concluded that the state's in-

terest in protecting the long-term anonymity of a reha-bilitated former convict falls short of this standard.Indeed, the fact that the state itself had made the infor-mation publicly available weighed against a findingthat concealing it was of the highest importance to thestate. To rule otherwise would lead to a classic chillingeffect on reporting matters that the state deemed im-portant enough to make publicly available.

The decision gives California-based reporters moreleeway to report the news, regardless of when the rel-evant incidents occurred, without subiecting them-selves to lawsuits.

Atrtlnrs Cuitd Bulletin|3t Spriug ZOOS

-Michael Gross

BOOKS BY MEMBERSOpal Palmer Adisa: Caribbean Passiorr;

Mike Albo (with Virginia Heffer-nanl: The Underminer: Tlrc Best FriendWto Casually Destroys Your Life;Thomas B. Allen: The Bonus Army: AttAmerican Epic; The Deep Dark: Disnsterand Redemntion in America's RichestSilaer Mine; Rudolfo Anaya: lemezSpring; The Santero's Mirncle; Serafina's

Stories; Tortuga; Laurie Halse Ander-son: Prom; ferry Apps: RinglingailleUSA: The Stupendous Story of Seaett

Siblings and Their Stwtning CircusSuccess; fennifer Armstrong: Photo byBrady: A Picture of the Ciail War; NickArvin: Articles of War; Sandy Asher:Too Many Frogs!; fames Atlas: My Lifein the Middle Ages;

Aniali Baneriee: Maya Runninq; MarcIan Barasch: Field Notes on the Conrcas-sionate Life; MarthaBeck'. Lenuing the

Saints: Hoto I Lost the Mornrons nndFound My Faith; Elizabeth Benedict:The Practice of Deceit, ANooel;WilliamBernhardt: Dark Eyr; MirandaBeverly-Whittemore: The Effects ofLight; Raymond Bial: IMere Wnshing-ton Walked; Betty G. Birney: FriendslripAccording to Humphrey; Holley Bish-op: Robbing the Bees; Tom Bissell: GodLiaes in Sf. Petersburg; LawrenceBlock: All the Flozoers are Dyirtg; TomBodett: Norman Tuttle on the LastFrontier; Robert Bonazzi (ed.): BlackLike Me; Scattered Shadows: A Memoir ofBlindness ard Vision; Fergus M. Borde-wich: Bottnd for Canaan; WilliamBoyd,: Fascinatiorr; Barbara TaylorBradford: Unexpected Blessittgs; Kim-berly Brubaker Bradley: The Presi-dent's Datrghter; loan Brady: Bleedottt;Kelly Braffet: losie and lack; WaltBrasch: The loy of Sax: America Duringthe Bill Clinton Era; Poppy Z. Brite:Prime;Judy Budnilz: Nice Big Amer-ican Bnby: Stories; Jan Burke: Blood-llnes; Anne Bustard: Buddtl: The Storvof Btrddy Holly;

Joanne Cantor: Teddy's TV Troubles;Paula f. Caplan (and Lisa Cosgrove):Bias in Psychiatric Diagrtosis; RichardAdams Carey: The Philosopher Fish:Sturgeon, Cattiar antl the Geography of

Desire; Eric Carle: 10 Little RubberDucks; Mary Ann Caws: Surrealism;Arthur C. Clarke: Sunstorm: BookTzpo

of ATime Odvssey; Andrew Clements:The Last Holiday Concert; Esther Co-hen: Book Doctor; Bob Colacello:Rottnie and Nancy: Their Path to theWrite House; Sally Cook: Good NightPillozu Fight; John K. Cooley: Art AII|-ance Against Babylon, the US,Israel andlraq; Susan Cooper: The Magician'sBoy; Pelet Craig: Blood Father; PhyllisCurott: The Loue Spell; Linda Curtis:Integral Ballet;

Jeanne M. Dams: Winter of Discorrtent;Claire Daniels: Cruel and UnusttalItrttrition; Arthur C. Danto: UnnaturalWonders: Essays from the Gap Betztteett

Art and Lry'; Nicholas Delbanco: AnrT-

ultere Out of tlrc World; Paul Dickson:The Bonus Army: An American Epic;Arthur Dorros: lulio's Magic;

Michelle Edwards: Papa's Latkes;

Dotti Enderle: The Btrrning Pendr.ilum;

