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(from today's Publisher's Weekly e-newsletter -- no URL):
3,500 Cheer Three Bestselling Authors' Joint Appearance
"Our topic this evening," said Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now, "is the Great Unraveling of Lies and the Bush Dynasty," effectively tying the bestselling titles of three authors who appeared together Sunday evening on the Berkeley (Calif.) High School campus. Don't let the "high school" part fool you: more than 3,500 people turned out, and many took to their feet as if cheering rock stars when Paul Krugman (The Great Unraveling, Norton), Al Franken (Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Dutton) and Kevin Phillips (American Dynasty, Viking) walked on stage.
Of course, they were preaching to the choir--it was Berkeley, after all--but the evening showed that these books and their authors could work together to bring their message that all is not right with the Bush Presidency.
Franken started the event off with laughs when he said, "You know, I had a little run-in with Fox." Just back from his fourth USO tour in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, he talked about a recent interview with CNN's Paula Zahn in which she asked him if people found the tour disingenuous. "I don't know, do people tell you that being interviewed by you is like being interviewed by a golden retriever?" he joked. "I love our troops. Those kids are my kid's age. But Bush put them in harm's way, and he did it in a way that misled the American people."
Krugman began by pointing out that in these "absurd" times it is "people who are aggressively non-serious, like Al, who are telling the truth." He said he anticipated that in yesterday's State of the Union address, the President would paint himself as a visionary standing above the political fray. Then the Princeton economics professor and New York Times columnist discussed "stop loss," a concept under which the military will not discharge more than 30,000 people in the all-volunteer armed forces who are done with their service--because of the extensive strain on the military. "I don't think they're volunteer soldiers anymore," he said. "But don't worry, we have a visionary president. He has the answer: 'Let's go to Mars.'"
The night's speakers were not simply the "usual suspects," Goodman said as she introduced Phillips, who cut his political chops working for Richard Nixon and John Mitchell. (Upon hearing this, Franken moved his chair away from Phillips.) "What we see with the Bushes is a multi-generation family of fibbers," said Phillips. (Franken moved his chair back.)
The mood was light--in part due to the camaraderie and mutual respect among the speakers--but their messages were hard-hitting. Phillips, whose book is subtitled Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, outlined suspicious ties between the Bush family and the Saudis, Iraqis and Iranians going back to W's great grandfathers. "In 1991-92, Bill Safire--that left-wing columnist for the New York Times--was so disgusted that he couldn't endorse George H. W. Bush.
Because these books are competitive with each other it might seem strange that a publisher would hatch the idea of a joint event, but it sprang from Norton's sales and marketing department. "Fortunately, the concept was strong enough that everyone involved pitched in and made it happen," Drake McFeely, president and chairman of Norton, told PW Daily. Norton contacted Cody's Books in Berkeley, freelance publicist Barbara Monteiro and Bob Baldock of KPFA radio, who organized much of the event, a benefit for the Pacifica radio station in Berkeley and Global Exchange, an international human rights organization. The authors volunteered their time.
With the success of this first joint appearance (as McFeely put it, "How often do you go to a book event that's 3500 people?") chances are good that this "Rolling Thunder" tour will make stops in other cities. "All of them are committed to something larger than selling his own book," McFeely said.
Goodman tapped into a major reason why the publishers were so willing to work together instead of competing: "There are an increasing number of conservative imprints at the publishing houses," she said at the end of the evening. "When you buy a book you are really casting a vote for another voice to be published." At this, Franken pointed out that his book makes a nice present, too.
--Bridget Kinsella
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