Forbes.com’s James Brady likens the team behind Tom Brokaw‘s new book, “Boom,” to the trend now in publishing to employ a group of people in the writing process.
In the acknowledgments in his book, which came out last month, Brokaw cites various people. “Liz Bowyer, the captain of the team, a tireless and persuasive interviewer; Frank Gannon, suggestions, observations, contributions, encyclopedic knowledge of the ’60s; Michael Hill, fact-checker extraordinaire; Meaghan Rudy, now part of the NBC family; and John Balz, who tracked down players, facts, trends and under-reported consequences of the ’60s,” he writes.
Brady recalls the time when Hemingway and Capote were writing non-fiction. “Back then, authors did their own research, actually went places, met people and filled notebooks with local color,” he writes.
Still, as he describes the Big Three anchormen, Peter Jennings is deceased, Dan Rather is suing CBS and Brokaw “is happily retired and writing bestsellers.”
Of course, Brokaw may be writing bestsellers, but certainly isn’t retired. His contract with NBC News runs through 2014, where he will continue to produce long-form documentaries and special reports, like this one last year.
>More from an emailer: “James Brady could use some ‘help’ it appears himself. He couldn’t even copy the book’s credit correctly? It is Meaghan Rady, Julie Huang, Tammy Fine just to name a few of his errors.” Not mentioned in our post, but in his story Brady wrote “Joan” Huang and “Tommy” Fine.