Most Americans Think They Have a Book in Them
Monday September 23, 5:20 am ET


TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Eighty-one percent of Americans feel they should write a book, according to a survey of 1,006 adult Americans commissioned by Jenkins Group, Inc., a Michigan publishing services firm, which sponsors the annual Independent Publisher Book Awards and issues the monthly online magazine Independent Publisher.
"Of course, most people will never get around to committing their thoughts to paper -- let alone get them published -- but it's astonishing how many people feel they have a story to tell," said Jenkins Group Chairman and CEO Jerrold Jenkins.

Jenkins estimates that 6 million Americans have actually written a manuscript -- just over 2% of the population -- while, based on ISBN numbers assigned, approximately 80,000 books get published each year. Jenkins added that the number of books annually making it into print is growing, thanks to a boom in independent and self-publishing.

Jenkins noted that while some respondents feel they could write more than one type of book, only about a quarter of Americans (27%) say they would write a work of fiction. "The bulk of prospective authors see themselves writing some form of non-fiction, be it a biography, self-help, do-it-yourself or cookbook."

Which of the Following Types of Books Do You Think You Have In You? (Some
respondents chose more than one option)
* Self-help/do-it-yourself -- 28%
* General non-fiction (history, biography, etc.) -- 27%
* Fiction -- 27%
* Some other type (cookbook, picture book, etc.) -- 20%


The proliferation of personal web sites and Blogs as well as the ease of writing and editing with word processing have caused more people to regard themselves as potential authors, believes Jenkins. "We're in an information-oriented society and technology today allows people to share their ideas easily and quickly with a wider audience than anyone could have imagined a decade ago.

"Still it's a big leap, going from personal musings on the Web or stories composed on a computer, to writing a book that merits publication," cautioned Jenkins. "Even among the growing number of self-publishers today, we see a level of quality and professionalism that sets them apart from the average American. Talent, originality, effort and determination tend to separate those who contemplate writing a book from those who actually do it."

The EXCEL Telephone Omnibus Survey of 1,006 adult Americans has a margin of error of +/-3.1%. It was conducted for Jenkins Group, Inc. by International Communications Research, Media, PA.

Jenkins Group, Inc. was founded in 1988 as a provider of services to independent, university and small press book publishers. Based in Traverse City, Mich., the company serves individual and corporate clients internationally with a full range of custom book publishing and packaging services, consulting services and marketing services to the specialty, non-traditional book market. For more information go to http://www.bookpublishing.com .

Women rage on the page about sex, work, marriage

By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY

As those push-up bras melted in the flames of feminist fury of the '70s, it is probable that the movement's leaders did not expect women in 2002 to be publishing books such as The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth About Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage, edited by Cathi Hanauer (Morrow, $23.95).

Before any feminists stab themselves in the heart with a stiffened underwire, Hanauer, 39, makes it clear that this is not a variation on The Surrendered Wife or a man-trapping manual like The Rules. Rather, the writer, editor and mother of two in Northampton, Mass., wanted to explore the reality of modern women, some of whom are trying to juggle kids, careers, housework and husbands. Others are trying to find love amid society's conflicting messages about money, sex and matrimony.

The Bitch in the House is one of a number of upcoming books that tap into contemporary women's exhaustion and exasperation. There is one connecting element: the kind of rage and guilt that turns a woman into, well, a bitch. "All my friends will admit, 'I feel like such a bitch,' " Hanauer says.

The title is a variation on Virginia Woolf's famous phrase, "the Angel in the House." Hanauer describes her own self-sacrificing mother as an "angel." The wife of a doctor, she raised four children and headed the PTA. But her daughter "needed something more."

Hanauer assembled 26 writers, ages 24 to 66. Among them:

Chitra Divakaruni, the award-winning author of the novel The Mistress of Spices. Living in San Francisco, she receives visits from hordes of relatives from India who expect the guilt-stricken writer to turn into the all-giving hostess, despite having a career and no servants. Guilt rules.
Hope Edelman, author of the non-fiction best seller Motherless Daughters. Edelman writes about the near-collapse of her marriage after her husband decides to start his own company and shared parenting goes out the window. Fury enters.
Veronica Chambers, author of the memoir Mama's Girl. Chambers describes how a struggling artist ex-boyfriend encroached on her life, her apartment and, most of all, her wallet. Yet because he was so different from her violent father, she put up with it — including paying for their vacations and food. Resentment boils.
Ellen Gilchrist, Pulitzer Prize winner Natalie Angier and novelist Kate Christensen also contribute stories. Elissa Schappell describes how she screams at her children when they misbehave.