Firth Haring Fabend: A Catch ofGrandntothers; Elizabeth Fackler: Erzd-

Iess Ri-oer; Ellen Feldman:. The Boy IMoLooed Anne Frank; Reis Felix:. Througha Portagee Gnfe; Connie May Fowler:The Problem utith Murmur Lee; IsdithBloom Fradin ( and Dennis BrindellFradin): The Power of One: Daisy Bates

and the Little Rock Nine; Steven Fraser:Eaery Man a Speculator: A History ofWaII Street in Americnn Life; LynnFreed: The Curse of the AppropriateMnn; Samuel G. Freedman: IMo She

Was: My Search for My Mother's Life;

James R. Gaines: Eaening in the Palaceof Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Greatin the Age of Enlightenntent; YasmineGalenorn: Murder Urtder n MysticMoon; Brad Geagley: Year of theHyenas: A Noael of Murder in AncientEgypt; Lindsay Barrett George: The

Secret; Dr. Maurice Godwin: Tracker:Huttting Doutn Serial Killers; SylviaGoldfarb: Relietitrg Pain Naturally;Gloria Goldreich: Walking Home; loanGould: Spinning Strnw into Gold: IMatFairy Tales Reaeal about the Transforma-tion in a Woman's Life; Nikki Grimes:

At lerusalem's Gate: Poems of Easter;

Jane Guill: Nectar.from a Stone;

Carolyn Hart: Death of the Party;

James Haskins: African Heroes in theBlack Star Series; Building a New Lattd:African Americans in Colonial America;Deliaering Justice: W. W. Laur and the

Great Saaannah Boycott; Chad Haut-mann: Billie's Ghost; |udith Ryan Hen-dricks: The Baker's Apprentice; DonnaHenes: The Queen of My SeIf: Steppingittto Soaereignty in Midlife; B. G. Hen-nessy: The Attic Christmas; HomerHickam: The Ambassador's Son; CtaigHolden: The Narcissist's Daughter;Barbara Holland: lNhen AII the WorldWas Young; Scott C. Holstad: CeIIs; IedHorne: Desire Street: A True Story ofDeath and Deliaerance in Neut Orleans;Edward Hower: The Storms of May;Paul Huson: Mystical Origins of theTarot: From Ancient Roots to ModernUsage;

Jane Isenberg: Hot orr the Trail;

Patrick Jennings: Out Standing in MyField; Angela Johnson: A Sweet Smellof Roses; Molly Jong-Fast: The Sex

Doctors in the Basement: True Stories

from a Semi-Celebrity Childhood; lac-queline Jules: Noch and the Ziz;

feffrey Kacirk Infonnal English; KarenKatz: My First Chinese New Year; PegKehret: Abduction! : Laurence Klavan:The Shooting Script; DeanKoontz: LifeExpectancy; Stephen Krensky: Danger-ous Crossing: The Reaolutionary Voyageof John Quincy Adams; Maxine Kumin:lack attd Other New Poems;

Anne Lamott: Plan B: Further Thoughtson Faith: Petet Lefcoart: The Man-hattan Beach Project; fonathan Lethem:The Disappointment Artist; Leslie Li:Daughter of Heaaen: A Mentoir withEarthly Recipes; Sam Lipsyte: HomeLand; Jean Little: Pippirt the ChristmasPig; Sarah Darer Littman: Confessiorrsof a Closet Catholic; Patricia Lunne-borg: Women Police: Portraits of Suc-cess; Mary E. Lyons: Roy Makes a Car;

Keuy Madden: Gentle's Holler; PatlMaher, Jr.: Kerouac: The DefinitiaeBiography; Michael Malone (and Mar-

Authors Guild Buuetin|@ spring zoos

cie Walsh): TIrc KiIIing C/ab; HenningMankell: Before the Frosf; MeganMarshall: The Peabody Sisters: Three

Women tNho lgnited American Ronnn-ticism; Elsa Marston: Figs and Fate:

Stories About Growing Up in the ArabWorld Todny; David Martin: We'ue AIIGot Bellybuttorrsl; Susan McCarthy: Bc-

conting aTiger: Hozu Bnby Anhnals Lenrnto Live in theWild; Lorene McClintock:Lot,e and Forgitteness: A New Wnrl to

