Her Life With O.J. Leaves ‘Em Yawning

Aren’t you glad that you waited to buy Paula Barbieri’s book?

Now you can get it at a steep discount--$9.95, instead of the $23.95 list price. And in plenty of time for stocking stuffing.

Barbieri’s “The Other Woman,” a memoir of her relationship with O.J. Simpson, arrived to a thunderous ho-hum recently, despite a $3-million advance that had been paid to the former model by a confident Little, Brown and Co. Rather than have to take back thousands and thousands of unsold copies, the publisher is offering booksellers a credit on each book sold, allowing them to slash the price.

In the business, it’s known as “remaindering a book in place”--a polite description for a book that is fizzling. But Barbieri’s memoir, whose sales may signal waning interest in the Simpson case at long last, is certainly not the only costly under-performer in the fall publishing season.

Comedians Paul Reiser and Whoopi Goldberg were paid $5 million and $6 million, respectively, by the new Rob Weisbach Books imprint at William Morrow & Co. to write books that so far appear to be selling well below their even pricier expectations.

Reiser, whose “Couplehood” (Bantam) sold more than a million hardcover copies during a run of more than 30 weeks on the New York Times national bestseller list starting in 1994, recently saw his new “Babyhood” drop off the list after only seven weeks. Last Thursday, it did not rank among USA Today’s top 150 sellers in the country.

Goldberg, whose $6-million “Book” carries even greater risks for Weisbach / Morrow, will be gone from the Times’ bestseller list on Sunday after only three weeks. Last Thursday, it had sunk to No. 75 in USA Today’s rankings. Goldberg may be one whose fans prefer to see on stage or in the movies, not necessarily in print, let alone in a book as impressionistic as “Book.”

Reiser, on the other hand, notwithstanding the continuing popularity of his NBC sitcom, “Mad About You,” may be suffering the second-book syndrome, previously encountered by Tim Allen, of ABC’s “Home Improvement.” Allen’s second effort, “I’m Not Really Here” (Hyperion), generated disappointing sales last fall, compared to his earlier “Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man,” and then became available at a substantial discount after Christmas.

“I’d be honest in saying that I’d like to have sold more of Paul’s and Whoopi’s books to date,” Rob Weisbach said Tuesday. “But we still have two major months ahead to sell both before we decide whether they under-performed or over-performed.” He disputed the $6-million price on Goldberg’s book, but would not elaborate.

Meanwhile, Drew Carey’s “Dirty Jokes and Beer,” a book of comic observations that reportedly earned the TV comic an advance of $3 million from Hyperion, will mark its fifth week Sunday on the Times’ bestseller list, at No. 12.

George Carlin’s “Brain Droppings” (Hyperion) recently ended an 18-week stay on the list, while Chris Rock’s “Rock This!” which Hyperion signed for a comparative six-figure bargain before the young comedian surged in popularity, spent two weeks as a Times bestseller.

Ever since Jerry Seinfeld sold more than a million hardcover copies of “SeinLanguage” (Bantam) in 1993, revealing the lucrative possibilities for books by TV-based comedians, enough of them have been published to draw one or two conclusions.

No. 1: Funny sells; autobiography, less so. The millions of viewers who stay up late to watch Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” don’t necessarily care to read about his childhood in Massachusetts, as recalled in his “Leading With My Chin,” an under-performer for HarperCollins last year.

No. 2: The closer a comedian writes to the public persona embraced by his or her fans, the likelier it is that retail success will follow.

Shake-Up at Time Inc.: The gyrations of the stock market would seem to be good news for business and personal-finance magazines, as investors seek a deeper understanding of what’s happening. At Money magazine, the 2-million-circulation giant, Frank Lalli won’t be around to drive coverage much longer. Effective Jan. 1, he will become the sixth managing editor of a Time Inc. property to relinquish his position since Norman Pearlstine took over as editor in chief of the magazine empire less than two years ago.

Lalli, 55, managing editor since 1989 and president of the American Society of Magazine Editors, will assume the new position of senior executive editor of Time Inc., helping to expand Money’s presence overseas. He will be succeeded as managing editor by Robert Safian, 33, who looks like one of the rising stars at Time Inc. Safian joined sister publication Fortune as a senior editor earlier this year and now leapfrogs over a few of his current superiors, as well as a masthead of names at Money.

At the same time, in a curious organizational twist, Safian will report to Fortune Managing Editor John Huey, as Money and Fortune are grouped in a new Business Information Group.

* Paul D. Colford is a columnist for Newsday. His e-mail address is [email protected]. His column is published Thursdays.