For anyone pondering a career in publishing, The Bestseller--a fictional account of the frayed egos, sorted ideas, and strange economics that fuel the book industry--may be a dose of harsh reality. Olivia Goldsmith has created a tale of Davis & Dash, a Manhattan house run by an unspectacular publisher and a talented, but foul, editor. The new line of books doesn't exactly threaten to populate the Pulitzer list, though there's a serious 1,114-page work by a novelist who killed herself after her 23rd rejection letter. Goldsmith, who obviously deserves to be among the published, manages to puzzle these disparate pieces together into a cohesive story of the powers that be and those that hope to.


From Publishers Weekly
It is an old adage that books about publishing do not sell, because those likely to be most interested will beg, borrow or steal them rather than buy. In the case of the latest by Goldsmith (The First Wives Club) that would be a pity, because it is a highly entertaining tale with a good share of romance and drama, considerable humor and some cynical fun at the expense of the book business; there are many recognizable characters, and a number of real-life walk-ons. (There's even an index so book people can look themselves up, but be warned: it is not what it seems.) Goldsmith's busy plot?which makes publishing seem as glamorous and crazy as fashion or the movies (settings for two of her previous books)?offers four women with novels being considered by high-powered New York publisher Davis & Dash. There is an elderly romance queen with a fading readership; a proud mother trying to get someone to read a magnum opus by her dead daughter; a cool young Englishwoman who has penned a quirkily charming book about a busload of American tourists in Tuscany; and a desperate young woman whose devious husband is trying to steal all the credit for her true-crime roman a clef. Throw in a corrupt publisher doctoring the books to try to make his own sales look bigger, a nymphomaniac and alcoholic editor-in-chief, a staunch young editor and her lesbian agent friend, and you have the makings of a spicy literary stew. The only problem is that Goldsmith winds it all up in much too pat a fashion, with the villains getting their comeuppances and the good getting their happily-ever-after endings in quick, glib order. But, hey, no one expected New Grub Street. $175,000 ad/promo; author tour; film rights to Paramount; simultaneous audiocassette from HarperAudio. (Aug.) FYI: Diane Keaton, Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn are currently filming The First Wives Club.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Best-selling author Goldsmith here proposes to do for the publishing industry what she did for fashion in Fashionably Late and for Hollywood in Flavor of the Month. But Hollywood is still in the picture; Paramount has bought the rights for this new saga.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Sarah Lyall
The achievement of The Bestseller is that Olivia Goldsmith takes the sometimes arcane publishing world and makes it interesting, as well as completely credible. Her descriptions of the pressures on authors, the often arbitrary editorial processes and even the bottom-line problems of small booksellers are dead right.


Washington Post Book World
"Lots of romance and revenge."


From AudioFile
Olivia Goldsmith must have loved writing this novel because she certainly enjoys reading it. An author narrating her own fiction is never a sure bet, but Goldsmith, though hardly a polished actress, delivers the energy she put into creating these characters in print. This tantalizing tale revolves around five authors and one publishing house desperately seeking bestsellers. The editors, agents and power brokers get into the act, and Goldsmith cooks up a delightful race to the bestseller list. Great fare for listeners who are connected with publishing, reviewing or the reading of bestsellers! R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
This lengthy tale about the publishing industry has everything you want in popular fiction. It starts with hordes of characters, many of them without much character, a few you really wish you knew, and a few with such sad lives you're thankful you don't know them. The novel is set in an industry fraught with egos that are elevated through obscene advances and then deflated by the fickle, faceless publishing conglomerates who demand sure thing after sure thing. At the center of the story is Davis & Dash, an old, prestigious imprint under enormous pressure from its corporate owners to produce another best-selling fall list. D & D President Gerald Ochs Davis (GOD to his minions) is straining not only to acquire books that will sell but also to write a hit himself to make up for the poor performance of his last few titles. But Gerald is not the only D & D blockbuster author who needs to rekindle sales. It's obviously time to recruit fresh, young authors, so Pam Mantiss, the unscrupulous editor-in-chief, and Emma Ashton, Pam's top editor, who would love nothing more than to actually publish high-quality books, stake their reputations on unknown authors. These struggling writers are the interesting characters who give meat to what might otherwise have been a cliched plot. Goldsmith digs deep into the incestuous world of publishing, masterfully merging fiction with reality. The Bestseller, already sold to Paramount, is itself a sure thing. Mary Frances Wilkens


