Posnanski and the Paterno book

Makes sense Az. Given the large advance there is also the ROI factor working. No doubt that the S&S bean counters have it worked out to the penny the amount of money that would be lost for each day that the book is delayed.

 

My guess is they were wanting a feel-good Oprah Nation-type book.

 

I think I read it was to be released around Father's Day 2013.

 

My thought all along has been that they were aiming for Remnick/Leavy/Ben Cramer/Maraniss - the rare biographical sports bestseller - but would have been very happy to get a well-done "Lives of the CEOs" installment. One with Paterno dealing out lots and lots of Jack Welch/Lee Iacocca/Knute Rockne/John Wooden/Harvey Penick -style self-help epigrams for inspirational/aspirational middle management.

Sports management as business management as life management - ie., 'Moneyball' - is a very profitable sector in publishing.

 

Really makes you appreciate the time that publisher has allowed Robert Caro to write his books.

 

Remarkable to think that Mr. Caro, now 76 years old, has spent an entire career writing about just two men.

 

Whatever the publisher's motives, the book is #1 on Bookscan's adult non-fiction bestseller list, selling over 11,000 copies the first week.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/53752-paterno-debuts-at-number-one.html

Not a chance in the world Simon & Schuster was going to delay publication. A story like this is absolutely going to evolve and/or devolve, other books will be done, people move on. Agree completely with the comment above regarding the publisher's expectation that people will buy it because they've heard about it, not really knowing or understanding or caring about all the intricacies discussed here.

But a great book with word-of-mouth reviews will keep selling, a mediocre book dies quickly. So we'll see.

 

Seems to me that's a fair expectation and a big reason why publishers pay $700K+ advances, so that the author does spend that amount of time and effort on it. Do these publishers cough up that amount of cash expecting to be someone's moonlighting gig?

If you can't give up two years of your working life as a writer for $700K (or was it $750K in this case?) to produce a tome of proper heft and depth, you're stealing from the publisher and from the readers.

 

Shari Wenk is right, of course. Marketing wins every aergument over journalism, certainly in bbook publishing. I've always had trouble remembering that.

 

Paterno is the No. 1 New York Times best seller in hardcover non-fiction for the week of Sept. 9.

 

Book is also No. 1 on the combined print & e-book non-fiction list. It was sixth on the e-book list.

 

A publisher would be happy with a book written on napkins during your lunch break as long as it sold books. It's not a journalism argument, as much as we want it to be sometimes. A writer owes it to himself/herself to produce the best book they can possible produce. As soon as the scandal hit, S&S probably understood they weren't going to get the book they originally thought they'd get. I guarantee the publisher did not feel robbed, somehow.