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Yahoo Columnist Sued Over Missed Book Deadline

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Moderator1, Sep 1, 2010.

  1. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Is a book on Valvano really worth investing $400,00 in advance? Is the potential market that big?
     
  2. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    I've been at houses where authors would miss a deadline--but by three years?
     
  3. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Maybe he's struggling to get an interview with Valvano.
     
  4. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I'm just speculating here, but my guess is that it is because there may be a thought that it might lead to a movie? Which would be very lucrative.

    It does seem like an awfully huge advance for a sports book, if you consider that you'd have to sell about 200,000 books to recoup it. You could probably count the number of sports books that have sold that many copies in the last 20 years on one hand. "Moneyball." "Seabiscuit." Maybe Joe Torre's book?
     
  5. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Never thought of it that way. That would cause me to pucker up too, I think. Like stepping to the plate knowing that you must hit a home run, or else.
     
  6. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    That's nothing. I've procrastinated longer for less.
     
  7. swenk

    swenk Member

    The Post goes into more detail:

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/sportswriter_sued_over_failure_to_JQNAKGdLnfy6qIn91cyfRI
     
  8. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    I hope Yahoo! is paying him a lot since he apparently prioritized his work there above something he was given a $400,000 advance to write. Doesn't make much sense to me.
     
  9. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    Yahoo! is not paying him anywhere near 400K
     
  10. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Neither is the book, if we're talking about annual money. An advance like that is split into pieces. It might take 4 years - or more - from the day the contract is signed to the moment the last "advance" check comes in.
     
  11. Quite interesting that the Post ran that story about Mike Vaccaro's best friend--especially given that Mr. Wojnarowski throws their mutual agent (with whom Mike went to high school) under the bus.
     
  12. swenk

    swenk Member

    Exactly. Take the initial $140k (the amount the publisher paid upfront), pay the agent 15%, now you have $119k, and that's all you're getting until the book is delivered maybe 18 months later.

    You'll get a payment when the publisher accepts the manuscript as complete, another when the book is actually published, and possibly another a few a months later. Still a great advance--the kind you could still get in 2007 and you're probably not getting in 2010--but it takes a long time to collect it all.
     
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