From Kirkus Reviews
A master of high-concept fiction (Fashionably Late, 1994, etc.) returns with a likely bestseller about writing a bestseller-- a meaty send-up of publishing told with intelligence, wit, and shameless enthusiasm. Goldsmith claims Rona Jaffe territory with the cross-cut stories of five writers whose novels appear on the fall list of Davis & Dash, a floundering Manhattan publishing house. Susan Baker Edmonds, 63, once a legal secretary in Cincinnati, has been a bestselling romance writer for decades. In an author tour from hell (42 cities in six weeks), she battles to boost her circulation. The Cinderella figure is Camilla Clapfish, 29, a poor-but-virtuous British tour guide who fights loneliness by writing a gentle book about middle-aged women on a bus trip through Italy. In upstate New York, meanwhile, Judith and Daniel Gross collaborate on a commercial venture about a mother who kills her children. Judith will write, Daniel will edit and sell. But Daniel gets greedy and claims sole authorship. The lone male author is Gerald Ochs Davis, Jr. (monogram GOD), the Michael Korda-esque publisher of Davis & Dash who supports three wives and a mistress with his bestsellers. Finally, there's Bloomington, Indiana, librarian Opal O'Neal, in town to sell the 1,114-page manuscript written by her daughter Terry, who, after her 27th rejection letter, hanged herself. Along with a ton of old gossip and dropped names (including ``the pricks at Kirkus''), Goldsmith melds her tale with a user's guide to publishing (``Now was not the time to think about Alf and his disloyalty, her daughter's wasted life. . . . Now only remember that half of all mass market paperbacks sold were romances--almost a billion dollars in annual sales''). Despite some lapses in dramatic tension, a bright and entertaining education in bookmaking where the good get bestsellers and the bad never eat in the Grill Room again. ($175,000 ad/promo; film rights to Paramount; author tour; radio satellite tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.



"Great summer reading."



"A mordantly dishy new novel that skewers the publishing industry and many of its real life movers and shakers."



"This dishy roman à clef will serve as a clever parable about insecure writers, sharklike agents, and corrupt publishers."


Newsweek
"You keep licking your fingers and reaching for the next page as if it were a potato chip."


Book Description
At Davis & Dash, one of New York's most prestigious publishing houses, five new authors will be published--but only one of them will be a bestseller. They have worked long and hard to write their novels of romance and murder, drama and love. But the story behind the stories is even more exciting. And the vicious competition to get the right agent, the perfect editor, and the choice spot on the bestseller list must be seen to be believed. Master novelist Olivia Goldsmith, bestselling author of The First Wives Club and Marrying Mom, takes a scathing and hilarious inside look at the deviously cutthroat world of publishing. She pierces egos, produces the dish, and punctures more than a few careers in this one-of-a-kind novel where dreams come true and writing is its own reward.


About the Author
Olivia Goldsmith is the bestselling author of The First Wives Club, Flavor of the Month, Fashionably Late, The Bestsller, Marrying Mom,and Switcheroo. She lives in south Florida and is no longer young or a wife.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Olivia Goldsmith burst onto the publishing scene in 1991 with the phenomenal success of her first novel, The First Wives Club. Her exposé of middle-aged men and their collection of trophy wives spoke to jilted audiences the world over. The film adaptation brought women storming to the box office in droves, the more crazed fans having formed clubs of their own.

Now Goldsmith is back with The Bestseller, this time taking on the elusive world of book publishing with her scathing and hilarious style. From power lunches to glamorous book parties, from closed-conference whisperings to the grueling reality of the book-publicity tour, Goldsmith chronicles the blood, sweat, and tears shed in the struggle to succeed in the publishing industry.

The Bestseller is the story of five authors, five novels, one publisher, one fall list, and only one bestseller. Davis & Dash is one of New York City's top trade-book publishers, but the company is not without its struggles and conflicting personalities as it fights to produce the strongest list of new books for the industry's crucial fall season. In presenting the race to the coveted bestseller list, Goldsmith introduces a colorful cast of characters that are amazingly true to life — a broad array of authors, editors, literary agents, and booksellers whose lives intersect as each character eagerly pursues his or her own aspirations and agendas.

Goldsmith's appropriately named The Bestseller is a must-read for starving artists and established authors alike. The novel may be fictional, but this dishy newnovel"skewers the publishing industry and many of its real-life movers and shakers" (Newsday). Goldsmith herself suffered through 26 rejections before her first novel was accepted for publication, and as a result, having experienced the industry firsthand, she has woven a great deal of truth into the lines of The Bestseller.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Davis & Dash is the epitome of Manhattan's glittering publishing scene, a world of multimillion-dollar advances and Champagne publication parties. But as the do-or-die fall season approaches, D&D is scrambling to outmaneuver its competitors. Five authors are slotted for publication on their coveted fall list - but there will be only one bestseller. Interweaving the tales of five desperate authors with a scathing and hilarious inside look at the publishing world, Olivia Goldsmith offers her most mischievous and provocative novel since The First Wives Club. Every book has a story, but when the dust settles, which one will be the bestseller?

FROM THE CRITICS

Newsday

A mordantly dishy new novel that skewers the publishing industry and many of its real life movers and shakers.

Newsweek

You keep licking your fingers and reaching for the next page as if it were a potato chip.

Cosmopolitan

Great summer reading.

Glamour

This dishy roman à clef will serve as a clever parable about insecure writers, sharklike agents, and corrupt publishers.

Washington Post Book World