This is not the first time a book has used the word in the title: Elizabeth Wurtzel, for example, released a book called Bitch in 1998. Hanauer recognizes that certain booksellers and others will be disturbed by it. She compares the title to Randall Kennedy's best seller, Nigger. Women can use the word "bitch," but hearing men use it is different. But the rage so many women suppress should be explored.

"It needed to be said," Hanauer says. "It makes women feel less angry to know other women feel the same."

09.15.02

Nanny Diarists, Maids No More, Dismiss Agents
by Rebecca Traister


When the novel The Nanny Diaries became a surprise hit last spring, its authors, former nannies Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, were catapulted from haute servitude on the Upper East Side to the best-seller lists, the talk-show circuit and a Miramax movie deal. But has their triumph only opened up the doors of discontent for the pair?" The authors are now on their thirdliterary agent, andsources familiar with their business dealings saidMs.Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin are unhappy about the details of the movie deal they signed before their book hit it big.

Last week,Ms. McLaughlin, 28, and Ms. Kraus, 27, informed their literary agent, Molly Friedrich of the Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency, that they would be signing with William Morris agent Suzanne Gluck. The move comes less than two years after the pair, who have sold 800,000 copies of their book, fired their first agent, Christy Fletcher of Carlisle & Company, for Ms. Friedrich.

It was Ms. Fletcher who originally sold The Nanny Diaries to St. Martin’s Press in the summer of 2000, after suggesting to Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin, who had met as N.Y.U. students, that their idea for a joint memoir of their days as nannies to prominent New York families would be better—and legally safer—as a novel. Ms. Fletcher shopped a partial manuscript to publishers. She was turned away by many who deemed the novel too New York–y, until Jennifer Weis at St. Martin’s bought the book for an advance of $25,000. Ms. Fletcher later sold British rights for around $125,000, audio rights for $25,000 (with Julia Roberts doing the reading), and film rights—which Miramax bought in May 2001—for $500,000, plus best-seller bonuses that will ultimately total over $1 million.

During the process of completing the manuscript for St. Martin’s, Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin became dissatisfied with the way the book was being handled. One publishing-industry source said that the women heard negative things on the New York party circuit about St. Martin’s, a respectable press—and one often willing to take a chance on unconventional first books by unknown authors—but a publisher that lacks the cachet of a Knopf or Penguin Putnam. Another source said that, anxious to meet their initial publication date, the authors became frustrated with Jennifer Weis’ slow editorial pace. Ms. McLaughlin, reached by phone, said that she couldn’t comment on the situation, and Ms. Kraus could not be reached for this story.

"These are very ambitious girls, and they were worried about the house and their editor. They were afraid that the book was going to get lost, and they just panicked," said one source familiar with the situation. Ms. Weis, who did not return phone calls for comment, took a maternity leave during the publishing process. Ms. Fletcher got married and took several weeks off for her honeymoon. When she returned in April 2001, she received a letter informing her of Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin’s intention to make Molly Friedrich their new agent.

Even after she lost Ms. McLaughlin and Ms. Kraus as clients, however, Ms. Fletcher retained her rights to 15 percent of all future grosses of The Nanny Diaries, as well as her stake in the film, audio and foreign editions of the book. Ms. Freidrich’s position is not quite as fortunate: The authors’ second agent—who helped them navigate the final stages of publication, including book design and final edits—may be left high and dry by the departure of Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin. One source close to Ms. Friedrich confirmed that since Ms. Friedrich didn’t sell The Nanny Diaries or the pair’s (still unsold) second book—and since she prefers handshake deals to binding contracts—she probably won’t receive any future sale or royalties money from either book.

Ms. Friedrich, who represents authors like Frank McCourt, Sue Grafton and Terry McMillan, wouldn’t comment, but through an associate, Lucy Childs, issued this statement: "Refer to the acknowledgements at the back of Nanny Diaries and we have no further comment." The acknowledgments open by thanking "Molly Friedrich and Lucy Childs … for their unflagging support—should Nanny ever have to go head-to-head with Mrs. X, these are the women we’d want behind her!"

