Financial planning puts a great many people into a tizzy, and hedge funds are certainly no exception. But Barton Biggs, a former Morgan Stanley strategist, is here to save the day for the seriously frazzled -- and his new book is winning people over:

"The pressure of living so intimately, so intensely with his portfolio (and dying a little on the bad days) has become intolerable," Mr. Biggs writes in "Hedge Hogging," (Wiley), which will be published on Jan. 6.

Another trader was stung by losses after moving into a Greenwich estate with $20,000 trees, a two-story screening room and a wine cellar that could hold 5,000 bottles.

"The straws were mounting on the camel's back even as dark clouds were gathering," Mr. Biggs writes. With losses approaching 30 percent, the manager had a breakdown and would not get out of bed, so his wife abruptly closed the fund.

But then, the whole investment banking world isn't one for the weak, which is why it's also rife for satire someday...

Lulu.com's gambit for publicity pays off: The Book Standard turns its attention to Lulu's "new study" predicting the upcoming extinction of male-written bestsellers.

From Lulu.com's press release:

July 20, 2005 (Raleigh, N.C.) -- Bestselling novels by male authors like Dan Brown and Stephen King are heading for extinction, according to a new study which reveals that writers like J.K. Rowling and Danielle Steel have helped women double their share of #1 bestsellers over the last 20 years.

The study of the 354 novels to have topped the hardback fiction section of the world-famous New York Times Bestseller List during the 50 years from 1955-2004 was conducted by Lulu (www.lulu.com) [ed's note -- even taking into account the rhetorical customs of press releases, this moment of talking-about-myself-in-the-third-person feels particularly icky], a website that lets anyone publish their own book and sell it on the Net.

The female share of #1 bestsellers over the first decade of the study (1955-1964) was 17.8%, and still just 23.8% as recently as the 1980s -- compared to 46% over the last decade (1995-2004); and 50% so far this year.

continued...

Via the Guardian:

• The new Harry Potter's print run is "10m in the United States," "the biggest first printing of any book, ever."
• "The previous volume, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was the fastest-selling book in history, shifting more than 5m copies in a single day."
• "Rowling already earns more than any other woman in Britain, bringing in something close to £100m a year."

More numbers and pics -- forgive the time lag, but I've lost my digital camera -- later today.

What are the odds of making a living off your writing?

According to author and engineer Greg Slominski, 1 in 380. "Or, if you tweak the numbers to allow for a range of error, 1 in 200 to 1 in 500" -- worse than the odds for "Division 1 college football players vying for slots in the pros," and "way worse" than the odds for a Miss America contestant.

(Slominksi "has those calculations, too," writes columnist Patti Thorn of his Miss America statistics. "But don't ask me to double-check his work," she adds -- confirming, once again, that our schools need to teach girls better self-esteem in math class. Last we checked, the odds were simply 1 in 51 -- as in, the number of states plus Washington D.C.)

Here's the WSJ's (sub req'd) rundown of notable numbers for Random House's upcoming Eldest, the second in Christopher Paolini's YA fantasy trilogy: the publicity budget is $500,000; the print run is one million (John Irving's Until I Find You: 350,000); Paolini is 21 (Irving's age minus 42); and Eragon, the first in Paolini's series, already has two million-plus hardcovers and paperbacks in print in the U.S.

The remainder of the article credits "the online community" for much of Eragon's success: "Fansites and message boards built tremendous word-of-mouth, effectively establishing Eragon as a book that many teens and young adults felt they had to read." If that's true, though, it pushes some of Random House's self-congratulations into the realm of parody. From the article's last graf:

All of the marketing and advertising for "Eldest" has been produced in-house. "We didn't feel we needed the expertise of Madison Avenue," [marketing VP Daisy] Kline says. "You have to think out of the box."

I can't decide what analogy works best here: self-destructive drug addiction or deeply thoughtless arms race:

NEW YORK - Despite widespread agreement that too many books are in the marketplace, publishers apparently can't help themselves.

