so a lot of what's being sold through e-books is fiction, and a lot of that is erotica. the nonfiction space, i think, will probably double, e-book sales will probably double this year. they'll still be under 10% in the nonfiction category, but that's double which means that our sales which are tracking pretty much along these lines going from 3% in '09 to 6%, this year i think they'll be 10-12%, that's a doubling of sales. now, what does that mean to us as publishers? it's actually great news because we don't have to pay to print and bind and ship and run warehouses to sell these things. my bank loves it because the margin on these books is much better, and literary agents like gail will tell you that's good for authors as well as publishers. so the margin really is significantly better, and the economics of the book business are getting better because of e-books. so as e-books grow, i think that the importance of publishing, the power of the industry, the strength, economic strength of the industry will improve, and that's all good. um, kindle is the number one, best se

the first is what makes a good travel book? what makes a good travel book? >> the travel book is a book that puts you in the shoes of the traveler. this is usually a book about having a very bad time. this is usually about having a miserable time. you don't want to read a book about someone having a great time in the south of france, even and drinking and falling in love. what you want is a book about a guy going to the jungle, going through the snow, having a terrible time trying to cross the sierra -- trying to cross the sahara. getting very hungry and finding a camel. even a dog. whatever it is. then getting through. life is like that. travel is about failure or overcoming obstacles, overcoming failures. when a traveler is having a lot of good luck, that is not a happy book. that is a book that you say, i don't need that. i want a life lesson. of what a journey that reflects my life. -- i want a journey that reflects my life. tavis: what you just suggested is true, a book where everything goes well is not as interesting as a text where the traveler encoun

like i said, a lot of books are -- a lot of e-books are very inexpensive. and like i said, we've only had a if years of data we're able to look at. if they have 900 -- if they have one hundred 90-crept books on their device, it's hard to think about. >> you mentioned very few readers are monogamous. do you have any data about readers going back to the worst fife? i mean, an anecdoteally are goig to say, yeah, but i hate it. i tried it fur a while, and i hate it. signal actually, the actual number of people who are using these devices are two small for us to really get into it that way because we would love to ask, you know, what are your initial impressions about the dice or what did you think about this. there was interesting, too, because i walking a end l last -- i bought a kindle last year from ebay. and the description of the device was kindle i with damaged screen, can be used for parts. everything worked before it was sat on. and i asked the buy -- after he shipped this $32 d.c. to me, i sent him a note and said, are you losing another up with? he sai

i'm actively riding right now is a book about what is it like to write a book. so there will be a chapter about coming and meeting all of you and my friends on c-span and there's several million manuscript submitted each year to agents and publishers that were turned down and that says to me there's got to be several million people out there that are curious about why didn't my book make it? prioleau alexander you can't even spell his name. how did he get in to this gig? liesman? >> last week i was in new jersey and got to. elizabeth preludin speak and as an author she was talking about to perk creative process she explained in her case it was the book came first, there was a book that wanted to come out. do you feel that way in your writing process that there is a book that wants to come out of your do you struggle to make the book come out of you? >> that's a great question. you are all asking wonderful questions. being a writer is an awful affliction i wouldn't wish on anybody, and there are ten books that our ideas i think would be fun and funny and would mak

that's a different book. [laughter] this one stars a young man who may or may not be a sex offender and lives under a bridge in florida in like a camp of sex offenders, and they are all wearing gps bracelets so you don't have to ask who are you wearing? it's like lindsay lohan, and he has a largic -- large iguana. it was interesting. i wanted to know more about him, who he is, and what makes him tick, and i highly recommend that book. thank you. [applause] >> i don't have another book, but i read this poem upside down, so i have to read it to you. as a librarian, you develop the skill to read upside down. you ask a kid what the question is and he says i don't know. i first namished the beer -- i finished the beer in the ice box you were probably saving for friday, but forgive me, this girl came over who was so sweet and so hot. [laughter] wasn't that the perfect poem? >> did you not just all enjoy that poem? [laughter] >> i hope they send that to robin. >> well i have stuff i wanted to talk about, but now i'm