Liae; lanet McDonald: Brotlrcr Hood;Yona Zeldis McDonough: ln Dnlilin'sWake; Kevin Mcllvoy: Tlrc ConrpleteHistory of Neu, Mexico; MichaelMclaughlin: Guerrilln Marketing forCorrsultants: Breaktlvouglt Tnctics forWirtrrirt g P ro.fi t abl e Clier r t s; ChristopherMerrill: Thirrgs of the Hidden God:

lourrterl to the Hohl Mountain; DavidMilgrim: See Snttta Nap; Herbert Mit-gang: Necrrsrnen in Klmki; Mark Mon-monier: Rhr.rmb Lines and Msv Wars;Sy Montgomery: Search for the Golden

Moon Bear; Alvin Moscow: CollisiortCourse: The Andrea Doria and tlte Stock-

holrn; Sean Murphy: The Time of NewWenther; Shirley Rousseau Murphy:Cat Cross Their Graues,' Walter DeanMyers: Antarctica: Joumeys to tlrc SouthPole; Here in Harlem: Poems in MantlVoices;

John J. Nance: Sauing Cascadia; DonnaJo Napoli: Boutd; Hotel lurrgle; Gracietlrc Pixie of tlrc Pucldle; Norfh; Donna foNapoli (and Robett Furrow): SIy the

Sleuth and the Pet Mvsteries; RobertNeuwirth: Shadout Cities: A BilliortSquatters, A Nezu Urban World; ferdineNolen: Hezttitt Anderson's Creat Big Life;

Michael O'Brien: lohn F. Kennetly: ABi o gr aphy ; Jerry Oppenheimer: Fron IRou,: Annn Wintour: The Cool Ltfe ardHot Tinres of Vctgue's Editor in Chief; lanOrmerod: Tlrc Frog Princess;

Daniel Paisner (and Chris Money-maker): Moneynnker: Hottt on AmateurPoker Player Turned $40 into $2.5

Million at the World Series of Poker;

Mariorie Blain Parker: Hello, FreightTrain!; Darcy Pattison: Searclting forOliuer K. Woodnmn; Mark I. Pinsky:Tlrc Gosytel According to Diarey: Faith,Trust, atrd Pixie Dust; Dee Power (andBrian Hill): The Making of a Bestseller;

William Powers: BIue Clarl People:

Seasons on Africa's Fragile Edge; NancyPoydar: Brnae Santa; Nancy Price:L'Enfnnt du Mertsonge; No One Knoztts;

John Reed: The Wrole; Terry Reed: T/re

Full Cleaeland; Gene Riehl: Sleeper;Ann Rinaldi: Brooklyn Rose; Nirre Daysa Queen: The Short Life and Reign ofLady lane GreV; Natalie Robins: Cope-Land's Cure: Honreopathtl ancl tlte WarBetzoeen Conventional and AlternatiaeMcdicine; fulie Clark Robinson: Liuein the Moment; Mort Rosenblum:Chocolate: A Bittersuteet Snga of Darknnd Light; Susan fRoth: Hanukkah, OhHartttkkalt: Susan Goldman Rubin:L'Clnim!: To lewish Life in America!Celehrating .fronr 1654 to Today; MaryDoria Russell: A Thread of Grace;Albert Russo: AfricaSor.Ll; In France; LaTour Slralonr; Oh Zaperetta! The Hilari-orts Zttpittette Series; Sang M€16 ou tott

fils Ldttpold; Tlrc Benettolent Anrcrican irtthe Heart of Darkness; The CrozttdedWorld of Solitude Vol I; Tlrc CroutdedWorld of Solitude Vol 2;

Walter Satterthwait'. Cattalcade;Leonard Schonberg: Morgen's War;Sandra Scofield: Occnsiotts of Sin: AMemoir; Brenda Seabrooke: Storreu,olf;Michael Shapiro: The Last Good Sea-

son; Marilyn Singer: Central Hentirtg:Poents About Fire and Warmth; RolandSmith: Cryptid Hunters; Steven Sora:Treasures of Heazren: Relics Jrom Noalr'sArk to the Slrotrd of Turin; Eileen Spi-nelli: Cify Angel; Karen Stabiner: MyCirI: Aduentures utith n Teen ir'r Trnhirrg;Mark Alan Stamaty: Alin's Mission:Snoirr.g the Books of lraq; Libby Stern-berg: Firrding tlrc Forger'; Jennifer ].

