Books

Put the word “independent” in front of anything and its coolness factor doubles. Cheaply made films and music albums can pass for high art with the right amount of vision. But put the word “self-published” in front of a novel, and readers instantly think “inspirational poetry that hasn’t been proofread.”   IndieReader, based in New Jersey, is an online resource for lovers of independent books and the people who write them.  IndieReader might not be the first publication to review self-published books, but it is bold in its similarity to the “critically-acclaimed independent films” category on Netflix.

Indie Reader founder Amy Edelman created the site for “literate people who are looking for something other than the latest James Patterson novel,” she said, adding, “not that there’s anything wrong with James Patterson.”  IndieReader reviews and rates self-published books to help readers find the ones that are worth reading.  After a year and a half of Beta testing, the site was relaunched last month to include news, commentary, interviews, and IndieReader Selects, a special page for indie bookstores to find local authors.

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New York City based Lebhar-Friedman Inc, a B2B publisher, is selling off all of their properties.

A tipster tells FishbowlNY, the medical division (Dowden Health Media) is being sold to an investment team with an official announcement expected next week.

The company flagship, Nation’s Restaurant News will be sold to Penton Media in December.

With a focus on retail, foodservice and healthcare, Lebhar-Friedman has taken its 85-year history of publishing into the 21st century.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you just ignored the standard office policies and played by your own rules at your job?  Did you ever think that by bypassing the “appropriate channels” you could actually increase your productivity at work?  If you haven’t considered this rebel behavior yet, don’t worry — Bill Jensen and Josh Klein have got you covered in their new book Hacking Work.

Jensen and Klein’s ideas on “breaking stupid rules for smart results” can be yours for free just by entering MJD’s Hacking Work contest.  You can participate by sharing your favorite workplace hack in the comments section of this MJD article or through Twitter (@MediaJobsDaily).  Entrants are encouraged to discuss their best time-saving tricks, computer shortcuts, and early weekend exit strategies to avoid the boss to name a few.

Act fast because you only have until tomorrow (Oct. 15) to enter.  There’s no need to enter your real name to participate as MJD understands that you would probably want to keep your personal information confidential from your boss.  The winner will be chosen randomly from all submissions and receive a free copy of Hacking Work after confirming their name and details with MJD.  Good luck and happy hacking!

Len Berman, who gained fame for more than two decades as WNBC weeknight sportscaster, has published his fourth children’s book.

Of course, the subject — sports — remains his passion.

Last year, in the months after being pushed out at WNBC, Berman wrote The Greatest Moments in Sports. The book was geared to children, and became so successful that it made The New York Times Best Sellers list.

“The fact that a publisher wants to publish a book, tells you that they think they are going to make some money on it,” Berman says.

So he’s back with the The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. (Sourcebooks)

However, this time around, Berman isn’t the judge and jury of the process (along with his editor).

“This one I decided to have a blue-ribbon panel make the choices, because I didn’t want to be responsible for who’s in and who’s out,” Berman tells FishbowlNY.

That “blue-ribbon panel” includes former Yankee Bernie Williams, Brooklyn Dodgers All-Star pitcher Ralph Branca, longtime baseball executive Roland Hemond, noted journalist Frank DeFord and Sirius/XM host Chris “Mad Dog” Russo.

More with Berman after the jump

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Chad Harbach, editor at n+1, has sold his first book to Little, Brown. The novel, called The Art of Fielding, will focus on how baseball interweaves through the lives of a select group of characters at a Wisconsin college, including a shortstop with issues, a college president, the president’s daughter, and possibly Michael Chabon. The book reportedly sold for six figures.

In related news, n+1 senior editor Elif Batuman‘s book, The Possessed, has recently been published. The New York Times calls Batuman’s effort an “odd and oddly profound little book,” “ostensibly about Russians.”

Rebecca Dana, formerly of The Wall Street Journal and currently senior correspondent at Tina Brown‘s The Daily Beast, has just signed a two-book deal with Penguin Putnam.

