The rush to write a Madoff book

Could you call it a celebrity book? Only of a very unusual kind. One week ago former Nasdaq Stock Market chairman Bernard Madoff was arrested and charged with securities fraud but already the book proposals are flying.

HarperCollins says that in 2010 it will release an investigative book by TV journalist Andrew Kirtzman. At the same time, Random House says it will publish a Madoff book by print journalist Richard Behar in 2010.

Behar is a particularly strong candidate to write such a book. He is an investigative reporter whose work has won the Daniel Pearl, Loeb, Polk, and National Magazine awards, among others. In 2005, he launched Project Klebnikov, a media alliance focused on investigating the Moscow murder of Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov.

"This is a story that isn't going away," Claire Wachtel, an executive editor at the Harper imprint who acquired Mr. Kirtzman's book told the Wall Street Journal. "It's the human element that makes it so interesting."