book? [laughter]. i'm always feel a little embarrassed because i looked back and i kept think thanksgiving book was published in 1993 who wants to hear about it now? i feel honored that we call it those in the know or good friends of mine call at this time energizer bunny. it's the book that somehow kept going all these yeersz. i will tell you up front it was a book i thought that may be they wouldn't publish. my very first book was women of the silk. i knew that i was writing about something that was a little bit different because i didn't know about the women of the silk until i wanted to write something telling their story much the second book is the test book for us writers you hear that a lot where the publishers are wondering if the author has a second book. everybody here i feel sitting here all of you have one book in you. whether it's a family story or your story whether it's ancestors whether it's your history you want to write about. but it's the second one that's hard. i felt that when i turnod the computer

well, i went to the library again, found a book, how to write a children's book, not a very imaginative title, but it told me what i needed. wrote a book from cover to cover, researched it. i knew ever detail. even went to his home in dayton, ohio and visited his house, shared it with my students and they said who wrote this? it is awful. [laughter]. it is so boring. i said mercifully, i did not put my name on it. it was dreadful because i had simply paid attention to detail. i had not bothered to give the young reader a story to hang on. they didn't know dunbar, they new the skeleton, but didn't know him. they didn't know the world he lived in. they didn't know his friends. they didn't know anything about him that he was born in 1872 in dayton, ohio, graduated. so the learned the first lesson every write er must learn, you'll learn it the hard way or start from the beginning. don't be with afraid, tear it up, start over again. or go in and say i have got to move this, i have got to change this. the formal word gets revision. you'll revise and revise until you figure, i can't revise any

i want to read a book about the brooklyn bridge. the book that i want to read about the brooklyn bridge doesn't exist. i will write it so i can read it. and that in many ways is what i have been doing with all of the books. i want to write about john adams -- i want to read about john adams. i want to know about john adams. whether the great reading public does, i have no idea. and i have had a publisher who believed in what i was doing and believed in my books and i never had a different publisher from simon & schuster and all of my books are still in print. and that means more to me than almost anything else about my write's life. >> have you had different editors at simon & schuster? >> yes, i have, three different editors. >> what kind of role do they play? you had so many in your family read it? >> it's like life, each has contributed constantly in his way. i'm very fond of the people at my publisher. a lot of authors don't feel that way, but i am. the reason i stay with simon & schuster is i'm so fond of the people that i work

book. this is a quote by christopher from his book, "down there on a visit" and he lived there in the 30s andame back in 1945 to visit berlin after the russian assault destroyed the territory that i write about in the book. he writes, "i walked across the snowy plain of the tear garden, a smashed statue here, a newly planted plant there, the gate with the red flag flapping against the blue winter sky, and on the horizon, a gutted railway station like a skeleton. in the morning light it was raw and frank as the voice of history which tells you not to fool yourself. this can happen to any city, to anyone, to you." i can stop there. thank you. [applause] >> that is our breakfast. i leave you with the reminder to take with you one thing i said in the very beginning which is don't forget your baggage please. [laughter] thank you very much. [applause] >> for more information on book expo america, visit bookexpo america.com. >> on booktv, joined by author david sobel. who was copernicus? >> he turned the earth inside out and saying the earth was actually moving around the sun when a time everybody t

a mockingbird." and what that book meant. you wrote an article about it, john. as a law professor it was something you focused on as part of legal education. how did you choose that and why? wow. i just want to say, it was wonderful seeing the actor portraying atticus finch. as i watched that i thought to myself, and i want to know what tony thinks about this, i thought there is no chance that tom robinson is going to get off. you know, that was such an ineffective appeal. now, is it a wonderful speech? it's a wonderful speech. is it beautiful? it's beautiful. is it incredibly well-written? yes. is it going to work? there's no chance. tom robinson must have been listening to that and saying, oh, my god. you know. there's a trick that's being played on you in "to kill a mockingbird." atticus finch represents the last republican lawyer. and i mean republican in the sense of the republic, of thomas jefferson, those kinds of people. the last lawyer who really believes that to enunciate the important principles of america is going to work. this is in a town where thei

