Publisher Sues Best-Selling Author Over Failure To Deliver Biography Of Alex Rodriguez
From The Smoking Gun:
A New York City publisher has filed a lawsuit seeking repayment of a $550,000 book advance given to best-selling author Richard Ben Cramer, who contracted to write a behind-the-scenes account of Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees.
In a New York State Supreme Court complaint, the Hachette Book Group alleges that Cramer, 62, failed to deliver the Yankees book by its February 2010 due date (which had been extended from an original March 2008 due date).
According to documents filed with the lawsuit, in September 2006, Cramer signed a $1.5 million, two-book deal with Warner Books, a Hachette subsidiary. Cramer’s first book, a contract notes, would take readers “inside the world of today’s New York Yankees and shows what makes them the best franchise in baseball history.”
Link to the rest at The Smoking Gun
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How does one manage to screw this up?
Full disclosure: I can’t stand A-Rod, and I would still manage to write his bio for $550,000.
Heck, I’ll do it for $549,999…
it does seem odd that in four years he couldn’t deliver the book. and that was quite the fancy advance. he probably wouldn’t get it now.
Maybe he just got busy and forgot?
His reasoning is fodder for some of those onerous non-compete agreements publishers put in contracts.
“In a June 2012 interview with the New York Daily News, Cramer said that he had placed the Rodriguez book “in abeyance” while he worked on another project.”
Thanks, Cramer, you just made it harder for everyone who goes the trad route.
In fairness to Cramer, that comment was made in June 2012, after Hachette canceled the deal in September 2011.
On the other hand, Cramer hasn’t shared with the public why he couldn’t deliver the manuscript by either the original or extended due date. (Maybe Rodriguez wouldn’t cooperate? Anything less would reflect badly on Cramer.)
I don’t know what demons Mr. Cramer had to deal with in his personal life, maybe he had to donate a kidney and half a lung or something, or save the rain-forest, but when someone frecks up such a well-paid contract, with such a long extended deadline, he’s an inexcusable douchebag, not a professional writer.
Where’s that “Like” button?
““In a June 2012 interview with the New York Daily News, Cramer said that he had placed the Rodriguez book “in abeyance” while he worked on another project.””
That won’t show up in evidence, will it? Naw, ‘course not, the publishers don’t read the newspapers, do they?
Huh. It would be one thing if A-Rod wasn’t cooperating or something. It’s another if you just don’t do it, with two years extension. Health issues would be the only reason that would really be understandable.
Heck, I know nothing about baseball and I could have learned in that time.
The question this rasies is, are the publishers starting to do this as general policy?
I think this may be a good thing. If publishers start expecting writers to fulfill the terms of their contracts writers may start treating their writing as a business.
I don’t have high hopes.
B.S.
I don’t have any sympathy for Cramer. I managed to complete my 150,000-word biography of Dennis Hopper in eight months, despite suffering from crippling arthritis.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/03/local/la-me-adv-chopstick-book-20111203
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-winkler/writing-with-rheumatoid-arthritis_b_1235127.html
Well, honestly people. I need alittle more information before I condemn someone.
As for Publishers suing authors, I have to agree, that is totally awesome for the indie community. The other solution – have the author write the book late – is way too collegial and friendly-like. Get those lawyers out and sue the pants off writers, make it really clear that you are the writer’s potential enemy.
That’s right. You are our potential foe, our enemy, our opponent in Court. We make a mistake, bang goes the hatchett, up goes the reciever to the lawyer. Let’s get the true relationship between publisher and writer way out in the open.
You are out to get us, to suck us dry. You always have been. The more writers can watch you do this type of thing, the better. Publishers, I encourage you to sue every author on your list. Let’s have those true colors waving brightly in the sky for everyone to see.
Nobody bled Cramer dry. He got a half-million advance, and they gave him a two year extension. I should be bled so dry. They didn’t take advantage of him. If anything, he was taking advantage of the publisher. He entered into a contract, a damn good one too. This is a simple breach of contract case, and the fact that it’s a publishing contract doesn’t make it unique. In any other business, if Cramer failed to deliver a product as promised, he’d be sued.
Peter Winkler – how do you know it was a good contract? Yes, he got a large advance, but do you know the rest of the terms?
As for bleeding authors dry, I didn’t single Cramer out. I think Publishers are hostile toward ALL authors.
But in Cramer’s case: they didn’t just ask for the money back. They sued, so he would have to pay interest and legal fees. This is called being a big bully because you have a legal department.
I agree Mira. More info, before deciding. We’ve all huge challenges. Here, partially disabled vet. Myriad everything that comes with age. Loss of our grandson. And yet. We strive to write. Everyone has something that challenges greatly somewhere in time. Some have many somethings to contend with ongoing. I’d like to hear Mr. Cramer’s story first. The intrigues in the unmeant gothic world of publishing are often vast with far more twists than on the face of a complaint/suit.
Thanks USAF. It’s really hard to know what happened. For one thing, the contracts usually state that the Publisher has to ‘like’ the book that is delivered. So, he could have written the book, but had it rejected – we just don’t know.