Reached by phone, Ms. Fletcher seemed to have no hard feelings about her former clients. "Suzanne Gluck is the perfect agent for Emma and Nicky," she said. "Given their interests in the entertainment industry, it makes perfect sense for them to be at William Morris."

Ms. Friedrich put a great deal of time into developing the pair’s second book, which is about a girl named "Girl" who begins a job at a dot-com. Any deals for that book will now be cut by Ms. Gluck.

Ms. Gluck refused to comment for this story.

Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin’s disillusionment with the film contract they signed appears to be substantial. Sources involved in the negotiations said that Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin were distressed to learn that in signing initial binding short-form agreements with Miramax, they had signed away rights to their characters, not just to the novel. They were also upset that Miramax would have the right to turn the story into a television property. But The Nanny Diaries had already hit the best-seller list, and Miramax was sitting on a potential gold mine.

Asked whether Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin suffered from a nagging sense that they could’ve gotten a better film deal, a source familiar with the deal said that a loss of creative cinematic control, not money, was the root of the authors’ concerns.

According to sources involved in the film’s development, the authors also requested that they be let out of the standard confidentiality clause that would prevent them from talking about their experiences with Miramax. Sources said that the authors were hoping to turn the story into a Spalding Gray–type show about Miramax. Some of the long-form contracts are still unsigned by the authors, although this will have no impact on Miramax’s plans to make the film. Jennifer Wachtell, Miramax’s vice president for creative affairs, said that "it’s not unusual to take some time to finalize a deal."

Ms. Wachtell said, "The project is in development and we’re having nothing but a great experience," adding that "it’s very difficult for anyone, especially two young women, to be thrust into this kind of spotlight very quickly. The scrutiny is difficult for anyone. But we’ve been having fun."

One publishing-industry source said that Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin’s new creative ambitions are one of the byproducts of the critical success of The Nanny Diaries, and that the women now consider themselves literary writers. Since the book’s publication, the pair have been writing short stories for women’s magazines. Susan Kittenplan, the executive editor of Allure, said that she had nothing but warm feelings for the pair, who published a short story in the magazine’s August issue: "I had a great experience with them. Particularly for best-seller writers, they were incredibly professional and enthusiastic." But another editor who knows them said that "they obviously were thinking of themselves as doing pieces for The New Yorker more than they were thinking of themselves as writing for Cosmopolitan."

While it’s not unusual for authors who have hit it big to "trade up" their agents, editors or publishing houses, the way Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin have replaced agents bears some resemblance to the way that their book’s antagonist, the spoiled and unhappy Mrs. X, tears through child-care help. Several sources speculated that though The Nanny Diaries is acid-tongued about chilly Upper East Side wealth, Ms. Kraus and Ms. McLaughlin could reasonably expect to become a part of the very world they’ve skewered. Both are from comfortable backgrounds: Ms. McLaughlin grew up in Rochester, N.Y., the daughter of a college professor and landscape designer while Ms. Kraus, whose parents own a bookstore on the Upper East Side, grew up in Manhattan and went to Chapin. The authors have contractual deals for hair and makeup at every public appearance, and they have developed a fondness for writing little notes—à la Mrs. X—on their own Nanny Diaries stationery.

One person who met the women said, "They both used the word ‘lovely’ about a million times. It was like having Gwyneth robots trying to kill you." The fundamental irony about the authors and their book may be that in the guise of a cautionary morality tale about the wretched excess of New York’s social elite, they wound up writing a paean to that world and the women who inhabit it.

"It’s a little like Toby Young skewering [Vanity Fair editor] Graydon Carter, when you know that he thinks Graydon walks on water," said one source. "There’s a reason that they were able to write the book that they did. A Dominican nanny would not have been able to do it. By writing it, they’re establishing that they are a part of that world. They are not the nannies, but the mother in this book.



This column ran on page 1 in the 9/23/2002 edition of The New York Observer.

SHINE ON , NEW YORK!