A study announced Tuesday estimates that a record 195,000 new works came out in 2004, a 14 percent jump over the previous year and 72 percent higher than in 1995.

... The Bowker report follows a survey released last week from the Book Industry Study Group, which estimates that the actual number of books sold in 2004 dropped by 40 million from the previous year.

TheBookStandard.com's analysis of the Bowker report also notes that "adult fiction, which accounted for 25,184 of the new titles in 2004, increased a hefty 43.1% from 2003, the highest jump ever recorded for the category." Large houses, however, only contributed "modestly" to this growth, "increasing their output in the category only 3.5% from the previous year." But, while the big houses"filled out their lists by releasing more titles in business, juvenile, law, sociology and travel," they also cut back on literary fiction. "Nonetheless, the overall growth means that adult fiction now accounts for 14% of all titles published in the country."

Bowker's press release, which none of the above articles, for whatever reasons, link to, makes mention of several more "interesting statistics":

• 11,458 new publishers registered with the U.S. ISBN Agency in 2004, an increase of 5.3% over 2003.
  
• 4,040 books were translated into English from another language, a decrease of 8.1% from 2003.
  
• Novels published by the large trade houses averaged 359 pages in 2004, a growth of 24 pages since 1995, and 43 pages since 1990.

I've never heard of Paul McKenna, but, as of Monday, he's become the highest paid nonfiction writer in Britain, thanks to a £3m advance (~$5.6m) from Transworld publishers.

In the past year, "celebrity hypnotist" McKenna's "street value has rocketed," the Independent reports; his lifestyle guide Change Your Life in Seven Days sold 400,000 copies, and its sequel, I Can Make You Thin, 350,000. "Publishing sources reckon his new books will follow a similar format, and deal with four new areas: confidence, intelligence, wealth and quitting smoking." But, apparently, when it comes to Paul McKenna's brand of hypnotism, the real trick to be learned is how to do it. Whether or not McKenna knows how to help you quit smoking-while-losing-weight-while-making-millions-while-cumming, he knows how to get publishers to think you think he does (or, at least, might), which means he's either a) a very smart fraud, or b) doing something right.

Ask Peter Olson what book he would like to have published, and the Random House chief executive immediately cites The Purpose Driven Life.

But Random House hasn't needed Rick Warren's (hostage-approved) bestseller to make profits. The Financial Times breaks down what sets Random House apart: a business model borrowed from the company's German parent, the specialization afforded by its imprints, and "getting the balance right" between "[finding] high-quality new authors while controlling advances for big-name titles."

In case you haven't already seen it, MobyLives' current column features some controversial thoughts on first fiction by Robert Lasner, co-publisher of Ig Publishing:

Finally, big publishers can help literary first fiction by not paying for it. Huge advances to first novelists creates the "one and done" phenomena, where an author is dropped by a big house when their book doesn't earn out its ridiculously high advance. One of the worst things about the swallowing of big publishing by international media conglomerates is that big houses have completely lost the concept of building an author's career. They just go for the big hit--or, in most cases, miss. I am willing to bet that the bottom line of many publishers would be improved if they stopped throwing money away on advances that will never be earned back, and instead tried to nurture author's careers. It would make for happier authors, and, in the long-term, happier publishers.

On the other hand, though, don't big advances create buzz? And can the industry be anything but hit-driven? Those with a better perspective on book finances, write GalleyCat at galleycat@mediabistro.com.

Tracheotomies included, book sales rarely come this easy:

Sales of Pope John Paul's new book Memory and Identity have rocketed since he was taken to [the] hospital for throat surgery on Thursday morning, a spokesman for Italian publisher RCS MediaGroup said yesterday.

"Sadly, it's because of the sudden news of the operation. It sparked a lot of curiosity and demand has been huge compared to our original expectations," the spokesman said.