Tidbits from the wacky world of publishing.

What if someone gave you an $8 million advance for a followup effort to a surprise best-seller debut? Would you rise to the challenge, or choke? Charles Frazer’s new book, THIRTEEN MOONS has sold only 100,000 copies since its release late this summer, and mixed reviews have torpedoed sales. I don’t know how anyone could have lived up to those expectations.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined, without comment, to hear arguments between DAVINICI CODE author Dan Brown and Lewis Perdue, who claimed Brown plagiarized the plot from his novel DAUGHTER OF GOD.

I don’t even know what to say about O.J. Simpson penning a book about hypothetically murdering his wife Nicole except to be creeped out and saddened for his children, and wonder why the gurus over at HarperCollins didn’t put the kibosh on Judith Regan’s jackal’s feast when the deal was being made. At least O.J. won’t realize any profits from it. HarperCollins will probably make a . . . you fill in the blank. UPDATE: saner heads have prevailed and the whole sordid project is scrapped.

Courtney Love has a book out, too. DIRTY BLONDE: THE DIARIES OF COURTNEY LOVE will probably be as fascinatingly repellant as O.J.’s faux confessional. Just in time for the holidays.

Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She has written two novels under the pseudonym Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter--both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President's teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins.
Kathleen Bolton