BY NAOMI RAGEN


AS THE MEMORIAL FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE TERRORIST
ATTACK ON NEW YORK FILL
THE AIRWAVES OF ISRAEL, THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY
FROM THE CITY OF MY
BIRTH, I HAVE COME TO UNDERSTAND WHY THE
TERRORISTS CHOSE THE CITY OF
NEW YORK FOR THE SICKENING EXPRESSION OF THEIR
DEGENERATE AGENDA
AGAINST ALL FREE PEOPLE. IT IS BECAUSE THE
SPIRIT OF NEW YORK CITY
REPRESENTS EVERYTHING THAT THEY, AND THE RUTHLESS
DICTATORS OF SLAVE
STATES IN THE MIDDLE EAST WHO SUPPORT THEM, ARE
TRYING TO DESTROY.

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE WHERE EVERYONE CAN HAVE
AN EDUCATION, AND CAN
CHOOSE ANY PROFESSION. FOR FIFTY DOLLARS A
SEMESTER, I, AND MILLIONS OF
OTHERS WHO COULD NEVER AFFORD A COLLEGE
EDUCATION, WENT THROUGH THE
CORRIDORS OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK,
LEARNING ABOUT MUSIC AND
ART AND HISTORY AND CULTURE AND LITERATURE AND
BIOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY...

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE WHERE IT DOESN’T MATTER
WHO YOUR PARENTS ARE,
HOW MUCH MONEY THEY HAVE, WHAT FAITH THEY
PROFESS, WHAT COLOR THEY WERE
BORN. YOU CAN STILL BE A FAMOUS ARTIST, A
WRITER, A DANCER, A SCHOLAR..
YOU CAN ASPIRE TO BE ANYTHING YOU CAN DREAM.

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE WHERE THE ARTS FLOURISH.
WHERE ANY IDEA IS
TOLERATED AND EXPLORED. WHERE MEN AND WOMEN ARE
FREE TO WATCH AND READ
AND BELIEVE OR REJECT ANY PHILOSOPHY, ANY IDEA
ANY BOOK, ANY MAGAZINE.

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE WHERE WOMEN ARE IN
CONTROL OF THEIR BODIES AND
THEIR FUTURES AND THEIR HEALTH AND THEIR CHOICES.
A PLACE WHERE NO MAN
CAN MURDER HIS DAUGHTER, ABUSE HIS WIFE,
SLAUGHTER HIS SISTER BECAUSE
SHE DOES NOT CONFORM TO HIS IDEAS OF HOW TO ACT,
OR THINK, OR DRESS.

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY,
WHERE SMALL WORKSHOPS
AND TINY FACTORIES, AND LITTLE FRINGE THEATRE
GROUPS, AND CORNERSHOP
BAKERIES FLOURISH. WHERE EVERY MAN AND WOMAN CAN
PURSUE A DREAM, AND
CANNOT BE DESTROYED BY NEPOTISM AND CORRUPT
POLITICIANS AND WAR LORDS
AND DICTATORS.

NEW YORK CITY IS A PLACE WHERE ELECTIONS TAKE
PLACE AND MEN AND WOMEN GO
TO MEETINGS, MARCH IN THE STREET, PRINT
BROCHURES, KNOCK ON DOORS, AND
SAY OUT LOUD ANYTHING THEY WANT. THEY CAN VOTE
IN ABSOLUTE SECRECY FOR
LEADERS, AND THESE LEADERS CAN BE VOTED OUT IF
THEY DISPLEASE THE PEOPLE
WHO VOTED FOR THEM. IT’S A PLACE WHERE VOTES
ARE COUNTED FAIRLY,AND
BALLOT BOXES ARE NOT STUFFED AND CANDIDATES ARE
NOT MURDERED, AND EVERY
MAN OR WOMAN WHO WISHES TO OFFER HIMSELF AS A
LEADER WILL BE HEARD.

NEW YORK CITY IS OPEN TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD
OF EVERY NATIONALITY,
RELIGION AND COLOR. BOATS AND PLANES FILLED
WITH IMMIGRANTS SEEKING
REFUGE ARE WELCOMED. VERY FEW NEW YORKERS CAN
SAY THAT THEY AND THEIR
PARENTS LIVED THERE FOR TWO HUNDRED YEARS. IT IS
A CITY OF NEWCOMERS,
ALL WELCOME, ALL TREATED EQUALLY.

NEW YORK CITY REPRESENTS THE BEST OF WHAT AMERICA
HAS TO OFFER, THE BEST
IN A WORLD OVERRUN BY HATE-MONGERS, DICTATORS,
NEPOTISTS, THEIVES AND
STRONG MEN, WHO DEPRIVE MEN AND WOMEN OF THEIR
RIGHT TO LIFE, TO LIBERTY
AND TO THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.

