"Love her or hate her, you have to respect what she's been able to do, making herself America's undisputed (and richest) lifestyle guru." Sound like anyone we know? You got it—it's Martha Stewart, the subject of Martha Inc.: The Incredible Story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, published by Wiley on April 8 (copies in print: 200,000). The buzz for Christopher Byron's tome actually began a year ago, when the book was signed, and Martha notoriously reversed herself—originally participating and later declining to cooperate with Byron and announcing her own book. A week-long media blitz helped launch Byron's book, including a high-profile party, a New York Post serialization and even a punch line in Jay Leno's Tonight Show monologue. In an attempt to "protect the great tidbits from leaking too early," Wiley publisher Joan O'Neil notes that even company insiders couldn't read the manuscript until the week of publication.
With reporting by Dick Donahue.