Stewart: Close Encottnters of a Third-World Kind; judi Strada: Sushi forDummies; Nancy Rubin Stuatt: T/re

Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of MaggieFox;

Theodore Taylor: lce Drift; MakirrgLoue to Ttlpewriters; Sherill Tippins:Februartl House; Stephanie S. ToIan:B ar tholomeu,'s B I essirtg; Charleen Tou-chette: lt Stops zttith Me; GlennetteTilley Tirrner Rurtrting for Otn' Lites;

Heleen van Rossum WiIl You CarryMe?; Susan Vaught: Stornru-ritch;Victor Villaseflor: Motlrcr Fox and Mr.CotlotelMamd Zorra y Don Corlote;

June Walker: Self-employed Tax SoIu-tions: Quick, Simple, Money-Saztittg,Attdit-Proof Tax and RecordkeepingBnsics for the Independent Pro,fessional;

Jeannette Walls: Tlre Glass Castle: AMemoir; Gary Wassner: CentQuest, The

Autakening; GentQuest, Tlrc Shards;GemQuest, The Tit,itrs; fane EllenWayne: The Leaditrg Men of MCM;Stanley Weintraub: lron Tears: Anrcr-ica's Battle for Freedom, Britnin's Quag-mire: 1776-L783; Stephen White:Missirrg Persorts; Rosemary Regina C.Wilkinson: Sirtg irt the Wind utith Loue;

Meredith Sue Willis: Tlu City Built ofStarships; Robert Wilson: TIrc VanislrcdHands; Thc World Still Meltittg; RobertCharles Wilson: Spin; Ieanette Win-ter: TIrc Librarian of Basra: ATrue Story

from lraq; Meg Wolitzer:. The Positiorr;Sharon Dennis Wyeth: Orplrca Proud;

Jane Ellen Yolen: The Perfect Wiznrd:Harrs Christian Andersen; RebeccaYork: Crimson Moon; Spellhotrnd;

Koren Zailckas: Smnshed: Story of a

Drunken Childhood; Harriet Ziefert:One Smart Shtnk; This ls Thanksgittirrg;Harriet Ziefert (and Fred Ehrlich,M.D.): You Can't Tske Your Bodrl to a

Repair Sftop; Thomas Zigal The WilteLengue; Connie Zweig, Ph.D: The

Math to the Flanrc j

Atrtlrcrs ctittl Bnlletir|@ sprirg ztlos

MEMBERS MAKE NEWSDelphinium Books has hired one of its authors,Barbara Lazear Ascher as editorial director. The pub-lishing company wanted someone whose literary sen-sibilities matched its own and whose long career as awriter provided contacts with emerging talent.

Marlin Bree has won Boating Writer International'stop award, The West Marine Writer Award, for his arti-cle "A Solo Sailor Meets His Storm of the Century."The award and a $5,000 check were presented at the Ft.Lauderdale International Boat Show in October 2004.

Valerie Atkinson Brown was awarded a fellowship bythe American Council on Germany to study workplaceabuse and harassment in Germany. A report of herfindings will be released in 2005. Brown will also beincluded inWho's IMo in America.

Alzina Stone Dale spoke at the Oak Park, Ill. 19thCentury Club on "Mysteries in Chicago Old and New"in March. The talk was a preview of her Loop MysteryWalk to be given in connection with Bouchercon (36)at Chicago Labor Day Weekend 2005.

In October 2004, the Texas Book Festival gave Larry L.King the Bookend Award for Lifetime Achievement inLiterature. It was noted during the ceremony that King

Keeping Faith with Steinbeck

Continued from page 12

grown campaign, "Rally Salinas!" "to save our city, tosave our libraries and to save our pride."

Volunteers are signing up to conduct a citywidetelethon in March and a citywide fund-raising mail-ing. Local radio stations have offered to air publicservice announcements. The campaign's immediategoal is to raise $500,000 to keep the city's libraries openpart-time.

The longer-term solution may involve a new tax,subject to approval by the voters. Meanwhile, RallySalinas! had reached nearly 20 percent of its goal by

is the only writer to have been nominated for a

National Book Award, a Broadway "Tony" and a tele-vision "Emmy."

President Bush presented Madeleine I/Engle with theNational Humanities Medal. The ceremony took placein the Oval Office of the White House in November2004.

Howard C. Massey has been included in the 2005Wto's lMo in Anrcrica.

J. Madeline Nash has won the 2004 American Instituteof Physics Science Writing Award to a Journalist for E/Nifio: Utrlocking the Secrets of the Master Westher-Maker.Nash received a prize of $3,000.

The British Crime Writers' Association awarded itsprestigious Golden Dagger Award for 2004 to SaraParetsky for her novel Blacklist.

