Rating: 
Summary: Long, but enjoyable!
Review: Nice to get into the publishing world, I enjoy Olivia Goldsmith's style, she takes a lot of time to draw the picture, and to dig deep into the players, it was interesting and enjoyable. I am a big fan of hers, and this is one of her best.
Rating: 
Summary: True, trashy tale of trials & tribulations of publishing
Review: No other beach book offers you an inside look on publishing as THE BESTSELLER does. Tyrannical editors in the no holds barred, rat race to propel their book to number one; writers struggling to publish their truth as they see it. Each page gossips about each character with vivid, lurid detail. You'll especially adore this one if you've been entrapped in the working world of publishing -- it's more than a jungle out there
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent and "Novel" Novel
Review: Of the two books I have read by Ms. Goldsmith -- "The Bestseller" and "First Wives Club" -- this is definitely the better of the two in my opinion. Writers -- unpublished and published --, agents and publishers will get love the behind-the-scenes gossip, while the average reader will enjoy the horse race-like attitude of the five would be bestsellers struggling in their own way to get their books noticed, published, and on the bestseller list. Several of Ms. Goldsmith's characters from "First Wives Club" either are mentioned here or make cameo appearences. The only flaws I found are the same ones that made "First Wives Club" so unappealing to me. There is a definitely pro-female slant in the story with the two novelists who actually succeed being women, while the two male writers are portrayed as heartless, cruel, vindictive. I also dislike Ms. Goldsmith's fascination with lesbians in her stories. I don't deny that they exist and if their orientation is crucial to the story, then it's fine with me. However, in this case I am actually repulsed by her Ellen Degenneres-esque "Look at me! I'm a lesbian" slant on two of the characters, especially when their lesbianism is unnecessary to the plot. Despite all that, I actually re-read the book at least once a year and is part of my "will read it again" collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not Great
Review: Olivia Goldsmith is good, she's even great most of the time. This book does not live up to The First Wives Club or Flavor of The Month or even Marrying Mom. It is OK, and you can get through it easily, but it's not an all-nighter.
Rating:
Summary: Candy box of surprises about the publishing industry
Review: The premise of "The Bestseller" is simple enough for a Hollywood producer to understand" "First Wives Club" author Olivia Goldsmith offers us five writers with their five books. By the end, one of their novels will hit the top of the New York Times Best Seller list. Which will it be? * Will it be Gerald Ochs Davis, the president of Davis & Dash? He s hoping that resurrecting an uncle's tragedy decades ago will make enough money to keep his mistress and ex-wives satisfied, and himself at the head of the now corporately owned company. To that end, he'll do anything" order an expensive ad budget, set an impossibly high quota for the sales force and even steal sales from other authors. * Then there's Susann Baker Edmonds, formerly Sue Ann Edmonds, a legal secretary from the Midwest, who at 58 is facing the end of her career. She is also beset by her daughter, who bitterly resents her mother. * The college professor author of "In Full Knowledge," a thriller about a woman driven to kill her children, is being heavily promoted as a man who understands women. Little do they know that his wife actually wrote the book, a fact which her husband is not eager to make known. * Poor Terry O'Neal. She kills herself after writing a 1,000-page novel called "The Duplicity of Men," after seeing it rejected by 23 publishers. Now the manuscript falls into the hands of her mother, Opal, who is determined to do anything to see it published. * Camilla Clapfish is the dowdy, terribly lonely British girl, working as a tour guide in Italy, while finishing her first novel about a group of middle-aged women wandering around Firenze. As a neophyte writer, she has no idea what to do next, until her budding boyfriend suggests sending it to his sister, an editorial assistant at Davis & Dash. From this premise, Goldsmith weaves an elaborate dance of backstabbing, determination, desire and romance that is guaranteed to have you turning the pages late into the night. Those who have a smattering of knowledge of the publishing business will realize just how spot-on Goldsmith is. She knows the bottom-line nature of the business and the lengths people will go to stay on top. There is even the pleasure of guessing who the characters are based on. For example, one of the subplots involves the uproar over Davis & Dash publishing "ScitzoBoy," by Chad Weston, a once-promising writer driven by falling sales into writing a misogynistic thriller about a Wall Street yuppie who dismembers women, and if you're thinking it's a wicked attack on Bret Easton Ellis and "American Psycho," you are correct. "The Bestseller" is full of digs like this. With that, the heroic struggles of the authors to get their books published, and the machinations of G.O.D. and the marketplace working against them, "The Bestseller" is a candy box of surprises that, even after 500 pages, makes this reader hungry for a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: A good story. And isn't that what reading a book is for?
Review: This book is out of fantasy land. Of course it's over exaggerated. And filled with gossip about people I never heard of. The plot is simple. Which of five books will be the bestseller? Within the first few pages I knew who would be the best-selling author and immediately confirmed it by finding the answer in the last few pages of the book. I didn't have to continue reading. Believe me, I feel no obligation to finish books. I read for pleasure. And I won't waste my time on something I don't like. But I couldn't put the book down. Just kept reading and reading and reading. Why? In the tradition of the Jacqueline Susanne and Jackie Collins, Ms. Goldsmith simply knows how to tell a good story. As expected in a book published today, she doesn't use flashbacks. To add depth to a character she simply gives a page or two of narrative in her early chapters. I read this book a little at a time. And thought about it all day long. I lived with the silly characters, all of them more characatures than characters. So predictable that I didn't have to continue. But I found myself thinking about the story a lot, and anxiously picked it up whenever I could. It brought back memories of my early days of reading, when a book was nothing put pure entertainment. And, after all, isn't that what reading is all about?
Rating: 
Summary: A chore to read
Review: This book rambled on and on in many parts, providing the reader with many nonessential details. On the plus side, the character of Pam Mantiss provided much needed comic relief, causing me to laugh out loud at some of her wisecracks. But alas, such comic moments were few and far between and even the invincible Pam Mantiss couldn't save this book. I enjoyed having my wisdom teeth extracted much more than I enjoyed reading this book. Do NOT read this book on your lunch breaks at work -- it's guaranteed to put you to sleep!
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read!
Review: This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It kept my full attention all the way through, and I felt such a connection to these characters. I was so sorry to have to end the book, because I was also saying good-bye to my friends. I would recommend this book to everyone. What are you waiting for? Go out there and buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Goldsmith goes platinum with "The Bestseller".
Review: Though I must admit Ms. Goldsmith's stories have their faults (pat endings, too much anti-male rhetoric, and extremely dorky last names like Clapfish) her stories are damn entertaining. This one was definitely no exception. I read the thing in one sitting--something I've haven't done in ages. The characters are cocky, funny, and very interesting. We're given a very informative look inside the publishing business. Even though it was easy to guess who Peet Trawley (V.C. Andrews) and Susanne Baker Edmonds (Danielle Steel) are inspired by, it's still kind of cool to see Ms. Goldsmith's take on both of them. Terry's overwhelming sense of rejection and Opal's grieving are very sincere and realistic. The friendship between Opal and Roberta is genuine and touching. Even the bitchy Pam Mantiss (whose name is way too obvious)is fascinating and even sympathetic (in a weird villian sort of way)at times. I even loved that odd little fellow named GOD. Despite it's flaws, I definitely recommend the novel. It's one that you won't get out of your head for a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Fun Reading
Review: While this book is not absolutely super, it's fun going by. I found that I was wondering why I was reading it but yet I was still up to 1 or 2 in the morning reading it. The characters were fun to read about and very engaging.
If you like First Wive's Club, you'll like this.
My only complaint - it ended. I could have kept reading about these characters for another 100-200 pages and still enjoyed it
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