From: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.dan-quayle
Subject: Book Notes (NY Times, 1/27/93)
Date: 27 Jan 93 19:00:54 GMT
Reply-To: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Organization: Columbia University

[Copied w/o permission.  Typos and editorial comments are mine.]

_Newly unemployed Republicans start selling their memoirs._

Robert Barnett seems to have become the fashionable literary agent for
alumni of hte departed Bush Administration.

In December, Mr. Barnett, a partner in the Washington law firm
Williams & Connolly, began peddlin the memoirs of James Baker 3rd to
New York publishers.  At about the same time, Mr. Barnett started
representing Mary Matalin, the deputy manager of the Bush Presidential
campaign, and her Democratic archrival and paramour, James Carville, a
chief strategist for the Clinton campaign, as they shop around a "he
said she said" literary look back at the 1992 campaign.

Mr. Barnett's growing list of political clients was further augmented
by Marlin Fitzwater, former President George Bush's White House
spokesman, and Lynne V. Cheney, who was chairwoman of the National
Endowment of the Humanities during Bush's tenure.

Topping off the Barnett list of authorial politicians is former Vice
President Dan Quayle, who has agreed to write his memoirs for
HarperCollins, Mr. Barnett and William M. Shinker, publisher of the
Harper Collins adult trade groups, said yesterday.  Mr. Shinker said
Mr. Quayle would be working with a collaborator, who has not yet been
selected.  [Send in your resumes, folks.]

The manuscript is to be delivered by the end of the year for
publication in May or June of 1994, Mr. Shinker said.
[Alt.fan.dan-quayle.book-review?]

_The Christian Market_

Cryptically describinng the terms of the contract, Mr. Shinker said
that HarperCollins had acquired world rights, exclusive of film rights
["Dan Quayle: The Movie"?  Guesses on who would play the title role?],
and that "elements of the deal make it a seven-figure deal."  Other
publishers and agents said such elements could include the author's
advance, payment to the collaborator, bonuses for becoming a
best-seller and promotional guaranteeds.

An important element in Mr. Quayle's choosing of HarperCollins, Mr.
Barnett said, was the publisher's agreement to market the book not
only through its regular commercial division, but also through
Zondervan, its religious publishing subsidiary. ["And verily, the Lord
saith one word to me, and that word was `potatoe'" -- The Book of Dan,
15:7] HarperCollins has used this strategy successfully with several
other authors who the publisher believed could cross over between the
Christian and mainstream markets.  Amont the successes were Tom
Landry, the former coach of the Dallas Cowboys, and, most recenlty,
Oliver North.  Their books spent weeks on the NYT best-sellers list.

"A regular trade publisher canot penetrate the Christian book market,"
Mr. Shinker said.  "Christian booksellers are skeptical of books
published by mainstream houses, even though, as in teh case of the
Quayle book, they may have an appropriate message for their readers.
But it's a huge market, and with Zondervan, we have access to it."

_Questioning the Questioners_

The book is to included an account of hte Bush years, the Quayle
faminly's religious faith, and the Murphy Brown flap.  In a turn of
the tables, Mr. Shinker said, Mr. Quayle hopes to interview major
journalists who covered and often lambasted him in his four years as
Vice President. [Does this include Murphy?]

Mr. Barnett first came to know the Quayle family after representing
Mr. Quayle's wife, Marilyn, who, with her older sister, Nancy T.
Northcott, wrote "Embrace the Serpent" (Crown), a thriller novel about
Washington that most reviewers found extremely unthrilling. [Liberal
bias!  Liberal bias!]

Given his client list, Mr. Barnett is a clear contender to represent
the literary fortunes of Mr. Bush, who is said to be considering
writing his own memoirs.

But Mr. Shinker said that even though he would be interested in Mr.
Bush's memoirs, "the Quayle book is more interesting to me."

"I think Dan Quayle has a unique perspective," he said.  "It's a more
unconventional book." [Short words, big print, and many pictures.]


--
	Who's "the loneliest monk?"
Newsgroups: alt.fan.dan-quayle