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Believer Editor Ed Park Hired by Amazon Publishing

Amazon Publishing fulfilled expectations a few weeks ago when it announced its first big book deal, to publish The 4-Hour Chef by kickboxer and tango dancer Timothy Ferriss. It was the kind of book one would expect Amazon to acquire: written by a bestselling self-help author who will sell hundreds of thousands of e-books, extensively self-promote on the internet and likely be less remembered for his contribution to literature than for his showmanship. (He will also be one of those writers who have a guaranteed place on the shelves of every used bookstore in America until the end of time or of used bookstores, whichever comes first).

What was less expected was Amazon Publishing’s latest move: hiring one of the editors of The Believer to acquire fiction for the imprint. Ed Park, whom The New York Times once called “The Wizard of Whimsy”, will now represent the literary side of the Seattle company’s New York publishing house. Read More

Book Deals

Ferriss, pictured on fourhourworkweek.com.

Amazon Publishing’s New York Imprint Gets First Major Acquisition: Timothy Ferriss

Amazon Publishing’s New York imprint has made its first big acquisition: Timothy Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Chef. It’s the third book in a bestselling series by Mr. Ferriss that helps you unlock all the secrets of life by spending four hours reading his books. Other installments include The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich and The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman, which The New York Times said “reads as if The New England Journal of Medicine had been hijacked by the editors of the SkyMall catalog.” Read More

Publishing

Julia Cheiffetz Named Editorial Director at Amazon Publishing

Larry Kirshbaum, publisher at Amazon’s new New York-based imprint, has named his first hire: Julia Cheiffetz, currently a senior editor at HarperCollins, has been named editorial director. Kirshbaum announced the hire in an e-mail to agents:

Julia’s sharp editorial sensibility and devotion to her authors, combined with her passion for new technology, makes her the Read More

Shelling Out for Sheldon

Just as he’s done for the last third of his life, the author Sidney Sheldon ended the year with a multimillion-dollar book deal, this time for a novel called Are You Afraid of the Dark? , which is expected to be published in 2003 by his longtime publisher, William Morrow. But the octogenarian author will Read More

Jack Welch Writes- But About What? Here Are Some Tips

The news that my old friend Larry Kirshbaum has won Jack Welch’s memoir-to-come for $7-odd million of Time Warner’s money and the promise of an unprecedented publishing full-court press naturally provokes speculation as to what sort of book the General Electric supremo has in mind.

I just hope it’s the right one. I bow to Read More