Casual Encounters With Print

Two random thoughts on the book biz, prompted by a couple of casual encounters with print this week.

First, in Tuesday’s “Arts, Briefly” column in the New York Times, an item by Julie Bosman explains that “Former Aide Plans ‘Chilling Expose’ on Palin.” It seems that Frank Bailey, a onetime aide to Governor Sarah Palin, who has been shopping his manuscript around for the past several months, hit pay dirt. Howard Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, will publish his account next month. (No advance was cited.) It is “a chilling expose of Palin,” announces Howard Books, “and the story of one man’s slow drift from his most cherished beliefs to his ultimate redemption.”