Discontent to have Michael Lewis speak for him (well, all right), Michael Oher, the football player who was the subject of THE BLIND SIDE, will put out a memoir next year called I BEAT THE ODDS. His adoptive parents Leigh Ann and Sean Tuohy are beating him to press with IN A HEARTBEAT: SHARING THE POWER OF CHEERFUL GIVING this summer. I wonder if authors ever think about making their subjects sign non-compete agreements saying they won't publish or contribute to another book project -- surely they could ask them not to give interviews to other authors, and this is just the next step, right? I really need to read a book about this.
Are female critics too nice to the books they review? Sarah McCarry argues as much based on her experience with YA literature online, not a field I have any experience in, but it's an interesting point. Actually, it reminds me of the time some commenters on an author's blog started attacking me because I'd assigned her book an A-, and the author actually stepped in and said "Dudes, chill out, I'm happy with it." I was glad that she was glad, but I try not to think about how the author will feel when evaluating a book. Clearly when I Become A Famous Novelist I'm going to have to take off for some place like Arkhangelsk that only has really bad Internet access.
New York asked Meghan Daum and Emily Gould who would read their forthcoming memoirs, and they responded:
Daum: People with a sense of humor.This is an ace question, at least for funny people. Can't lie, I'm anticipating them both (have already started the Daum actually).
Gould: Twenty-three-year-old girls who have Tumblr accounts.
Finally, Karl Rove is on book tour right now in Utah and New Mexico for his book COURAGE AND CONSEQUENCES, no doubt answering the question, "What two things do I wish I knew what it felt like to have?"
6 comments:
Is it bad to admit that I'm looking forward to Gould's moreso than Daum's because she's cute and lives in Brooklyn?
1. wade, yes, that is bad to admit.
2. my understanding is that one can ask subjects to sign noncompetes. I worked with a scientist who had been the subject of a number of features by a single author, and he led me to believe that he was subject to non-compete, but it could have just been a gentleman's agreement.
8, I would think a lot of nonfiction authors would want their subjects to make such an agreement, formally or informally. (And formally preferred because it can be taken to court.) If you're writing a science book and you get a world-famous reclusive scientist to go on record, you wouldn't want them just giving up their exclusive to someone else. Lewis probably doesn't care in this case, though, as he's already moved onto his next book.
Wade, it's bad for you because from what I've read about it, her book belongs to a sub-genre you particularly rail against. Why only recently you were railing against the publishing industry for committing the same crime. Failing that, her boyfriend could BHD you under the table.
I'm not planning on reading either one. And I think that Gould is the sort to say/do deliberately provocative things to get headlines for herself, and her eye-rolling in that interview with Jimmy Kimmel make her look really bad.
Ellen, I wouldn't say that her memoir is exactly in that category, because she was a public figure in her own right before publishing this book. The memoirs that drive me crazy are the confessional ones that don't offer anything new and are published because their author is attractive and/or because they are blatant attempts to land a movie deal.
I think you're splitting hairs. Gould was a public figure within a very, very small arena; even after her Times Magazine cover story (which led to or concurred with her book deal, not sure which), a lot of the negative comments began with "So who is this girl anyway?"
Maybe you're right. Its weird - between her looks and her morally bankrupt career choice, I have a sort of guilty fascination with what her memoir might contain. I don't expect it to be well written, and I think it will probably contain a lot of pointless 'dishing' about people I don't really care about. Whether or not this is justified, she represents to me a type of lifestyle that I find fascinating because it annoys me so much. So its interesting to me on that level. On second thought, maybe i'll just read the inevitable New York Magazine article ABOUT her book when it comes out.
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