YOU, WHO HAVE BRUISED OUR CITY, AND TAKEN A PIECE
OF ITS HEART AND
TRAMPLED IT, KNOW THAT YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT IT ,
BECAUSE THAT WOULD
MEAN DEFEATING ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THE WORLD.
YOU HAVE SUCCEEDED IN
PUTTING OUT THOUSANDS OF LIGHTS . BUT MILLIONS
MORE WILL CONTINUE TO
SHINE THROUGH THE HORRIBLE BLACK HELL YOU CREATED
WITH YOUR SICK IDEAS
AND BRUTAL ACTS OF BARBARISM.

SHINE ON NEW YORK.

SHINE ON, THE LIGHTS OF BROADWAY AND LINCOLN
CENTER AND THE METROPOLITAN
OPERA HOUSE AND CARNEGIE HALL AND THE EMPIRE
STATE BUILDING AND MACY’S
AND THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, AND THE
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM AND THE
FORTY-SECOND STREET LIBRARY, THE SKYLINE, THE
BRIDGES, THE GREAT HOTELS
OFF CENTRAL PARK, THE SKATERS OF ROCKEFELLER
CENTER.

NEVER FORGET YOUR LIGHT WARMS THE LIVES OF GOOD
PEOPLE ALL OVER THE
WORLD WHO STRIVE TO LIVE PEACEFUL, CREATIVE,
PRODUCTIVE LIVES, FREE OF
HATRED. NEVER FORGET THAT YOUR ENEMIES HATE YOU
FOR ALL THE REASONS
THAT YOU BECAME, AND REMAIN, THE GREATEST CITY IN
THE WORLD.

WITH ALL MY LOVE,

NAOMI RAGEN
(BORN IN THE BROOKLYN JEWISH HOSPITAL, EDUCATED
IN BROOKLYN COLLEGE,
THEATER-GOER, MUSIC LOVER, NATIVE DAUGHTER

This is the best book review I've read in a long time...

Blaming of the Shrew
By Richard Cohen
Thursday, August 15, 2002; Page A25
The Washington Post

May I say something about Ann Coulter? She is a half-wit, a termagant, a dimwit, a blowhard, a worthless silicone nothing, physically ugly and could be likened to Eva Braun, who was Hitler's mistress. As it happens, these are all descriptions or characterizations Coulter uses for others in her book, "Slander." It ought to be called "Mirror."

Read the review in its entirety:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19833-2002Aug14.html

Announced today - The Man Booker Prize 2002 long list:


Dannie Abse - The Strange Case of Dr Simmonds & Dr Glass (Robson Books)

John Banville - Shroud (Picador)

Joan Barfoot - Critical Injuries (Women's Press)

William Boyd - Any Human Heart (Hamish Hamilton)

Anita Brookner - The Next Big Thing (Viking)

Robert Edric - Peacetime (Doubleday)

Michael Frayn - Spies (Faber and Faber)

Linda Grant - Still Here (Bloomsbury)

Philip Hensher - The Mulberry Empire (UHP)

Howard Jacobson - Who's Sorry Now? (Jonathan Cape)

Yann Martel - Life of Pi (Canongate)

Jon McGregor - If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (Bloomsbury)

Rohinton Mistry - Family Matters (Faber and Faber)

Will Self - Dorian (Viking)

Carol Shields - Unless (4th Estate)

Zadie Smith - The Autograph Man (Hamish Hamilton)

Colin Thubron - To The Last City (Chatto & Windus)

William Trevor - The Story of Lucy Gault (Viking)

Sarah Waters - Fingersmith (Virago)

Tim Winton - Dirt Music (Picador)

Interesting piece by Elinor Lipman in the NY Times about those blurbs from famous authors on the backs of books. Check it out here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/12/books/12LIPM.html

Authors write their own five-star reviews
By Daniel Foggo
(Filed: 11/08/2002)

Some of Britain's bestselling authors are giving their own novels glowing reviews on Amazon, the internet booksellers, by pretending to be readers.

Read the complete story here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/08/11/nauth11.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/08/11/ixhome.html

1965 Library Book Finally Returned

.c The Associated Press

LINCOLN, Neb. (July 30) - A book expected back to the library during Lyndon Johnson's presidency has finally been returned.

