Little Brown is doing the right thing in pulling Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan’s novel from the stores, so I will do the right thing in a (financially) much smaller way and apologize to Markos Zuniga for my snotty comments about his book sales. I should have known better because, as I noted below, it’s been a number of years since one of mine sold very well. Book sales are mysterious. When I have asked publishers for an ad for one of my novels, they have frequently told me “Ads don’t sell books.” When I have mentioned a good review and wondered why the book wasn’t selling (again hinting at an ad), they have told me “Reviews don’t sell books.” So what sells books? Beats me. For a while I thought the Internet might – and it does. But only to a point. So far I haven’t seen it push anybody’s work onto the bestseller list, or even that close to it. In any case, I wish Markos the best and, again, apologize.

UPDATE: More above.

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Alida Valli – the Italian actress who starred in Visconti’s Senso and Graham Greene/Carol Reed’s The Third Man and (who could have known this?) whose husband apparently wrote “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” – is dead. I remember her from both of those films (although it’s been a long time since I’ve seen Senso) and from Bertolucci’s La Luna (a movie I liked better than most people).

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EU Referendum (via PJM) accuses Sweden of being “precious” in announcing its withdrawal from European military exercises due to be held next month in Italy because of Israel’s participation, but I think it’s a bit more than that. The Scandinavian country has a “mixed record” these days where the Jewish state is concerned. Of course, as EU Referendum points out, the Swedes seem quite willing to make deals with the Israelis when it comes to buying military equipment. But, as we know, “balance” must be maintained between the parties in the peace process. In that case, perhaps they would like to make a donation to fill this short fall.

MORE on Sweden and Hamas here.

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Watching Anderson Cooper and the rest of the CNN crew chew on the Tony Snow appointment as presidential press secretary last night reminded me of several Hollywood occasions when I’ve listened to friends gossip about an acquaintance’s Oscar nomination – envy was pouring out of their eyes like some green slime from The Exorcist. Only those occasions were usually (relatively) private. Suzanne Malveaux, etc. were on TV. ABC puts it this way:

There’s just something about Fox News.

Not only does the cable giant have more than twice as many primetime viewers as the closest competition, but it’s often the network of choice for the White House administration in terms of big-name interviews.

Well, why wouldn’t it be? I’m no unremitting fan of Fox – far from it. I find Hannity & Colmes bombastic and dopey, O’Reilly a tedious narcissist (duh) and Greta… well, if I never hear the word “Aruba” again as long as I live I’ll be happy. But the Brit Hume Show is actually for grownups with serious discussion not tilted completely to the conservative side and the Neil Cavuto Show is fun if you don’t take the stock tips too seriously. What’s to watch on CNN? Not much for me. No wonder they’re jealous.

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… satellite radio seems to be having its troubles.

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Although it underscores what we already knew – that Glenn Reynolds (whose book is selling much better) has remarkable respect in the blogosphere for his integrity and intelligence – I must say I am surprised at the relatively pathetic sales figures for Markos Zuniga’s book “Crashing the Gates.” It could mean one of several things: 1. Kos’ audience has heard it all already; 2. Kos’ audience is not “bookish”; 3. Kos’ audience is not as big as it’s cracked up to be; 4. Kos doesn’t write particularly well; 5. Kos doesn’t have anything new to say. 6. People are tired of all this political blather anyway. (Hinderaker thinks the latter).

I suspect some combo of “all of the above” might be the proper answer. But this dismal response, coupled with a similar response to AirAmerica detailed in the above Drudge link, should give pause to those Dems rejoicing over Bush’s numbers. When it comes to politics these days, the public is not just fed up with Bush. It’s fed up with “all of the above.”

[What about your most recent book sales figures, smart guy?-ed. There's a reason there's a Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.]

UPDATE: Correction here.

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Having been an author for umpteen years, I suppose nothing should surprise me about the venality of publishers, but somehow the recent behavior of Little, Brown – once an outfit with a classy reputation – leaves me scratching my head. As many of you know, they are printing a new edition of ” teenage Harvard sensation” Kaavya Viswanathan’s first novel “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life” with the several dozen “similarities” to (read: plagiarisms from) Megan McCafferty’s books excised and an “apology” to Ms. McCafferty appended.

According to Robin Abcarian in the LAT, Steve Ross of Crown (McCafferty’s publisher) is taking the proper attitude:

When Steve Ross, publisher and senior vice president of Crown Publishers and Three Rivers Press, learned that a first-time teenage novelist might have borrowed a few passages from the works of one of his own authors, Megan McCafferty, his first instinct was to consider it “a youthful indiscretion.”

After all, the alleged transgressor, Kaavya Viswanathan, a 19-year-old Harvard sophomore, was being heralded as a kind of literary prodigy, a kid with a voice who’d scored a two-book deal worth close to $500,000 while still in high school. Who’d want to squelch that?

But as Ross’ staffers compared the newcomer’s novel, “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life,” with two of McCafferty’s novels, he became alarmed and then angry when they turned up 40 passages in “Opal Mehta” that seemed borrowed or lifted directly from McCafferty’s two popular young adult novels, “Sloppy Firsts” and “Second Helpings.”

“This is literary identity theft,” Ross said Tuesday. McCafferty, he said, “feels that something fundamental was taken from her.”

Viswanathan’s Boston-area phone number was disconnected, but through her publisher, Little, Brown & Co., she apologized Monday in a written statement, saying she had made an unintentional mistake.

Forty unintentional mistakes?! How’s this for a new cliché? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on Little Brown for being such blatant liars. Meanwhile, how will Harvard react? I imagine this kind of plagiarism on one of Ms. Viswanathan’s sophomore papers would get her kicked out of the institution. All writers’ organizations (Author’s Guild, PEN, WGA, etc.) should also be appalled and behave accordingly.

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Forget North Korea. Forget Darfur. Forget Abu Ghraib. Look at what Airbus is trying to do to us!

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is circulating a petition to bar the Iranian president from attending the World Cup. I don’t normally sign such things, but I couldn’t resist this one.

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Okay, terrible title by me but interesting post from Tammy Bruce. If you thought it peculiar the Middle Eastern nation was involved with our ports, how about production of the Stealth Joint Fight Striker?

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