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The reason? Conventional wisdom holds that the only market for such books is anyone who works in publishing, and anyone who wants to read the book (skim it, more likely) will mooch a copy from a friend who works at the house that published the book.
The Bestseller belies this theory; there's plenty here for anyone who likes a wicked wallow in a subculture where the four basic food groups (jealousy, backbiting, greed, and revenge) rule. The book is fun even if you don't know who Michael Korda is. But it's really fun if you do.
The value of this novel to civilians is that it provides a remarkably accurate, if hilarious, view inside an industry that any aspiring writer wants to understand.
The joke, of course, is that publishing often defies understanding, and predicting bestsellers is like picking trifectas. As the curtain rises, five writers are finishing novels: the 27-times-rejected starving writer Terry O'Neal, the calculating Daniel Gross who's hiding the true author of his book at home, the sweetly unassuming Brit Camilla Clapfish (a nod to Peter Mayle), Gerald Ochs Davis (the publisher/author with the initials G.O.D., whose access to sales computers means his books always do great), and Susann Baker Edmonds (what Judith Krantz would be if she were less literary). And one editor is performing miraculous triage on a dead author's final, unfinished book. Who will get the golden ticket, the bestseller?
Nobody knows, least of all anybody at Davis and Dash, the mighty publishing house pushing these books.
Beavering away at D & D are: the aforementioned G.O.D., his editor-in-chief, Pam "Preying" Mantiss (who keeps a well-guarded stash of customized Snapple in her office), and Emma Ashton, the talented young editor who slogs through most of Pam's work.
Two literary agents make life miserable for the folks at D&D: the ultraopportunistic Alf Byron and the driven Alex Simmons, a young agent who may or may not be manipulating an affair with Emma in order to advance her career.
Goldsmith uses her skill at juggling storylines well here, and she makes the race to the bestseller list a real puzzle. Who will win the coveted Tagiter prize? Who will go on Oprah? Will Susann Baker Edmonds survive her 40-city author's tour from hell? As in real life, there are twists and surprises, disappointments and love. As in fiction, there is plenty of made-up stuff, too.
The publishing world has been watching this book closely. There was a lot of interest among publishing folk in getting an early peek at this novel, for it does what no other novel about publishing has done: it names names -- around 800 of them, neatly listed in an index at the back of the book, and in cameo appearances throughout the story. Olivia Goldsmith understands that in the insulated world of book publishing, gossip and dirt-dishing go hand in hand with the not-always-lofty goal of preserving the written word. It doesn't matter that the index bears no relation to who actually appears in the novel; oddly, people in publishing love to see their names in print.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.
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