Monday, March 02, 2009

Because Classy is Always in Vogue

My other idea from the title of this post came from Antony Hegarty at a recent Antony & the Johnsons show, something he said after covering Beyonce's "Crazy Right Now": "You can't beat perfection, but you can sidle up next to it." Somehow this line fit this news pretty well.

The news comes from Mediabistro's Galleycat blog, which reports that madam Kristin Davis, who once hosted some of the best and brightest at her New York City whorehouse, including (allegedly) ex-governor Eliot Spitzer, is selling her new "book" as an e-book online, with a self-publisher called Hollan Publishing, selling it for a mere $9.99. What a steal! Rather than wait around for a traditional publisher to, ya know, developmentally edit, stylistically edit, proofread, and design the book and come up with a publicity and marketing plan, Madam Davis has a book right away to sell. Her agent, Lori Perkins, arranged this:
"I told her I didn't think it would sell as a typical book," Perkins told us of her first meeting with Davis. "It'd take 18 months just to get published."

Smart gal. Even smarter, from this same post:
(Perkins added that she's also selling rights to a different paperback edition, which would include exclusive material from Davis's prison diaries.)

The positive spin, which I've been trying to add to stories these days (despite inevitable dour responses from Christopher - see previous post) is that maybe this kind of trash will get siphoned off by e-publishing, which can find readers interested in this crap more directly. Having said that, however, the point of the Galleycat post is that this "book" will be accompanied, unlike most e-books, with much media fanfare - Geraldo and Judith Regan unsurprisingly lined up to chat with the madam. But really, I don't turn to these two for interesting and upstanding news, so let 'em take the bait. Without a physical book, the media should be flash-in-the-pan and then out of sight, out of mind, without any real evidence left behind, and we can all move on with our lives, right?

Unless Perkins sells that other Davis project she has in mind...

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