The National Parenting Publications Children'sResources presented a 2004 Gold Award to SherryShahan for Spicy Hot Colorsl Colores Picantes.

Lily Tuck won the 2004 National Book Award forFiction tor The News from Pnraguay, presented at theaward ceremonies in New York in November 2004. +

the end of February. One local ranchet who donated$25,000 outright, pledged another $75,000 as soon as

general donations reached that level.The city is also hoping for a wider response to its

appeal. "John Steinbeck is a giant in American litera-ture," says Mavor Caballero. "He also loved the landand people of the Salinas Valley, and that is reflectedin his writings. A wonderful way for authors to honorhis memory and the importance of literature in ourlives would be to help keep John Steinbeck's librariesopen." *

The Community Foundation of Monterey County hasestablished a Rally Salinas! account to receive dona-tions, which are tax deductible. Contributions may besent to: Rally Salinas!, P.O. Box269, Salinas, California93902.

Autlnrs (;urld bilttctur|El rprrrg rrw

BULLETIN BOARDThe Text and Academic Authors Association is seek-ing a new part-time executive director to lead theassociation as it embarks upon a national growth ini-tiative with the goal of becoming a major institutionalforce in the world of text and academic authoring. Thenew director will be encouraged to explore and bringforth new proposals to help position the organizationfor growth and fiscal health. Remr-rneration is $30,000per year, but significant incentives are negotiable formeeting performance and goal objectives. While theoffices are currently in St. Petersburg, Florida, the or-ganization is open to relocation to any college comlnu-nity in the United States. Application deadline isApril 20, 2005. Website: www.taaonline.net

The Small Press Center of New York City is sponsor-ing the First Annual New York Round Table Writers'Conference April28-30. The Small Press Center is lo-cated at 20 West 44th St. between 5th and 6th Avenues.Call 212-764-7021, or visit www.smallpress.org formore information.

The Willard R. Espy Literary Foundation is acceptingsubmissions for its annual Willard R. Espy Award, fora memoir or collection of personal essays in progress.Submissions must be previously unpublished and inEnglish. The prize is $1,000 and there is no applicationfee. Deadline: May 15,2005. Contact: Willard R. EspyAward, Ms. Polly Friedlander, President, P.O. Box 614,Oysterville, WA 98641, (360) 665-5220. Website: www'espyfoundation.org. E-mail: wrelf@willapabay.org.

Writer's Digest's annual writing competition awardscash prizes ranging from $25 to $1,500 in 10 categories.Work can be subrnitted by e-mail (competitions@fw-pubs.com) or regular mail; all paper submissions mustinclude an entry form and a SASE. For updated guide-lines and entry forms, visit www.writersdigest.com.Deadline: May 16, 2005. Contact: Writing Compe-tition, Ms. Maria Altevers, Executive Editor, 4700 EastGalbraith Road, Cincinnati, OH 45236.

The Bechtel Prize for Educating the Imagination isgiven for an exemplary article (or essay) on creativewriting, education, literary studies, and/or the profes-sion of writing. The award is given by the Teachers &Writers Collaboraiive, and includes a cash prize of$3,500 and publication in a special issue of Teachersand Writers Magazine. Prospective applicants areencouraged to read Teacher & Writers to familiarizethemselves with its non-academic style. E-mail sub-

missions are not accepted. There is no application fee.Deadline: May 31, 2005. Contact: Bechtel Prize forEducating the Imagination, Ms. Christina Davis, Pub-lications Editor, 5 Union Square West, New York, NY10003, (272) 691,-6590 x20. Website: www.twc.org. E-mail: editors@twc.org.

The SouthWest Writers Contest honors excellence inwriting. Editors and literary agents critique the topthree entries in each category. There is a first prize of$150 and first-place winners also compete for the$1,000 Storyteller Award. Authors must submit twocopies of an original and unpublished work in manu-script format. Visit the website for guidelines and theapplication form, mail a SASE or phone, fax or e-mail.Deadline: June 1,, 2005. Contact: SouthWest WritersContest, 3721 Morris NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111,(505) 265-9485, fax (505) 265-9483. Website: www.southwestwriters.com. E-mail: Swriters@aol.com.

