ksmith | Boy, that's a lot of midlisters

From Radar, by way of MediaBistro:

HarperCollins Book Deal for Jenna Bush (Radar)
It's hard out there for would-be first-time authors — unless your dad is the president, y'all! First daughter Jenna Bush has landed the book deal she was fishing for, with HarperCollins announcing plans to publish Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope this fall. The News Corp.-owned publishing house pursued the deal in spite of a $300,000 price tag that had given other suitors pause.

Rest of story via the above link.

I know it's my publisher. I know publishing is a business, and this book may well make money. But HarperCollins has lost money on these sorts of books before--non-fiction by the media darlings of the moment--and yet they keep going after them.

And the midlists keep shrinking...