Booksellers: Anytime Is the Right Time for Clinton Book

[villager]

mods: nothing to "excerpt" from or link to -- this was taken from Publishers Weekly afternoon e-mail news round-up...


Booksellers: Anytime Is the Right Time for Clinton Book

While politicians and pundits fret over the timing and content of Bill Clinton's forthcoming memoir, booksellers say all signs point to a blockbuster--no matter what he says or when he finally gets around to saying it.

"I think it's ludicrous to think it's going to be anything but huge," said Jamie Hosticka, a bookseller at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cleveland, Ohio. "It could be a nursery rhyme and it would sell." Hosticka said the public's fascination with all things Clinton was evident last year, when Hillary Clinton's memoir, Living History, burned up the bestseller lists despite mixed reviews.

At Politics & Prose in Washington D.C., co-owner Carla Cohen says Bill Clinton's absence--and the public's frustration with the current administration--have made readers' hearts grow fonder of the former president. "I think that now more than ever people do miss him," she said. "They miss his warmth and connection, and I think they're going to go out and buy his book."

But details of the book's release apparently are raising concerns. In a story in today's New York Times , Democrats expressed fears that Clinton's book could upstage John Kerry during the crucial months just before the election. In addition, the story claimed (without attribution) that, "Mr. Clinton's painstaking pace is also increasingly frustrating his publisher." Paul Bogaards, the spokesman for Clinton's publisher, Knopf, called the Times story "speculative in nature." Bogaards made it clear he'd rather not be talking about the book or the publisher's expectations for it. "It's premature to characterize," he said. "I think at some point, we want to keep those stories at bay." But Bogaards added that Knopf considers the book a can't-miss hit. "It's going to be a rainmaker at retail and a newsmaker in the media," he said.

Booksellers are looking forward to big sales, whether the book comes out in June, the dog days of August or on Election Day in November. Despite speculation that the book could run 800 pages long, booksellers say it would still sell well at the height of beach-reading season. "August is our slowest month for trade books. Then again, there are all those people who are on vacation and have time to read an 800-page book," said Joan Grenier, co-owner of the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Mass. "I think it doesn't matter when it comes out, it will be a very big book."--Karen Holt

www.publishersweekly.com