i just finished a monster of a book it's a huge book, set in japan and covers the earth from 1939 and 1966 about 2 brothers and the title is a street of a thousand blossoms. if you haven't noticed we are talking about themes that run through my book. one of the things i like a lot is exploring subcultures. the lepercy. the silk working women. i like to write about groups of people who persevere and make a life on their own aside from what the general culture is doing. i find that i don't consciously sit down and do that but it happens. in this particular book something that has fascinated me is sumo and sumo wrestlers and how they get so big and what it's like in their culture. one of the brothers becomes an sumo and that's why it's a big book! [laughter]. >> do you think that -- being a woman who is in women have been oppressed -- i don't know if they are now or not, dou think that has stimulated you in your writing coming out of that? you specifically and in general, do you feel like a lot of women have been stimulated by being part of an oppressed class? >> good question. >> very m

there was a book called philip k. dick called man in the high castle that presumes a nazi victory in world war ii because there's no roosevelt to mobilize the nation. you think of 1931 when a visiting british politician in new york looked the wrong way across the street. hit by a taxi, a slightly different injury, there is no winston churchill for the hour of need. i decided to write a trio of history's based on the smallest turn of random chance. hugely consequential results. each routed in as plausible a scenario as i could construct. held usually by the fact that sometimes startling things i discovered that really did happen in matters great and small. these are separate histories. not like plot against america, when one stops our role back to reality to move to the next one. you won't get stuck. i am very clear as i italicized that we are back to reality. what happened to president-elect john kennedy's assassin? the fact that he would be assassinated before the electoral college ever met, i couldn't do it again. wh

we've mentioned a couple of the books that you could write off of a chapter. can you think of another one? >> i could easily write another book about augusta st. guns. >> he was called guss and she was called gussy? >> that's right. she was augusta homer. she was a cousin of the famous american painter. >> it was almost -- there isn't a chapter i wouldn't enjoy writing. but i think that the chapter that is about mary cosset and john singer sergeant i would enjoy doing as a major book because there you have these contrasting personalities, contrasting american geniuses who are painting in paris at exactly the same time living in an entirely different world within the world of paris, paris is like all great cities, has many worlds within the world of paris. and mary cosset and john singer sergeant lived worlds apart yet they were practically neighbors in the same city and they both were painting what would prove to be american master pieces. more than stand the test of time. they would become more important with time. >> one of the people you write about we haven

see the threatening human rights but i would say that the fact that many women are forced to wear a book club is a problem it's very difficult to make laws against inserting while we're talking about a symbol it's a true symbolic thing in the book the gurning of the book like the qur'an the things that these are symbols they don't mean anything for for real life example if an american priest burned a book it is nothing to do with life. on the other side of this isn't the point an important symbol and i think there today this is this competition between between the east and the west and muslims and christians is all about those symbol symbolic acts how important are they the bullock of the qur'an the flag with the the the the moon was shouting in the early in the morning it is a loud speakers. i would say that would be very important and we see how important a culture you have to pay respect to the crowd that's really he's a very important for many people and we have to respect it. even if it's so loud here even if it's some more words five o'clock in the morning. in your neighborhood yea

book. it to read like a thriller. terrific book. maybe i am slow but i was about one-third of the way through before i realized the author was there in berlin and had met all of these people that we know today too be monsters. hit there, and a low whole bunch only he met them at the time wind nobody knew the ending. we knew the ending but he did not. then i tried to imagine what that would have been like to have met these people out of point* when you don't know how things will turn out. suppose you were sitting in a cafe and saw hitler driving by. would you have felt a chill lowered its ruled lowered just background noise? the be interesting to do booked through the point* of view of characters in berlin's through the early era but obviously i needed real-life characters. ideally americans because the right four that audience. i hit my favorite library in washington at the university of washington. also i am a tremendous fan of libraries. i like to think of myself as the indiana jones of libraries repelling down. the duodecimal sys

you review quite a wide range of books. i given a certain type of book have you noticed, or are you simply -- i like what i like and i'll go to bat or go against something spent as much anymore. for example, years ago and i me 20 years ago, the times book review somehow got into the head that i any kind of soft line on misogyny is there such only get reviewed by misogynist. [laughter] i don't know why that was. it was wider than you perhaps might have imagined. [laughter] >> touchÉ. another question? >> hello. i was wondering what your opinion was in terms of male authors writing female heroines? if you have any favorites? accent is going to keep the question real broad. >> the question is, do the panels have any opinions about male writers writing female protagonists and other any favorite? >> i just wish this book at my that i thought was fantastic by bradley. people who doubt, he's right for you point of you of a female doctor and as i thought a fantastic job. he only -- is look at the book jacket and seen this quite larg

