Purely commercial reasons…
Chris Masters’ long-awaited unauthorised biography of infamous Sydney squawkmeister Belford Parrott has been shelved. The book, tentatively titled “Jonestown”, was intended as a follow-up to Masters’ Four Corners report on Mr Parrott in 2002.
The ABC issued a press release this afternoon, possibly the first press release I can ever recall announcing the non-publication of a book. The decision, according to ABC Enterprises director Robyn Watts, was made for “purely commercial reasons”.
Ms Watts went on to say:
“ABC Enterprises has a clear responsibility to deliver a commercial return to the ABC. To proceed with publication will almost certainly result in a commercial loss which would be irresponsible.”
While I get back to reading “Simply Stuffed” by HG Nelson, feel free to take a browse through the ABC Shop’s book section at all those titles responsibly published by ABC Enterprises to deliver a commercial return.
June 29th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
OK, so “Simply Stuffed” was published by Pan Macmillan, not ABC Books. My apologies. But my point remains. Why does a (presumably negative) bio of an excessively-powerful public figure get singled out as one that would “almost certainly result in a commercial loss” - especially when the subject matter would surely guarantee increased sales?
Or are they factoring in possible legal expenses? Then again, maybe this is just a manifestation of the Windschuttle/Albrechtsen et al era of ABC boardsmanship.
Keep an eye out for next Monday’s Media Watch on said TV network.
July 3rd, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Considering Alan has already threatened legal action a couple of times regarding the book, I’m guessing it was for legal reasons. Someone in management at the ABC, and it has been revealed by Crikey that it wasn’t the bloke in charge of the ABC Books division, was too scared of the prospect of a defamation suit that they pulled the plug. Anyway, it will be picked up by another publisher, and probably do extremely well.
Media Watch is about to begin, will be interesting to see what Monica has to say about it.
July 8th, 2006 at 7:08 am
Media Watch’s report is here. At the end of the day, Allen & Unwin has itself a new sure-fire bestseller, and the ABC Board of Directors a PR disaster.