Not much is known about the books beyond the title of the first: Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde. Both will be published by Amy Einhorn at Penguin. Dana told FishbowlNY Jujitsu “will cover my last few years in New York and the coming one,” and “the second book is completely TBD.”

We’ve heard rumors that Jujitsu Rabbi will be about Dana’s relationship with a Jewish man of the cloth, which should be an interesting read from the fashionista.

Be careful what you write about Rupert Murdoch or his various entities: not only will you inevitably suffer the full backlash from The New York Post or Fox News (as Michael Wolff found out last year, when his affair with Victoria Floethe was revealed in Page Six shortly after his book The Man Who Owns The News was released), but you’ll also have to contend with the litany of newspaper articles that crib the information from your book without giving you any credit (again Wolff, complaining that last Sunday’s profile of Fox New chief Roger Ailes in The New York Times was directly taken from his book).

Sarah Ellison is taking an obvious gamble with her new book, War at The Wall Street Journal: Inside the Struggle to Control an American Business Empire. Not only is the subject matter covering almost the exact same trajectory as Wolff’s book — the Bancroft family’s selling of The Wall Street Journal to Murdoch for $60-a-share — but, according to the David Carr review of the book on today’s Times Media Decoder blog, it’s a much more intimate portrait of the man than the “ethereal” presence we’re used to reading about.

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Romance publisher Harlequin is celebrating its 60th anniversary with an exhibition of book covers over the years, and we couldn’t help but want to celebrate with them.

Today, we stopped by the opening of “Heart of a Woman: Harlequin Cover Art 1949-2009″ at Openhouse Gallery on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, a stunning display of hundreds of classic Harlequin cover art over the years, complete with little history lessons about the art and artists and an interactive wall that puts your face on the cover.

(Fun fact learned from the exhibit: “The trend toward featuring photographs of scantily clad, contemporary men rather than painted images of historic heros suggested that women had grown increasingly interested in the objectified male body.”)

On hand to toast Harlequin’s diamond anniversary today were New York Times best selling authors Gena Showalter and Debbie Macomber, as well as Harlequin CEO Donna Hayes.

Hayes told FishbowlNY that the point of the exhibit was “to represent through our covers how women’s lives have changes since our company has been in business.”

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Being successful in publishing means finding a need and filling it.

Boston-based literary agency The Strothman Agency is doing just that with their new publicity services offered to clients — and other authors, too. These specialized services, called Epilogue Media, will mix traditional and social media strategies tailored to each particular book and author, and are ideal for journalists-turned-authors.

“Things have been shifting over the past few years,” explained Strothman agent Dan O’Connell, who will be overseeing Epilogue Media. “There are agents that bring on people like me who oversee the publicity efforts of the publishing houses for their clients, but this is sort of a spin-off. We’re ramping up our promotional abilities for our clients and other clients.”

Epilogue’s services will, of course, be available to Strothman’s clients, which include a number of journalists like Peter Gosselin from the LA Times and former New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis. However, O’Connell’s insight is also being made available to authors outside the agency, although they’ll be looking to help authors who are similar to those represented by the agency, namely journalists, academics and writers of nonfiction and narrative nonfiction.

“We really want to very carefully target clients that will help us play to our strengths,” O’Connell said. “But we have had great success with journalists in the past.”

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Elizabeth Edwards has been all over — showing up in interviews in magazines and on “Oprah” and the “Today Show” — promoting her new book, “Resilience,” in stores last week.

Last week, we sat down to watch Edwards on “Oprah”, expecting to sob hysterically as the terminally ill cancer patient discussed her husband’s affair with campaign employee Rielle Hunter and his possible love child. Admittedly, Elizabeth’s confession that she had only asked John for one thing — loyalty — pulled at the heartstrings. But the sight of former Sen. John Edwards slinking off at the beginning of the interview, and then waiting around to be chastised by Oprah at the end of the show, was off-putting. Then, Elizabeth unfeelingly described how she had learned about John’s affair shortly after he launched his presidential campaign, how she had begged him to pull out, but then stood by him when he decided not to, in order to avoid drawing more attention to their family. There was a disconnect. It wasn’t what we had expected at all.

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