We should have guessed; the Vanity Fair excerpt of Michael Wolff’s book on Rupert Murdoch, The Man Who Owns the News, has generated dozens of articles, proving once again that the media is obsessed with itself.

Reuters headline is Murdoch yearns to buy New York Times; New York Magazine likes the part about Rupert’s dye job, The Aubergine-Haired Mogul and the Girl From Shandong Province (the Financial Times, which has a “People” Column, who knew?, gets all NY Posty with Do or dye for Rupert Murdoch). Most, however, ran with the revelation that Obama, Murdoch and Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes had a sit-down (e.g., Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post, Obama Met With Fox News Executives). That story dovetails nicely with news that Obama will appear on the O’Reilly Factor on Fox tomorrow night.

If so much news can be generated from a short excerpt, you’ve got to wonder what will happen when the book comes out in February.

As we mentioned in our story yesterday, the book has not yet been reviewed by prepub sources and is not on order in any of the libraries we checked.

The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch

Michael Wolff

• Hardcover: $27.95; 320 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (February 17, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0385526121
• ISBN-13: 978-0385526128

The October Vanity Fair features an excerpt from VF columnist Michael Wolff’s forthcoming book on Rupert Murdoch, The Man Who Owns the News.

It has not yet been reviewed by prepub sources and is not on order by any of the libraries I checked.

The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch

Michael Wolff

• Hardcover: $27.95; 320 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (February 17, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0385526121
• ISBN-13: 978-0385526128

Libraries have had the authorized bio of Warren Buffett on order since February (the book was originally scheduled for May). Don’t let those orders get cancelled; USA Today reports that it will be released on September 29. 

The story also explains that the curious title, The Snowball comes from a Buffett quote: “Life is like a snowball. The really important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill.”

Phew; I was afraid it had to do with one’s chances of investing like Buffet.

Note that audio and large print versions will also be available.

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Live

Alice Schroeder

• Hardcover: $35; 976 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (September 29, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0553805096
• ISBN-13: 978-0553805093

Its a sign of the times; popping up at #18 on the Amazon list today is a book called Will Work from Home: Earn the Cash without the Commute. Co-author Tory Johnson is Good Morning America’s Workplace Contributor (she recently did a piece for GMA on haggling – yet another sign of the times — and on Monday, a piece on how to get company information online).

She also has an employment Web site, WomenforHire.com and is quoted widely in the media (as in the recent WSJ article, “Nice Work If You Can Get It: 
Web Sites for At-Home Jobs“).

Just a few of the libraries I checked have it on order. Those that do are showing holds.

Will Work from Home: Earn the Cash without the Commute

Tory Johnson (Author), Robyn Freedman Spizman (Author)

• Paperback: $14.00
• Publisher: Berkley Trade;  (August 5, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0425222853
• ISBN-13: 978-0425222850

On today’s Wall Street Journal bestseller lists, When Markets Collide rises to #1 on the business list, after four weeks and makes its first appearance, at #6, on the general nonfiction list. It’s also been rising on the NYT Hardcover Advice list, hitting #8 last week.

Author Mohamed El-Erian received media coverage when he was the keynoter for the Morningstar Investment Conference in Chicago at the end of June.

• Washington Post, Jun 30, An Inflation-Combating Fund

• Baltimore Sun; Jul 1, Market is different, but the best tactics have not changed

• MarketWatch - Jun 26, Pimco’s El-Erian: Investors face higher inflation, waning U.S. economic power

• BusinessWeek - Jun 26, Pimco’s Mohamed El-Erian says its time to worry about inflation now

• Morningstar, UK, Jun 25, PIMCO’s El-Erian: When Markets Collide

The book has been reviewed in the business press;

• Reuters, 6/26, “Business Books: Fund manager sees global investment shift,”

• Blomberg.com, 6/5; Pimco’s El-Erian Hears Worlds Collide, Spots Trends, Buys Pizza …

• What We’re Reading At CNBC, Jul 8; Joe Kernen’s reading “WHEN MARKETS COLLIDE: Investment Strategies For The Age Of Global Economic Change” by Mohamed El-Erian

Only half the libraries I checked show it on their catalogs. The others own it in modest quantities, with some holds.

When Markets Collide

Mohamed El-Erian

• Hardcover: $27.95
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; (May 23, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0071592814
• ISBN-13: 978-0071592819

An article in today’s NYT Business Section reads like a collection development piece. “A Shift in Real Estate Books” looks at what today’s home buyers and sellers want to know and how publishers are scrambling to meet their needs.

Rather than information on how to make money in a real estate boom, people now want to learn how to get out of bad investments and, on the other side, how to make money on foreclosures.

It’s sad reading; you can’t help but think about all those unfortunate people (including Ed McMahon, who stands in as the Everyman in the article. Yes, the Johnny Carson guy. Yes, the Publishers Clearinghouse guy. He is $644,000 behind on his mortgage. He even went on Larry King to talk about it.)

Here’s the wrap-up of the new titles the NYT mentions.

Getting out of real estate

Home Staging for Dummies

• Publisher: Wiley
• Pub. Date: April 2008
• ISBN-10: 0470260289
• ISBN-13: 978-0470260289

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Selling a Home

Alpha, an imprint of Penguin, has decided to split their Complete Idiot’s Guide to Buying and Selling a Home into two titles, because “in an environment like this, we had to cover a lot of territory on strategies like staging and pricing.” No pub info. yet.