The Helen Keller Foundation invites submissions inpoetry and prose that describe how you or someoneclose to you overcame a physical, mental or emotionalimpairment or other adversitv. Entries should not ex-ceed 3,000 words, and winners' work will be pub-Iished in a 2005 anthology. First, second and thirdplace winners will receive awards of $2,000, $1000 and$500. Send original manuscript with three photocopiesto The Helen Keller Foundation, c/o Diane Scharper,English Department, Towson University, Towsory MD,27252. Deadline: June L, 2005. Include the title of thememoi4 your name, address, telephone number, ande-mail address on a cover sheet. Title onJy should ap-pear on each page of manuscript. Manuscripts will notbe returned unless accompanied by a SASE. Anyonerelated to the Helen Keller Foundation or its staff is in-eligible. For more information, call 470-704-2868 or e-mail dscharpe@towson.edu.

The Write Place is awarding the SASE/lerome pro-gram award to several emerging and mid-career writ-ers. It is a grant award for $1,500 to $5,000. Writers canapply on their own behalf or be nominated. Each cate-gory has its own submission guidelines. Deadline:June 14, 2005. Submit one application only. For sub-mission guidelines, contact: SASE/Jerome Awards,Ms. Carolyn Holbrook, Artistic & Executive Director,777 W. Lake St., Suite 211, Minneapolis, MN 55408.Website: www.saseonline.org. E-mail: Carolyn@sase-online.org. i

Autltors Gttild Brrlletitr|El Slrring z0OS

How to Get What You Want from FOIA

Continued from page 6

waiver. Your detailed answers to these questions willdetermine whether or not a waiver is granted.

1. Does the subject matter of the request concernthe operations or activities of government?

2. Is the disclosure likely to contribute to an under-standing of government operations or activities? Isthe information already in the public domain?

3. Does disclosure of the requested informationcontribute to public understanding of the opera-tions or activities of government? And does therequester have the expertise in the subject matterand the ability and intention to disseminate theinformation to the general public?

4. Is the contribution to public understanding ofgovernment operations or activities significant?Will the public's understanding of the subject beenhanced by the release?

5. Does the requester have a commercial interest inthe disclosure? (A writer's research interest in thematerial is not usually considered "commercial"in this sense.)

6. Does the commercial interest by the requester, ifany, outweigh the public interest in disclosure?

The responses to the first four questions should beyes; answer no to the last two questions.

For a detailed discussion of the fee waiver factorsand how they are applied, check here: www.usdoj.gov I oip I foia_updates / VoI_VIII_1 / viiilpage2.h tm

\A/hat to do if you are denied access

You may be denied access in several ways. The first isan adverse or hostile fee determination as describedearlier. The second way is if the agency simply fails torespond, or says that your request is in their adminis-trative backlog. (I have had dozens of requests keptpending at various agencies for more than five years.)

The third way is if an agency removes (or "re-dacts")large portions from the released records, some-times to the point of absurdity. While redactions arequite commory and an administratively correct way toremove exempt information while releasing the re-maining portions, agencies sometimes apply a heavyhand with their black Magic Markers.

Some agencies, such as the ClA, routinely play

games with requesters, simply refusing to processmost requests. Other agencies (such as the NationalSecurity Agencv or the Treasury Department's Officeof Foreign Assets Control) have deliberately under-staffed their FOIA offices and take so many years to re-spond that they might as well deny access outright.

Agencies frequentlv deny access to records for in-scrutable or cursory reasons, necessitating another let-ter from the requester (an "administrative appeal").Don't be intimidated by the initial response; sendingback an appeal letter within the stated time limit is of-ten successful. Agencies count on getting away withbad release decisions because very few requestersbother to send in an appeal. An administrative appealneed be nothing more than a letter asking the agencyto reconsider its decision and explaining why the ini-tial decision was incorrect.

The most common appeal is to point out that theagency is legally obliged to separate releasable partsof a document from unreleasable parts, even down tothe word or sentence level, rather than simply deny-ing access to the entire record. This is referred to as re-leasing "segregable releasable portions."

Redactions are often unjustified, petty, frivolous orare simply being used to protect the agency from em-barrassment. How do we know? Sometimes the partsthe agency redacts become public in other ways, mak-ing it clear that the redactions were inappropriate andmade for the wrong reasons.

The exemptions most often cited improperly byagency staff to deny records are as follows:

B(1) says the material was withheld on the groundsof national security. You can question whether thematerial is currently and properly classified, andeven ask for a declassification review

B(2) says the material consists of internal adminis-trative materials. Often such determinations are

legally improper unless the records would circum-vent some regulation or law. Agencies sometimescite B(2) when they want to remove large portionsof a document, or when they don't know whatother reason to give. You can question whether theuse of B(2) was proper.