wonderful book. it's a real page turner and its like you know everybody in the book but even if you don't i think it is pretty fascinating. >> you should start hanging out in prison. [laughter] >> for the first six months to a >> for the first six months to a year, he is really only producing money laundering in the orthodox jewish community. he is not coming up with any politicians willing to take bribes, is that correct and why is that? >> he is running in circles. when they came and they promised that they knew a lot about money laundering, about political corruption and about other things. the problem was in terms of this case what he knew about political corruption in the county and of devotee new, so he couldn't wear a wire down there and try to get anybody on tape because they would have suspected it right away. but for some reason, the money laundering trusted him even though they knew the story not so much they trusted him they wanted to help him out. so initially the case focused around the money

a mockingbird." how many of you have read the book? seen the movie? i think everybody has seen it. well, this tribute features not only a great clip from "to kill a mockingbird" but atticus finch himself played by julian lopez-morillas who is one of the finest actors in the bay area. so let's go back to memory lane and enjoy this performance. >> ladies and gentlemen, gregory peck. >> never seems as fresh and wonderful, as good and evil as it does when seen through the eyes of a child. trying to capture that is remarkable and perhaps that is why one look and the last few years has been so warmly embraced by tens of millions of people. "to kill a mockingbird," winner of the pulitzer prize and just about every award a book can win and now happily "to kill a mockingbird" becomes a motion picture and its memorable characters become vividly alive. some people call him jane louise finch. but she insists on scout. and that's her brother, gym. just a boy until the day he learns there is evil in the world. and atticus finch, the father, whose devotion of justice places him and his children in

book. and if you are a reader of this book, in fact, you might sense that as the book progresses from the second, from the 200th page to the 400th page, again, if you're a very careful reader, to me it's quite obvious that i'm learning to write as i'm doing this. [laughter] by the 400th page, i'm a different writer than i am from the first page. now, i worked backwards, and i tried to clean up what i had done before, but again, that mark still remains, and i do realize that writing itself evolves. so that's one, that's one feature of it. in terms of process, you know, i talked about, i've spoken to others already about this, and it's been written about, i am a deeply indices palined writer in the sense that i write sort of small snatches here and there. often -- i write exclusively in my bed. [laughter] i prop myself up with pillows and, you know, when i was writing all of this, often i would have the early mornings i would write when i could have, i had a sort of -- um, and i think the most important thing in terms of the writing of this book, and, again, if you're a writer it becomes, i think,

book. that meant primarily it was a casting exercise. in other words i was looking for the three people who would ultimately become the protagonists in this book. i went to senior centers and i went to catholic churches in los angeles where everyone was from louisiana. i went to baptist churches in brooklyn where everyone was from south carolina so i went to a great deal of trouble to narrow down to these three people. however during the course of all of this i realized that i had not actually heard my own family story and i set out to also make sure that i have talked with my own parents who had been part of this great migration. my mother had come from rome, georgia to washington d.c. and i like to tell people that she had come from rome. people say wow, she is from rome? wow. [laughter] and then i say georgia and they said oh. and my father had come from virginia, from southern virginia to washington d.c.. had they not been part of the great migration i would not have existed so i realized i had spend a lot of time understanding and in

question, i will write a book and in this case i had a very urgent question. in terms of writing this book, i learned to write when i wrote this book. you might sense that as the book progresses from the 200 page or 400th page you can tell that i'm learning to write. i'm different as from the first page. i work backwards and tried to clean up what i had done before. but, again that remains. and i do realize that the writing itself evolves. so that's one feature of it. in terms of process -- i talked to this about spoken to others already about this. it's been written about -- i'm a deeply disciplined writer in the sense that i write here and there. often i write exclusively in my bed. [ laughter ] i prop myself up with pillows when i was writing all of this. often i would have the early mornings i would write when i could have a -- and i think the most important thing in terms of the writing of this book, and again, if you're a writer it becomes i think clear to you. this book lives at its what i call it seems. by that i mean the content was easy for me to writ

