GalleyCat brings news that Simon and Schuster will be publishing a secret, pop-culture-themed memoir on July 15th, with a first print run of 350,000 copies. This was always one of my favorite things about working in a bookstore. Our buyers would get word that there was a very important book coming out and they’d be forced to order them without knowing what they are. The secret books would arrive in boxes promising everything but the death penalty—legal threats, heavy fines and boycotts of the store—if the books were sold before their release date.

GalleyCat suspects that this is Madonna’s ex-nanny’s book. Usually, these mystery books are disappointing—one that everybody was speculating would be a Bush administration whistle-blower a few years back turned out to be Princess Di’s butler’s memoir—but sometimes they’re exciting. I have to admit, though, that I can’t think of any other celebrity memoir that would warrant nearly a half a million copies in its first printing—Mary Kate and Ashley’s nutritionist speaks? Something about Heath Ledger?—but it’s nice to have some sense of immediacy in an industry that normally moves at a glacial pace.