For now, it's the authors of those books that media outlets are desperately trying to book, not Stephen King or Derek Jeter or ''Survivor'' creator Mark Burnett (all of whom were yanked from ''Today'''s lineup last week). ''It doesn't make sense to do anything else right now,'' says ''Today'''s literary editor, Andrea Smith. ''We have about 70 books slated for September and October, and I don't know what will happen to them. We are concerned about bringing news of this event to people, and unfortunately for the books we had scheduled, nobody cares about them right now.''
''It affects everything,'' says Gerry Howard, editorial director of Broadway Books, ''not just in the mechanical way of not getting an author on the ''Today'' show. It has to do with the way any book hits the radically altered sensibilities of the country. I don't think when you have millions of Americans singing 'God Bless America' that the cheap irony that's run rampant in culture is going to cut it anymore. I think somebody should do a marker that says irony died on 9-11-01.''
''There has been a certain frivolity that's characterized the last 10 years in publishing,'' concurs Bill Thomas, Doubleday's editor in chief. ''And this will change the tenor of what we publish. People remain extremely ignorant about Islamic culture, the threat of terrorism. There is a debate about the balance between security and liberties, and these issues can be most fully argued in books. This is our responsibility as publishers.''
It may be premature to suggest that the industry, whose bottom line is largely fed by thrillers, celebrity memoirs, and romance novels, will abandon its commercial spirit. Or that readers will even want or need them to. ''I think what you will inevitably find,'' says Peter Osnos, publisher of PublicAffairs, ''is that except for those directly affected through the death of loved ones, family, or friends, or people whose homes or offices are destroyed, there's a natural tendency after a week or so to begin to move on. That's not callous, it's necessary.'' Escapist reads may play as big a role in people's recovery as serious-minded explanatory nonfiction.
And the industry, like all America, will feel its way along, cautiously proceeding with its business. At Farrar, Straus & Giroux, the publication party for Jonathan Franzen's critically acclaimed new novel, ''The Corrections,'' originally scheduled for Sept. 18, was canceled. But the author plans to leave his New York City home on Sept. 22 for a previously scheduled 14-city tour. ''Being here in New York, it's hard for me to understand wanting to go to a bookstore or a movie,'' says Franzen's publicist, Peter Miller. ''But we started getting calls from bookstores around the country and they're anxious for him to still come out. I just don't know.... The book was already on best-seller lists before this happened but... We're all so proud of Jonathan's book, but whether or not it fails or succeeds now, that doesn't seem to really matter.''
Additional reporting by Matthew Flamm
