Money & Me: ‘Inquirer’ To Publish Grogan Book

John Grogan, the ex-Inquirer columnist and Marley & Me author, has a new book coming out in addition to his two new Marley books for kids. The only problem — for him, at least — is the book was done without him knowing anything about it. Even worse, it’s a column collection. One can only imagine the “AOL disks are annoying” column from last year will make the cut.

As awful as a collection of John Grogan’s columns sounds — for the record, Marley & Me was infinitely better than any one of his columns — it actually gets worse: The Inquirer agreed to the collection, from Vanguard Press, and then sent a letter to the author letting him know this book was coming out.

Grogan, in response, has his agent fire off a letter to the publishing community (or whatever) and saying he wouldn’t be doing anything to promote the book.

“I was totally blindsided by it,” Grogan said. “It just seems like common courtesy, and basic professional behavior, to at least give the writer a phone call to say, ‘We’re thinking of doing this.’” Grogan also believes the book, which features an image of a puppy on the cover, is shamefully trying to piggyback on the success of his smash bestseller. “This has nothing to do with wanting to publish my columns and everything to do with [Vanguard and the Inquirer] getting a piece of this very large audience I have with Marley & Me,” said Grogan

Gee, you think, John? Brian Tierney sent Grogan a letter he received a few days after the deal was struck, where he offered a share of the profits for helping to promote the book. Grogan said the deal wouldn’t allow him to have any say over the content and packaging. Tierney, though, says he’d still like Grogan to help out with the book (though that’s not going to happen now) and that this book isn’t all that important anyway.

Nonetheless, the newspaper executive, recently rumored to be interested in buying Dow Jones, has bigger worries than Grogan’s feelings. “This is a $500 million company… and while we’re excited about this book, it’s not as if it’s going to be a significant revenue stream.”

Hey, you never know: People like doggies. Aww, puppies!

Grogan Dogs Vanguard’s Book of His Columns [Publishers Weekly]
Thanks, Joe