Telling Tales: December
Dispatches from the urban jungle
Roger that: Ted tells all (or
at least some) in his new book
Image credit: CP Images
Failure to Launch
This fall, bookish types rubbed shoulders with biz nobs under the crystal coverings of the ROM’s C5 restaurant. The occasion: toasting a local legend—Ted Rogers—and his new autobiography, Relentless. The venue was posh, the booze was flowing and snacks—Kobe beef skewers, smoked salmon—were a cut above the usual sweaty cheese cubes. An extravagant evening to be sure, but hardly representative of the state of book launches during economically iffy times. “The era of hiring elephants to make a splash at book parties is long behind us,” says one local editor, referring to the days when launches rivalled Oscar bashes in over-the-top glam quotient. Publishers aren’t willing to drop their dwindling dollars on frills anymore (“It’s a lot more boxed wine and old hummus,” says a party regular). Random House has even taken to fêteing authors—including lit it boy Andrew Davidson—in its boardrooms. Scribes seeking the Ted treatment are advised to take up a second career in communications. Rogers bankrolled part of the C5 bash himself.—Serena Trevis
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