HarperCollins reps have been selling a new, secret September title for a little more than a week without disclosing its title or author to accounts. Speaking about the mysterious work, which is coming out from Morrow, publicist Debbie Stier would only confirm that the imprint does indeed have "an embargoed book that reps are selling without a title or author." While Stier quashed a rumor that the work is a White House expose from a former member of the Bush administration, she refused to offer any details about it. In a note to booksellers, Morrow said the book will have a September 12 laydown. PW has also learned that the imprint is championing the book as "a shattering, provocative and mesmerizing true story" which "will receive major national media attention" in both the U.S. and abroad. Additionally, one bookseller told PW that the mysterious work, dubbed Title to be Revealed, is a biography and is going to press for 300,000 copies.I doubt we can take Stier's "quash" at face value: Could it be Colin Powell? Michael Brown? Porter Goss? (Or, God forbid, Tom DeLay.)
Or might we have a Hollywood revenge book (in which case I couldn't care less): A book by Jennifer Aniston? A book about Tom Cruise?
Stay tuned...
Update: Two other clues: the book is categorized as, in part, a childhood memoir--and it's by a "proven author." The entire press release was posted by Sarah at Media Bistro, who suggests it might be related to Michael Jackson. (If that's the case, I predict remainderville for thousands of unsold books.)
Edward Champion builds an unlikely and unconvincing circumstantial case for Michael Moore--but then dismisses it.
One of his commenters links to an intriguing possibility, two-time novelist Princess Christina Oxenberg:
She also gets asked about rumors that President Kennedy was her real father. Was he?
"I just don't discuss that," Princess Christina said.
But she acknowledges that the rumors might make for a good plot for another novel.