Someone slipped a copy of ``Miss Abby Fitch-Martin'' in a library book drop Sunday, more than 13,500 days past its due date.

``The theory is someone was cleaning out a relative's house that passed away and found the book,'' said Barbara Hansen of Lincoln City Libraries.

The 178-page hardback book was withdrawn from circulation years ago.

``Miss Abby Fitch-Martin,'' the true tale of a New England clan that adhered to a family code of ``Pedigree, Prudence, Pride and Purse,'' was checked out by a patient at Bryan Memorial Hospital in 1965 through the now-defunct Hospital Book Service.

The due-date card stamped Feb. 17, 1965, was still in the back pocket but the index card listing the borrower has long disappeared.

A blue-and-white bookmark provided one of the first clues the book had long been out of circulation. It listed four branch libraries that no longer exist.

Hansen said the library would not try to collect the late fee of about $3,400.

Independent Booksellers Pick Top Reading Group Books
BookSense has announced the top 10 vote-getters
for their 2002-2003.

1. THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, by Barbara Kingsolver
2. THE RED TENT, by Anita Diamant
3. GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, by Tracy Chevalier
4. HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, by Andre Dubus III
5. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, by Arthur Golden
6. THE SPARROW, by Mary Doria Russell
7. THE HOURS, by Michael Cunningham
8. THE ANGLE OF REPOSE, by Wallace Stegner
9. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, by Harper Lee
10. PLAINSONG, by Kent Haruf

The Anthony Awards - winner to be announced in October at Bouchercon

Best Novel:

FLIGHT - Jan Burke
TELL NO ONE - Harlan Coben
MYSTIC RIVER - Dennis Lehane
DEVIL WENT DOWN TO AUSTIN - Rick Riordan
REFLECTING THE SKY - S. J. Rozan

Who is Eric Kraft and why should you care? Well, maybe because "Newsweek called him "the literary equivalent of Fred Astaire dancing: great art that looks like fun." Time saw him as "luminously intelligent." The New York Times found his novels "full of mystery and wonder." And 10 days ago in Newsday, book critic Richard Gehr praised him as a "buoyant and brilliant presence" on the occasion of his eighth and most recent novel." Intrigued? Find out more about one of the literati's favored sons and read the rest of the article here:

http://www.newsday.com/features/books/ny-page32803642jul31.story?coll=ny%2Dfeatures%2Dheadlines

From the NY Times, May 16, 2002

MAKING BOOKS
Novelists Court the Braces Set
By MARTIN ARNOLD


Two of the most widely anticipated children's books that will be out there this fall have been written not by traditional children's novel writers (or even by writers who unwittingly produce juvenile work), but by authors known for their popular and acclaimed adult books.

These awaited "chapter books" — that's what children's novels are called to distinguish them from other children's books — are by Carl Hiaasen and Michael Chabon. Mr. Hiaasen normally writes best-selling witty novels of the political flimflam of environmental rape in Florida and other mayhems, and Mr. Chabon's last adult fiction was a comic novel about the struggle for personal liberation. Both men are very serious about their children's novels, and in fact join a long tradition of writers who have knowingly wandered from the adult to the juvenile.

Read the entire article: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/16/books/16BOOK.html

From Reuters:
Bridget Jones Settles Down but Romance Isn't Dead
Wed May 15,12:56 AM ET
By Joanne Russell

LONDON (Reuters) - They've been touted as turbo-charged romance, analyzed as fictional self-help, and panned as pure froth.

Chick lit books -- a publishing phenomenon spawned by Helen Fielding's hugely successful "Bridget Jones's Diary" -- dominated best-seller lists in the late 1990s.

With their candy-colored covers, these comic tales of twenty- and thirty-somethings seeking Mr. Right sold in their hundreds of thousands.

But, six years after Bridget Jones went public in shopping malls and airport bookshops round the world, have publishers grown weary of the "city girl meets boy" format?

"The perception now is that chick lit is dead and people are looking for the next direction," said Simon Trewin at PFD literary and talent agency in London.

"I don't think it's dead at all. There are millions of people out there who really love reading (it)."

Book sales in Britain topped one billion pounds ($1.4 billion) last year, largely thanks to films of "Bridget Jones's Diary" and JK Rowling's Harry Potter (news - web sites) saga, which gave the books an even bigger audience.

