Frank McCourt Pens First Signed Review at Publisher’s Weekly

Publisher’s Weekly, which is read avidly by publishers, booksellers, authors, and librarians, is doing something completely different. Though it has been reviewing books since 1932 and gives a book one of the very first reviews it receives, the reviews have never been signed. Until this week. For the first time ever, Thomas Fleming’s “Mysteries of My Father,” published by Wiley, received a review from best-selling author Frank McCourt. And it was a very good one.PW reviews are important because they can jump-start the publicity for a book or can, just as easily, push a book a lot closer to oblivion. PW claims that its policy of unsigned reviewing is done not to shield reviewers but to ensure a consistency of standard and tone.The magazine’s new editor, Sara Nelson, who is making major changes in the publication, said, “We hope to have a signature review in many issues. We want to match up a fairly prominent book with a fairly prominent reviewer. Frank McCourt is, of course, a very prominent reviewer. We will still have non-bylined reviews. But certain books just seem to scream out for special treatment.”What makes Mr. Fleming’s book so special? Well, Mr. McCourt describes it as “majestic” and writes that “there are enough plots and themes for a dozen novels.” It is the story of the author’s growing up in Jersey City, which was an Irish-American political fief dom presided over by Frank Hague, who was the mayor as well as the leader of the Democratic Party. Mr. Fleming, at 7 years of age, met Hague, an experience, he says, he never forgot.Mr. Fleming has written 40 books, 22 of them novels and the rest about history. He said he specializes in the American Revolution, though he has recently written about World Wars I and II. Though he has received good reviews in PW before, he said, “This is absolutely just great for the book.” He was sure that with review in hand, his publisher’s p.r. department is trying to get him the TV appearances that are often so necessary to generate big sales for even a well-reviewed book. Ms. Nelson, a former contributing editor at Glamour magazine who also wrote a book news column at the New York Observer and then the New York Post, has added several new features to PW. She has her own front-of-the-book editor’s column commenting on the news of the week, as well as a Hollywood Reader column about the books the studios are considering and buying. Her plans include tweaking the front of the book, adding more substantial features about global issues in the publishing business, and redesigning the magazine to make it more visual, to be introduced in May.***What books are currently red-hot? Two that only a mother could love. Currently on PW’s best-seller list is “Supernanny: How to Get the Best From Your Children” by Jo Frost, whose TV series “Supernanny” is a hit both in England and on ABC. Ms. Frost, a latter-day Mary Poppins, seems able to tame even the wildest child with her cheerful but no-nonsense approach. And as for reviewers, they liked the book. They better have – or it might have been “the naughty corner” for them.Judith Warner’s “Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety” is also selling well after a cover story in Newsweek, a front-page review in the New York Times, and a spate of TV appearances by the author including on the Today Show. Ms. Warner, who also wrote “How to Restore Democracy” and “You Have the Power” with Howard Dean, claims that American women simply try too hard to be perfect mothers. She interviewed 150 upper-middle-class women who feel trapped in “the culture of total motherhood.” Ms. Warner lived in France for several years and believes that French women are more relaxed about mothering and have more support from their government, with paid leave and more options for childcare.Mothers are a good market for magazines, too. A new publication was announced this week, exactly for the kind of mothers Ms. Warner used for her basic research. Called Cookie, it will, according to its editor, Pilar Guzman, help those obsessive moms “make the best choices” in everything they want to buy for those relentlessly demanding kids. The publisher is Fairchild, which already publishes Women’s Wear Daily, W, Jane, Details, and Modern Bride. The idea for Cookie came about during Fairchild’s “idea day” last year when at least five staffers came up with the idea for a magazine for affluent parents. The president of Fairchild, Mary Berner, said that advertisers for upscale products for children did not want to advertise in the more mass-market parenting magazines. Cookie, which will have a circulation-rate base of 300,000 and plans to publish 10 issues a year by 2007, will have advertising offices not only in New York and Los Angeles, but also in that kiddie fashion capital, Milan.But then, there are a raft of new magazines for the affluent. “Conspicuous consumption is back in,” a longtime magazine consultant, Martin Walker, said. Last fall, American Express launched a luxury title for holders of the Centurion card, an invitation-only credit card with a fee of $2,500. That magazine is so elegant it has no name on the cover and arrives four times a year in a black box.Jason Binn, publisher of the glossies Gotham and Hamptons, is launching upscale regional titles in Boston and Washington, D.C. And there are even more high-end titles arriving inside the Beltway. Washington DC Style, a bimonthly set to launch in May is a spinoff of Philadelphia Style. And in the fall, a Washington spin-off of CS, a Chicago publication, will debut.But then, New York also just got an even more upscale publication. This week, I received the first issue of the super shiny Absolute that has as its tagline “New York at its very best.” It is chock-full of ads from such creme de la creme advertisers as Chanel, Harry Winston, Loro Piana, and Verdura.There are some superstar names on the masthead as well, including editorial director Caroline Miller, the former editor of New York magazine, who was replaced last year by Adam Moss, and creative director Michael Grossman who has worked at Saveur, Harper’s Bazaar, and Entertainment Weekly. The magazine’s editor in chief is Andrew Essex, who was formerly executive editor at Details. Absolute is backed by Carlos Yorka,a Spanish real-estate tycoon who publishes three magazines in Spain.In his editor’s letter, Mr. Essex lets you have it straight about who this magazine is and isn’t for: “What you find on these pages isn’t intended for everyone. … We’re curated for the narrowband, the tenderloin. ” What you do find is a plethora of luxury products, including the most chic new pet, a Havana brown cat that cost $900, and a purple python clutch bag that costs $3,500. It is also full of tidbits of information, like the fact that Diet Coke has become the beverage of choice at Carlyle power breakfasts for Jeffrey Katzenbach, Harvey Weinstein, and Bill Clinton. Gee, I didn’t know that. And a long feature on a new legal document called the postnup for couples for whom a prenup is just not enough. Clauses in the postnup can include “stiff fines for weight gain and drinking” and even a “no-diaper clause prohibiting pregnancy … he puts in the agreement that is she gets pregnant there’ll be an abortion.” Gee, I wish I didn’t know that.And how much does this “discerning New York sourcebook, a concierge service for sophisticated consumers” cost? Absolutely nothing. It is sent free to a “selective” readership.Very flattering. And the price is right.

Frank McCourt Pens First Signed Review at Publisher’s Weekly

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