Nonpartisan Publishing
E-biography of next prez to appear instantly
Staff -- School Library Journal, 10/1/2000
As part of its debut selection of electronic books, Simon & Schuster
announced plans to publish a new presidential e-biography aimed at children ages 8 to 12. Its title? Albert Gore Jr. or George W. Bush: A Biography of Our Forty-Third President. The "or" is there, of course, because no one will know the identity of the new president until the night of November 7, Election Day. Yet the e-book will be for sale online at 12:01 a.m., November 8, only hours after the results of the 2000 presidential election are announced.
The author of this new biography is Beatrice Gormley, who has written well-regarded biographies for children, such as Louisa May Alcott: Young Novelist (Aladdin, 2000) and Amelia Earhart: Young Aviator (Aladdin, 1999). Gormley will have completed the text of two biographies (one of Gore and one of Bush) by mid-October--except for the very end of the last chapter, which will describe Election Day and include quotes from the president-elect's acceptance speech. Tracy van Straaten, publicity director for Simon & Schuster, says that "the night of the election, Beatrice will be glued to the television taking notes from the acceptance speech. She'll then e-mail key quotes to our online department, which will post the finished book at 12:01 a.m."
The instant biography will be available in five e-book formats--Glassbook, Microsoft Reader, Peanut Press, Rocket eBook, and SoftLock--at all booksellers' sites that sell e-books in at least one of these formats. Simon & Schuster will not allow printing or copying and pasting from the e-book file, and has yet to decide whether the e-book will include illustrations. The Gore, or Bush, biography will also be released on paper a week later.--Walter Minkel
