“Political commentator and Bush administration insider Mary Matalin will head a new politics-centered, conservative-bent books imprint at Simon & Schuster,” according to a Book Standard report by Chuck Shelton. The imprint is not yet named, but Shelton reports “The former assistant to President George W. Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney plans to publish six to ten books per year, beginning in early ’06.” Matalan tells Shelton that the idea was brought to her by S&S publisher David Rosenthal and Louise Burke, the publisher of S&S imprint Pocket Books, who will “jointly manage the imprint.” As to what Matalan herself will do, she says, “I’ll be combining my experience with critical ways to advance ideas. I’ll still be doing in whatever capacity what I’m doing with the [Bush] administration.” She will also play that role from her Washington, D.C. office.

Mary Mapes, “the CBS television producer who was fired for her role in the network’s discredited report on President Bush‘s military service,” has signed a deal with St. Martin’s Press to publisher her side of the story in the fall. In an Associated Press wire story, a St. Martin’s release says the book, to be called The Other Side of the Story, “will chronicle what really happened at CBS and reveal the corporate, political and ideological agendas that threaten the integrity of journalists and the news.”