Business

Post-election push as publishers rush to press

The election is barely over, and while not quite as ground-breaking as the election of Barack Obama four years earlier, a flurry of books will be coming out on the inner workings of how he won — and on how Republican Mitt Romney lost.

Newsweek, while still flooded out of its headquarters at Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp on the far West Side, managed to put out this week’s print edition early.

And it is also cranking out an instant e-book by David Frum, entitled “Why Romney Lost (And What the GOP Can Do About It).”

The Frum tome hits today and by last night the 78-page book was already tracking as the No. 2 political title on Kindle.

Former Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter — now at Bloomberg Views and a political pundit at NBC and MSNBC — will be putting out a sequel to his best-selling 2010 book, “The Promise,” about Obama’s first year in office.

The sequel, from Simon & Schuster, will be overseen by Editorial Director Alice Mayhew.

An S&S spokeswoman said the book lacks a working title and a firm publication date — although the plan is to have it out “in the spring of 2013.”

John Heilemann, of New York magazine, and Mark Halperin, of Time, who co-wrote “Game Change,” one of the most acclaimed books on the first Obama campaign, are jumping from their former publisher, HarperCollins (owned by News Corp., which also owns The Post), to write the sequel for Ann Godoff at Penguin Press. It has no title, but it’s expected to be out in the fall of 2013, according to a spokesperson.

Lanced

The tumble of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong is drawing lots of interest from publishers. Yesterday, New York Times reporter Juliet Macur, who broke some of the first big stories on the doping scandal that toppled the seven-time Tour de France winner, signed a pre-emptive deal with HarperCollins that is believed to be in the mid-six-figure range.

The book, which was represented by P.J. Mark at Janklow & Nesbit, has the title, “Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong” and is expected to hit in June 2013.

“No reporter knows Lance Armstrong’s story better than Juliet Macur,” said Harper Executive Editor David Hirshey. “Cycle of Lies’ will prove definitively that his extraordinary career had nothing to do with the bike.”

Armstrong’s autobiography, “It’s Not About The Bike: My Journey Back to Life,” sold more than a million copies when it came out in 2000 shortly after his first win.

Also in the hunt for a book deal are two Wall Street Journal writers Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’Connell, who are being represented by Elyse Cheney.

David Walsh of the London Sunday Times is also shopping for a deal. Both WSJ and the Sunday Times are owned by News Corp.

Cosmo Girls

Media swells may be getting bumped from their usual tables at media hotspot Michael’s restaurant next Monday. New Cosmopolitan Editor-In-Chief Joanna Coles is taking it over to host a women-only Cosmo 100 luncheon. The guest list is being kept under wraps.

Coles, former top editor of Marie Claire, has been busy staffing up since replacing Kate White at Cosmo.

Coles just raided Condé Nast to hire the award-winning art director Paul Solomons from British GQ to be the new creative director.

Meanwhile, Sara Austin, who was features director for news and health at Self, was just hired by Coles to be a deputy editor at Cosmo.

Coles has been filling most of the other upper-echelon spots at Cosmo with staffers who followed her from Marie Claire, including Executive Editor Joyce Chang, Entertainment Editor Dana Stern and Abby Gardner, the new Cosmo digital director. Alix Campbell, who had worked with Coles at Marie Claire but was most recently at Artmix Creative, is joining as photography director.

D-Day

Nov. 13 is D-Day at the New York Times. That’s when the 1,100 members of the Newspaper Guild vote on a tentative accord hammered out by the union’s negotiating committee and reps of CEO Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.

The contract provides for no retroactive pay raise, but gives a one-time “bonus” next March equal to 3 percent of annual salary. The final three years call for only 2 percent annual pay hikes — half what the union initially sought.

Although the pact was recommended by the mediator, passage is not assured. The Guild has been without a contract since its last one expired in March 2011.