B(5) says that the agency wants to protect the with-held material under a legal privilege such as"deliberative process." The deliberative processprivilege is grossly overused and even abused inmost agencies. The deleted information must meetseveral requirements: it must be deliberatiae andpre-decisional and an opinion (not factual). Anypart of a document that isn't one of those (such

as factual parts) must be released.

Autlrcrs Guilrl Bulletin@ sprirg loos

Dealing with delays

Each agency responds to FOIA requests differently.Some agencies take as much as several years to re-spond; others may respond within several weeks orin rare instances within days. If you telephone theagency, most will apprise you of their backlog. Mostagencies (including the FBI) provide a response withinthree to six months.

lf you run into a delay, call or write to the agencyand ask them about the holdup. Sometimes it is help-ful to file a broader request initially and narrow itupon speaking with agency staff.

Can your senator or congressperson assist if anagency won't respond to a request? Typically not: Thelegislator sends a letter to the agency and the agencytypically replies with a form letter that says "we aredoing everything we can." It doesn't help.

There are often ways around agency obstructions,and some may be learned by trial and error. But evena newcomer can succeed with a deliberate, highly or-ganized approach, always responding promptly toagency correspondence, and remaining skeptical ofagency claims throughout the process. i

FOIA s New LimitsContinued ftom page 7

that disclosure to citizens could directly harm nationalsecurity, which is already covered by the wide discre-tion to withhold "classified" documents. Instead, it ar-gued that having to comply with FOIA requests woulddivert the NSA's attention from its mission.

FOIA compliance has also been limited in subtlerways/ according to a report on government secrecycommissioned by Representative Henry A. Waxman,ranking minority member of the House Committee onGovernmental Oversight. Some agencies have aggres-sively challenged and denied fee-waiver requests byscholars and journalists. In one case, the Departmentof Energy took the position that a professionalfreelance writer and scientist "does not publish orbroadcast news to the public itseli" so was not a "rep-resentative of the news media." ln another, theDepartment of Defense denied a fee-waiver request bythe Electronic Privacy Information Centel, a nonprofitthat publishes newsletters, reports, and books on civil

Freedom of InformationCosts $372,799

In response to a federal Freedom of InformationAct request filed by the People for the AmericanWay Foundation, the U.S. Department of |usticehas demanded research fees of more than9372,799 before it will comply. Initially, the de-partment refused ihe public interest organiza-tion's FOIA request for documents about theDOJ's secret detentions of hundreds of immi-grants following the 9/11 attacks. The foundationsued, and two days before the government's re-sponse was due in court it advised the plaintiff itwould search for the documents requested-at acharge of $28 per hour of searching, which thegovernment said would take more than 13,000hours. The department said it must conduct a na-tionwide, manual search for the documents be-cause its database does not contain adequateinformation about its secret detentions. The fed-eral FOIA statute allows the government to im-pose reasonable charges for searching for andproducing documents, but typically allows jour-nalists, including public interest organizationsthat report news, a waiver of fees. "Apparently,they've taken the 'free' out of 'Freedom ofInformation,"' said Ralph Neas, president ofPeople for the Arnerican Way. "If you want tolearn about secret trials carried out by your gov-ernment with your money, you're going to needdeep pockets," he said, adding that they wouldfight the "outrageous" fee request.

liberties, on the hyper-iechnical grounds that the cen-ter is not "organized and operated" to disseminate in-formation. A federal court ultimately threw out theagency's argument.

The Waxman study also cites the Bureau of Alco-hol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Bureau of Land Man-agement, the Department of the Interior and theNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciencesfor using frivolous exemptions, fee-waiver denials,and foot-dragging to avoid compliance with FOIA.Other agencies have clamped down on their em-ployees' contact with the news media. The ReportersCommittee for Freedom of the Press reported that inSeptembeq, the Midwest regional office of the Environ-

Arr!lrors Guitrt Bullctitr|Eil Sprirg ZOOS

IUDYBLUMEBARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD

SUSAN CHEEVER

MARY HIGGINS CLARK

MICHAELCRICHTONPATCUMMINGS

JAMESDUFFYCLARISSA PINKOLA ESTES

IAMESGLEICK

mental Protection Agency told its employees not totalk to reporters, to "prevent EPA management frombeing surprised by news coverage." tn August, theEPA branch covering the mountain and plains statesinstructed its employees that: "Since it is two monthsbefore election duy . . . here is how to handle inquiriesfor information that seem partisan: The response is'nocomrnent."' The EPA said this policy was made tocomply with the Hatch Act, which prohibits govern-ment employees from acting overtly to alter the out-come of an election.