Taking advantage of the downturn:

Property Management for Dummies

Wiley

The pub date for the new edition of this title was moved up to August. No further information available at this point.

The 250 Questions Everyone Should Ask About Buying Foreclosures

• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation
• Pub. Date: July 2008
• ISBN-10: 1598695835
• ISBN-13: 978-1598695830

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Buying a Home

Penguin/Alpha

As mentioned above, the publisher has split The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Buying and Selling a Home into two parts.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Buying Foreclosures

Publisher Penguin/Alpha is working on a new ed. No pub information yet.

Atria, publisher of The Secret (originally self-pubbed it was later picked up by S&S imprint Atria), released The Answer by John Assaraf and Murray Smith on May 20th. It’s currently at #23 on Amazon’s bestseller list, its highest rank to date. It wasn’t reviewed prepub and is therefore owned by just a few libraries (Hennepin; 6 copies, 20 requests, and Seattle; 12 copies, 4 holds).

Simon and Schuster’s Web site shows quotes from Chicken Soup’s Jack Canfield (”it is now required reading for all my staff and students”) and 7 Habit’s Stephen Covey (”a brilliant formula for growing any bysiness and living an extraordinary life”). The site describes the authors as “A key team member behind The Secret and his business partner.”

A promotional Web Site for the book features a video of Larry King saying “the book could transform you life” (is it just me? It sounds like Larry mispronounces “entrepreneurs” on the video).

• Hardcover: $25.95
• Publisher: Atria (May 20, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1416561994
• ISBN-13: 978-1416561996

As the Barbara Walters media blitz continues this week, her memoir Audition has risen to #1 on the Amazon bestseller list.

But, for a while yesterday, the new edition of a more prosaic title, The Sales Bible, was at #1. Two of the libraries I checked have received their copies, three show on order status and six only list the 2003 edition. It is currently at #4 on the list.

The Sales Bible New Ed: The Ultimate Sales Resource
by Jeffrey Gitomer

• Hardcover: $29.95
• Publisher: Collins; New edition (May 6, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0061379409
• ISBN-13: 978-006137940

• Audio CD: Unabridged, $39.95
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio, (May 6, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0743572661
• ISBN-13: 978-0743572668

HarperCollins’s expectations for this title are high — the announced first printing is 250,000 copies. Below is the description from Harper’s site:

Since its initial publication in 1994, Morrow’s hardcover edition of Jeffrey Gitomer’s THE SALES BIBLE has sold over 117,000 copies, and another 100,000 in paperback (published by Wiley).

But in the 13 years since then, Gitomer has made himself into a sales powerhouse with huge success around an inventively packaged series of books, with his classic THE LITTLE RED BOOK OF SELLING at its heart.

Now at last, Gitomer has taken the title that began it all, and has completely revised it. The Sales Bible is totally reworked to fit into his line of bestselling sales titles. It’s sure to be THE must-have title for sales professionals worldwide who’ve already come to know and trust Jeffrey’s inventive, irreverent sales wisdom through his “Little [Color] Book of…” series.

While we’re waiting for official news that we’re in a recession, the Amazon bestseller list shows that Americans are trying to solve their own economic crises. Three of the titles in the top 6 offer ways to make money in today’s economy.

Hitting the list at #1 today:

Multi-Family Millions: How Anyone Can Reposition Apartments for Big Profits

by David Lindahl (Author)

• Hardcover: $27.95
• Publisher: Wiley (April 25, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0470267607
• ISBN-13: 978-047026760

Lindahl does seminars on real estate investing. Wonder what his advice is on getting loans to buy those apartment buildings? The book has not been reveiwed pre-pub and is not owned in libraries.

————————————————-

At #4 (went on at #2 last Thursday and has stayed in the top 5)

The One Minute Entrepreneur: The Secret to Creating and Sustaining a Successful Business

by Ken Blanchard, Don Hutson, Ethan Willis

• Hardcover: $19.95
• Publisher: Doubleday Business (April 29, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0385526024
• ISBN-13: 978-0385526029

• Audio CD: Unabridged $19.95
  
• Publisher: Random House (April 29, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0739329057
• ISBN-13: 978-0739329054

The One-Minute Entrepreneur is owned in small quantities in the libraries I checked.

————————————————-

#6 (went on at #15 earlier today)

The Demise of the Dollar…And Why It’s Even Better for Your Investments

by Addison Wiggin

• Paperback: 197 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; Rev Upd edition (April 4, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0470287241
• ISBN-13: 978-0470287248

This new edition of the 2005 title is not owned in the libraries I checked, but they have the previous edition. Wiggin is being quoted in media coverage of the falling dollar.

One farsighted observer began to fear a credit crisis way back in 2005 and was able to convince a publisher that they should publish a book about it. Now, The Trillion Dollar Meltdown is at #18 on Amazon and the author, Charles R. Morris is the go-to expert on the subject. As proof of its foresightedness, the book’s original title was The Coming Crash.

It was not reviewed in the pre-pub media. The one library that has it on order, of the ones I searched, shows 6 holds per copy.

It was reviewed yesterday on Bloomberg.com as a “shrewd primer” to the current credit crisis. The Economist said in its March 6th review:

Morris can’t be dismissed as a crank. A lawyer, former banker and author of 10 other books, he knows a thing or two about the complex instruments that have spread toxic debt throughout the credit system.

The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash

Charles R. Morris

• Hardcover: $22.95
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (March 3, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1586485636
• ISBN-13: 978-1586485634