because it's easier to sit at your computer and order a book on amazon. but if you have a reason to come to a bookstore because you're going to meet other readers, or you're a writer -- and these are communities that overlap, people who write and people who read, this is why the self-publishing industry now is becoming so popular and flourishing and why amazon is getting involved in it and why barnes & noble is going to start trying to do it, they're starting to publish their own books because they're starting to understand there's a connection between people who want to read, people who want to write, and people who, obviously, want to publish in all its forms. so i think the successful ones have understood that they have to draw the community in. and you have to have the destination -- a bookstore has to be a destination, not just to buy a book 'cause they can do that easier online. it has to be for other reasons. >> can you tell me about the process and what will be successful? >> well, i think, you know -- here's what i thought about the book festival

and sheldon siegel is a corporate lawyer who has written a series -- i think seven books now, a fictional criminal defense attorney named mike daley who actually lives here in san francisco. and he's written a series of books and these becomes have been shown and transcribed and read throughout the world. so we're going to start now with a clip, a video clip and then we're going to go to the panel. >> i think it is our national novel. if there was a national novel of week, this would be it for the united states. i think it's the favorite book of almost everybody you meet. >> the first time in my life that the book had sort of captured me. that was exciting. i didn't realize that literature could do that. >> i remember reading a copy of my aunt's in jamaica queens. it was the first book ever written by a white writer that discussed racism in ways that was complicate and sophisticated. -- complicated and sophisticated. >> a touchstone in american literary and social history. it's a story gently tugged at the issues of racism. >> she was a champion of people who helped us get liberated from

tavis: is a book that a lot of people are talking about by james b. stewart, called " tangled webs." i enjoyed the book. good to have yana. up next, grammy-winning musician steve earle, plus a musical performance. stay with us. always pleased to welcome steve earle to this program. he is out with a new project "called on never get out of this world alive." a book by the same title is available. good to have you back on this program. how is that little baby? >> he turned it won about three weeks ago -- he turned one about three weeks ago. this was last november here in l.a. when we were making the record. tavis: i wonder if he even has a choice. his daddy is an artist, his mother is an artist. what choice does he really have? >> he got a ukuleles for his birthday and he has a guitar and piano. my friend has a guitar shop and he says people are always complaining about what instrument their musical kid can play. tavis: i thought about that old joke, the chicken and the egg, which won came first? >> as far as the title goes, i have been working on the boo

so i had written the oyster book, a lot of people read it. wrote the estuaries book, nobody read it which was my first clue just because you were enthusiastic about a subject doesn't necessarily mean everybody else will be too. [laughter] and then -- but, so, anyway i was also aware of all the issues with coastal restoration going on in this area. and it was kind of in the back of my mind i was looking for a way to write about that that wouldn't be read by the other 12 environmentalists. and then the oil spill happened, and i thought, aha, actually going back to our first story about how you create compelling nonfiction. here's a book about wetlands where you have a hero, and you have an obvious, big villain. so you had the kind of friction, um, that creates a really compelling narrative, and once you have that narrative going you can then work in a lot of more scientific information a way that doesn't freeze-dry science because it totally is what drives the importance. i sort of have this basic theory for a narrative. it doesn't matter what y

the idea of having had an entire year to write a book was terrific. if you can use the best 5% of all the material you have collected you're lucky. here i could use about 50 or so percent. the time to tell a story like this was a true joy. c-span: what is next? >> what is next is enjoying the globe and as some point trying another book. c-span: any idea what you would like to do? >> i do and when i know more of tell you. c-span: a personal subject? >> subject. c-span: our guest has been the author of this book, "the father of spin: edward bernays larry tye of the boston globe. >> the redesigned website now features over 800 of those interviewed about their books. view the programs, see the transcripts, and use the searchable database to find links to blocks, web sites, facebook and twitter fields. a brand new look and feel the rita hopeful research tool, and a great way to watch and enjoy authors and books. >> matt, here is my question. the breezy, a popular style, and it has a breezy optimism to it. you write at one point, and i'm quoting here, the in