"Bridget Jones's Diary" is a loose contemporary reworking of Jane Austen's classic novel "Pride and Prejudice." It documents the love-life of a neurotic singleton -- better known as a spinster in Austen's day -- who, in between counting calories and guzzling wine, dreams of finding her ideal man.

After Bridget's dizzy musings became international currency, a rush of books about the thirty-something lifestyle hit bookstores, like Jane Green's "Straight Talking" and Adele Parks' "Playing Away."

FROM BONKBUSTERS TO MUMMY LIT

While fantasy adventure novels now storm ahead in the book charts, chick lit still does well, industry experts said.

"There is less (chick lit) in the publishing program than immediately after Bridget Jones, but nonetheless there is still an audience for them so they're still out there," said Lesley Miles, marketing director at Waterstone's bookshops.

But why is chick lit so popular?

"It is interesting as a social phenomena...why did Bridget Jones touch a particular nerve with so many people? Are people finding it harder to commit? Are they finding it harder to find the right person?" asked novelist Sue Gee whose latest book, "Thin Air" focuses on what it's like to be seventy-something. But chick lit has plenty of critics -- particularly those who feel it trivializes the lives of women.

"Mostly it's not terribly well written, but worse than that it pushes the idea that relationships with men are the most important thing, that what you should be aiming for is to find 'the one'," said novelist Patricia Duncker, who teaches literature and writing at the University of Wales.

Novels about finding Mr. Right will always have a readership, but Trewin said publishers want well-written books from novelists who have a distinctive voice.

"It's not a question of saying 'we need to find half a dozen chick lit books and let's fill that slot," he said. "What they're saying is 'is this book brilliant and do we feel passionate about it?'...They want to publish books, not genres."

Yet there are clear fashions in popular fiction.

In the 1980s "bonkbusters" reigned supreme as readers snapped up sizzling tales of sexual intrigue from the likes of Jackie Collins.

Then came Joanna Trollope's books about the complexities of family relationships in rural Britain, dubbed "aga sagas" -- to Trollope's horror -- after a brand of traditional cooking ranges that feature in fashionable country kitchens.

In the 1990s "lad lit" became the new buzz word after Nick Hornby wrote "High Fidelity," a novel about a music-obsessed thirty-something man who is unlucky in love.

And "mummy lit" is seen by some as the next big thing as writers such as Green, who published "Babyville" last year, shift readers' attention to the subject of motherhood.

"Chick lit, lad lit, aga saga, bonkbuster -- the coinages are rather more interesting than the texts really," said Duncker, whose novels include "Hallucinating Foucault" and "The Deadly Space Between."

BEYOND SINGLETONS AND MOTHERHOOD

Less hyped but equally lucrative, other fiction genres -- such as family sagas -- sell consistently well.

"There is a market for what are called 'clogs and shawls' books which are sagas of working class life or about life in the war," said literary agent Caroline Sheldon.

"(They)...all sell extremely well, often much better than chick lit, but they don't get nearly so much coverage... Most of the authors would be over 50 but are extremely commercially successful, earning substantial salaries."

Trewin said publishers are always looking for good thriller writers and novels for the over 35s are in short supply.

"What we're looking for is the book that is going to appeal to a readership from 35 to 60," he said. "The grown up reader who is maybe more settled in their life now and wants a read that isn't all about boyfriends, temporary jobs and flatshares."

The Literary Consultancy, a fee-paying editorial assessment service which offers feedback for writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, receives roughly 60 fiction manuscripts a month.

Founder Rebecca Swift said some budding writers imitate successful trends, but "by the time a lot of them have written it the trend has gone slightly out of fashion because the market has become saturated."

Trewin receives about 2,500 manuscripts a year. "The books that really work are where you think the author has written them because they really want to get this story across," he said.

"They're not writing a book because they've got an overdraft to pay off."

Borders Awards
The Borders' Original Voices picks for the year are:

Fiction
Mark Dunn's ELLA MINNOW PEA

Non-fiction
Michael Pollan's BOTANY OF DESIRE

Children's picture book
Helen Ward's THE TIN FOREST, illustrations by Wayne Anderson

Young adult book
L.M. Elliott's UNDER A WAR-TORN SKY