Kennedy and Simpson Books Debut Well

After all the controversy over questionable letters between President Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, and after all the whispers about what the book would or would not contain, Seymour M. Hersh’s new “The Dark Side of Camelot” is selling well.

After so many other books about the O.J. Simpson case, and after so many costly underperformers in the category, Dominick Dunne’s new “Another City, Not My Own,” is selling well too.

Hersh’s dirt-digging investigation into Kennedy’s private world and Dunne’s novelistic memoir of covering the Simpson follies--two of the more eagerly awaited titles of the fall publishing season--were among the biggest sellers after their debuts last week.

“The Dark Side of Camelot,” published by Little, Brown and Co., was the No. 1 nonfiction hardcover of the week at the Waldenbooks chain and No. 5 among all hardbacks. At Barnes & Noble, the country’s biggest chain, Hersh’s investigation surmounted some especially sour reviews to become the No. 2 nonfiction hardcover behind John Berendt’s “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” a bestseller for more than three years and one that should receive still another lift in sales after the movie version opens this week.

In “Another City,” Dunne’s alter ego, writer Gus Bailey, pieces together a gossipy account of the Simpson saga (familiar to Dunne’s readers in Vanity Fair) by presenting the key players as Bailey / Dunne encountered them. The book, published by Crown, went on sale Wednesday of last week but still was the week’s 10th-biggest seller at Waldenbooks and the No. 3 fiction hardcover at Barnes & Noble.

There are nearly 300,000 copies of “Another City” in print. Hersh’s expose had a first printing of 350,000 copies.

James Patterson’s “Cat &Mouse;” (Little, Brown), another caper featuring detective Alex Cross, and the prolific Danielle Steel’s new romance, “The Ghost” (Delacorte), were the top sellers among all books last week at Waldenbooks and, respectively, the No. 1 and No. 2 novels at Barnes & Noble.

Finally: Two books to watch are Kelly Flinn’s “Proud to Be: My Life, the Air Force, the Controversy,” new this week from Random House, and David Baldacci’s “The Winner,” which Warner Books will put on sale Dec. 2. The second thriller this year from the author of “Total Control” earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly and a 500,000-copy printing from Warner.

Intriguing in Any Language: Borrowing a few pages from People magazine, which identifies the 25 Most Intriguing People in its year-end issue, the spinoff People en Espan~ol names its own most intriguing personalities in the issue that went on sale this week. “Los 10 Que Cautivaron en 1997” includes, yes, dead revolutionary Che Guevara, along with Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori; actresses Cameron Diaz, Daniela Lujan and Thalia; TV anchor Maria Celeste Arraras; actor Francisco Gattorno, and music stars Shakira, Alejandro Fernandez and Luis Miguel.

A quarterly since last year, People en Espan~ol goes monthly starting in February.

Advancing a Family Fortune: Forbes magazine ranks the 500 biggest private companies in its Dec. 1 issue, which lists the Newhouse family’s Advance Publications Inc., No. 34 overall, as the most profitable media firm in the group. Advance--the parent corporation of the Newhouse Newspapers, the Conde Nast Publications, Random House and the New Yorker--had estimated revenues last year of $4.25 billion and estimated profits of $265 million. International Data Group and Hearst Corp. were second and third, respectively, in profits.

Speaking of Conde Nast: Company President Steven T. Florio, who in the past has expressed serious doubts about whether publishers can turn a profit in cyberspace, seems even less convinced these days. “The PC is the Hula Hoop of the 1990s,” he told a New York conference last week. “It’s headed for the high-tech garbage heap.”

According to Media Industry Newsletter, Florio added: “It’s hard to imagine anyone curling up in bed with a laptop on a snowy evening to read the latest Vanity Fair on a PC screen.”

Sexier in the Details: A strikingly sexy Courteney Cox supplies the sizzle on the December cover of Details as Michael J. Caruso, the new editor in chief, continues to update and enliven the Conde Nast magazine for younger men. The title of the Cox portfolio and feature inside, “Scared Shirtless,” is almost accurate, but you get the idea. The display provides further evidence that Caruso is looking to jump-start the numbers, especially the single-copy newsstand sales, by upping the hard-to-miss beauty content on top of the magazine’s music, fashion and sports coverage. (Details had been stuck at a circulation of 475,000 in the first half of the year, before Caruso took over.)

Meanwhile, Caruso’s maiden voyage, an October issue that featured Yasmine Bleeth and other actresses in lingerie (thank you, Vanity Fair), prompted a mailbag of reaction to Details, including a few protests like this woman’s: “Would any of the actresses . . . really be considered hip enough to make an appearance in Details if you weren’t able to get them to pose in black lingerie?”

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Afterwords: Newsweek, which puts the text of its current issue on America Online each Sunday night (keyword: Newsweek), now has turned the magazine’s gossipy “Newsmakers” page into a daily product online. Every weekday at noon, the page is updated on AOL (keyword: Newsmakers).

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Paul D. Colford is a columnist for Newsday. His e-mail address is paul.colford@newsday.com. His column is published Thursdays.