Other disclosure laws have met with similar treat-ment by the administration, notably the PresidentialRecords Act. The law gives the archivist of the United

THE AUTHORS GUILD, INC.Officers

President: N]CK TAYLORVice Presidents: JUDYBLUME, IAMES B. STEWART

Treasurer: PETER PETRE Secretary: PAT CIIMMINGS

Council

MOLLY HASKELL

oscAR HIIUELOS

DAMEL HOFFMAN

NICHOLASLEMANNMICHAELLEVIN

DAVID LEVERING LEWIS

JOHN R. M.TcARTHUR

STEPHEN MANES

VICTOR S. NAVASKY

PETER PETRE

DOUGLAS PRESTON

ROXANAROBINSON

JAMESB. STEWART

JEAN STROLTSE

RACF{ELVAIL

SARAHVOWELL

IONATHANWEINERNICHOLAS VVEINSTOCK

SHAYYOUNGBLOOD

States custody of the records of former U.S. presidentsthat relate to official duties. The archivist must makethem available to the public as rapidly and completelyas possible. Twelve years after a president leaves of-fice, the FOIA is supposed to govern all his presiden-tial records except those relative few that continue tobe covered by executive privilege, if invoked by theformer president. On November 1, 2001, PresidentBtrsh signed an executive order that essentially pre-vents the release of presidential and vice presidentialrecords unless the current president deems it appropri-ate. This prevented the timely release of the presiden-tial papers of Ronald Reagan and those of his vicepresident, George Herbert Walker Bush. t

Ex Officio Members of the CouncilROGER ANGELL . ROBERT A. CARO o ANNE EDWARDS . ERICA IONG

MADELEINE L"ENGLE . ROBERT K. MASSIE . HERBERTMITGANG . SIDNEY OFFIT . MARY POPE OSBORNELETTYCOTTIN POGREBIN o SCOTTTUROW

Advisers to the CouncilSHIRLEYANNGRAU: South

FREDERICK MARTINI: West . FREDERIK POHL: Midwest

PAUL AIKEN, Execu tive DirectorKAY MURRAY Assistant Director

MARTHA FAY. Bulletin EditorThe 8,900 members of The Authors Guild are automatically members of The Authors League of America, which forms a familywith its tn'o comPonent organizations-The Dramatists Guild and The Authors Guild. Each corporation has its own province.The two Guilds Protect and promote the professional interests of their members. Both Guilds act together through the League onmatters ofjoint concem to over 13,000 authors and playwrights: copyright protection, taxatior; legislation, freedom of expression.

Tlrc Authors Guild is the oldest and largest associatiott of published authors in the llnited States.The Authors Guild .51 East 28th Street,'New York, NY 10016

(212) 563-5904 . fax: (2I2) 564.5363 r e-mail: staff@authorsguild.org . www.authorsguild.org

Artthors Guikl Bullctitr EL Sprnrg 20t15

Membership ApplicationMr./ Ms. Pseudonym(s)

Address

Phone (

City State _ Zp

Fax ( E-mail

Agent Name Agency Agent phone (

D Writing journalHow did you become interested in joining the Guild? (check one) fl Invitation

O Referred by D Other

What is your primary reason for joining? D

tr Site-builder and other Web services Q Other

Support and advocacy efforts D Legal services O Health insurance

Writers may qualify on the basis of being book authors or freelance journalists. Book authors must have been published by an es-

tablished American publisher. A writer who has a contract with an established publisher for a work not yet published may join as

an associate member. A contract with a oanity press does not qunlifu a writer for membership in the Guiltl. Freelance journalists must

have published three works, fiction or nonfiction, in a periodical of general circulation within the last eighteen months.

Book(s) Title Publisher Year Field /Genre

Freelance articles Title Publisher Mo. /Year Subject

Please enclose a check for your first year's dues in the amount of $90 payable to "The Authors Guild" or lMail to:

I The Authors Guild

] 31 East 28th StreetNew York, N.Y. 10015

Bulletin, Spring 2005

charge your Visa or Mastercard. Account #

Signature ExpirationDate- l- Amount: $90

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