not your father’s publishing business

Scandals are great for creating buzz!

Too bad Judith Regan spoiled a great potential bestseller by trying to do a two-hour TV special!

While Oprah was flaying James Frey on TV, people were flocking to the stores to buy his book!

Publishers don’t fact-check the books they publish—it’s too expensive!

There’s plagiarism and there’s literary license!

These are just some of the reality-based opinions floated in Josh Getlin’s roundup of the year in books, 2006.

Getlin also quotes a party-pooping representative of the literary establishment:

“A lot of this is pretty tawdry stuff,” said James Atlas, biographer of Saul Bellow and a longtime editor. “It was, in so many ways, a year of miscreancy in the American book business.”

Onward to more miscreancy in 2007—and better sales!