The Bestseller: A Novel [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Olivia Goldsmith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1996

In a scathingly wicked and irreverent portrait of the publishing world, five authors and their books--all handled by big-time New York City publishing house Davis and Dash--compete for a position on the New York Times bestseller list. Simultaneous.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 789 pages
• Publisher: Wheeler Pub Inc (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568953895
• ISBN-13: 978-1568953892
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,969,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Goldsmith goes platinum with "The Bestseller"., February 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bestseller (Mass Market Paperback)

Though I must admit Ms. Goldsmith's stories have their faults (pat endings, too much anti-male rhetoric, and extremely dorky last names like Clapfish) her stories are damn entertaining. This one was definitely no exception. I read the thing in one sitting--something I've haven't done in ages. The characters are cocky, funny, and very interesting. We're given a very informative look inside the publishing business. Even though it was easy to guess who Peet Trawley (V.C. Andrews) and Susanne Baker Edmonds (Danielle Steel) are inspired by, it's still kind of cool to see Ms. Goldsmith's take on both of them. Terry's overwhelming sense of rejection and Opal's grieving are very sincere and realistic. The friendship between Opal and Roberta is genuine and touching. Even the bitchy Pam Mantiss (whose name is way too obvious)is fascinating and even sympathetic (in a weird villian sort of way)at times. I even loved that odd little fellow named GOD. Despite it's flaws, I definitely recommend the novel. It's one that you won't get out of your head for a long time.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Candy box of surprises about the publishing industry, August 31, 2000

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bestseller (Mass Market Paperback)

The premise of "The Bestseller" is simple enough for a Hollywood producer to understand" "First Wives Club" author Olivia Goldsmith offers us five writers with their five books. By the end, one of their novels will hit the top of the New York Times Best Seller list. Which will it be?

* Will it be Gerald Ochs Davis, the president of Davis & Dash? He s hoping that resurrecting an uncle's tragedy decades ago will make enough money to keep his mistress and ex-wives satisfied, and himself at the head of the now corporately owned company. To that end, he'll do anything" order an expensive ad budget, set an impossibly high quota for the sales force and even steal sales from other authors.

* Then there's Susann Baker Edmonds, formerly Sue Ann Edmonds, a legal secretary from the Midwest, who at 58 is facing the end of her career. She is also beset by her daughter, who bitterly resents her mother.

* The college professor author of "In Full Knowledge," a thriller about a woman driven to kill her children, is being heavily promoted as a man who understands women. Little do they know that his wife actually wrote the book, a fact which her husband is not eager to make known.

* Poor Terry O'Neal. She kills herself after writing a 1,000-page novel called "The Duplicity of Men," after seeing it rejected by 23 publishers. Now the manuscript falls into the hands of her mother, Opal, who is determined to do anything to see it published.

* Camilla Clapfish is the dowdy, terribly lonely British girl, working as a tour guide in Italy, while finishing her first novel about a group of middle-aged women wandering around Firenze. As a neophyte writer, she has no idea what to do next, until her budding boyfriend suggests sending it to his sister, an editorial assistant at Davis & Dash.

From this premise, Goldsmith weaves an elaborate dance of backstabbing, determination, desire and romance that is guaranteed to have you turning the pages late into the night.

Those who have a smattering of knowledge of the publishing business will realize just how spot-on Goldsmith is. She knows the bottom-line nature of the business and the lengths people will go to stay on top. There is even the pleasure of guessing who the characters are based on.

For example, one of the subplots involves the uproar over Davis & Dash publishing "ScitzoBoy," by Chad Weston, a once-promising writer driven by falling sales into writing a misogynistic thriller about a Wall Street yuppie who dismembers women, and if you're thinking it's a wicked attack on Bret Easton Ellis and "American Psycho," you are correct.

"The Bestseller" is full of digs like this. With that, the heroic struggles of the authors to get their books published, and the machinations of G.O.D. and the marketplace working against them, "The Bestseller" is a candy box of surprises that, even after 500 pages, makes this reader hungry for a sequel.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to be read greedily, May 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bestseller (Hardcover)

Although The Bestseller isn't flawless, it earns a 10 because it so enjoyable to read. As a former member of the lowest echelon of publishing house employees (the temp. worker), I can vouch that there is incredible tension to produce a hit. One might as well work in Hollywood. On the other hand, if there is actually any of the illegal or immoral activity that goes on in her book, I certainly didn't know about it! Goldsmith accurately pigeonholed the view publishers take with manuscripts -- they can't just be great books, they must have a selling angle, such as a "Pink" (romance or other `women's fiction), a "Dick" [a Tom Clancy-ish adventure or war novel], a "spook"[horror] or an "Uh-oh"[a murder mystery or suspenseful legal thriller]. One wonders if The Bestseller's hot pink cover was some sort of subtle implication. From what little industry "insider knowledge" I had, I could tell that Goldsmith was using actual facts which I found troublesome on two levels. First, I don't feel it's fair of her to embarrass a famous author's wife under the guise of fiction. Secondly, I would imagine that readers who didn't know "the inside scoop" would feel a bit alienated. However, I would say that her use of real-life publishing power brokers such as Daisy Maryles or Phyllis Grann was effective in making her fiction seem very realistic. My one other issue with her story [STOP READING here if you don't want any clues] involves one surefire book that inexplicably doesn't pan out at all. She even has her characters marvel at the book's demise, but it's a bit too convenient. Despite this, The Bestseller is chock-full of solid writing and five great stories, all of which end in a perfectly satisfying manner.