there's not a sense that if you don't try to book you lose your job tuner. we have enormous privilege of job security, but there's a strong sense of the research university that teaching and research go together, and we provide your students with interesting courses at i've been simultaneously caged always in some kind of research and writing projects. so almost all my colleagues are always somewhere in the process of writing books and articles. pressure might not be the right word after a while, but it just becomes what you do. >> were there any legality is using in naming the book called transcendent? >> i don't know. i hope i don't discover that could affect. there was legality in publishing some of the images in the book in the book as is always the case. but "common sense" is not a copyrighted term. it's a commonsensical part of our vocabulary and it's been appropriated to every possible and. if you go to amazon and type in commonsense, you'll see there's the commonsense of investing, common sense says receiving your backyard gate there is a commonsense

do you have advice for a book signing or signing books? hand massages. you gotta get a hand job. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: wait a second. let me write that down. let me write that down. ♪ hand job, no problem. >> you know what i mean? i mean, come on. >> jimmy: yeah, i'll get one. i'll get one. [ laughter ] >> right? 'cause otherwise, it starts hurting. >> jimmy: yeah, yeah. -- after a while. yeah, after a while. it hurts. >> and you're going to have a lot of book signings, i know, because you're super popular, your show is amazing -- >> jimmy: no. >> and the book is hilarious. [ cheers and applause ] so, you gonna be doing a lot of writing. and you're hand is going to freeze up on you. you know what i mean? >> jimmy: get all the kinks out. >> that's right. let the lady work that out. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: oh! >> what's so funny? >> jimmy: no, i don't know. i don't know. congratulations -- >> i care about you. i really want you to take care of that. >> jimmy: congratulations, 2011 new jersey hall of fame, right here. >> yeah, yeah! >> jimmy:

book. we are talking about a new book of a particular group of women and one in particular, the dressmaker of khair kahn with gayle lemmon the author. and as a question by twittered. how did you gain their trust? did you worry -- did they worry how you were going to write their story? >> guest: i love this question because it means so much to me personally. i worked very hard for years to keep coming back and to explain to them that i have enormous respect for their families and for the work that they had done during those years and that always wanted to do is create a snapshot of that. it was to be just a documentary in some ways but in the book. and i think in a place like afghanistan as one of your callers said people have been through so much and they've seen so much and they don't trust easily as well the shouldn't, he gives up to you as a journalist to go back and go back and through the stories you right along the way and the stories you tell and the trust you earn by showing up i learned okay a tiny bit of pashtu but it's a lot harder for me and it proves to then you care very much

a lot. so i jumped through the book with her. i didn't read every word because you are a young man and you have the ability to set and focus, right? most of the time. well, my 2-year-old, you know, she starts climbing on the furniture and put some issues. [laughter] so we shared little bits of the stories, but she thinks it's her pictures. she goes, that's me. and i say yes, whatever you want, honey. >> the two sisters. yeah, so the two sisters underneath the trembling towers, yeah. well, i like them, too. do you ever stick your tongue out when it rains? doesn't it feel fresh? there is a lot of cash and so they cleaned themselves and work together and build that spiral to the moon. as a bad idea of the two sisters who the very different. do you notice that their heads, you can see if you look closely, with d.c. in their in their faces? [inaudible] >> yes, their shadows. and it's sort of like the ash may be. but what else if you look at their heads like the globe? it looks like they are the whole world. what could those white parts

a person wrote a book, one person who was a biographer of johnson started the book at lamenting the fact that when people write about johnson, all they seem to care about our reconstruction and impeachment. but mainly reconstruction. then he says, but, you know, what? there's not much else. so he had this grand plan to talk of all the other aspects of andrew johnson's presidency but it's reconstruction. we buy a laughter during this time period. there's problems in mexico that we have to do. but those things are handled by secretary of state. most of his time was spent on reconstruction and trying to thwart the efforts of republican members of congress who, as i said, wanted to transform the south. he deleted that the south really have not succeeded. he is that that he was that secession was illegal, and because it was illegal they never left. jefferson davis was not really a president. there was no confederate states of america. there was nothing. that did not exist. and because it didn't exist, once the war is over and to bring everybody back in him a sort of like wind the tape, except