Blown Book Deal Story Hard to Swallow

By Neal 

eric-schaeffer.jpgSo I’m catching up with Gawker, and come across the item about Eric Schaeffer‘s crazy behind-the-deal anecdote, where he claims negotiations with “a major publisher in New York” over I Can’t Believe I’m Still Single led to, shall we say, an oral contract with “the woman who runs the publishing company,” except that she dropped the proposal after he dumped her for admitting she wanted kids. Mind you, within the space of two paragraphs, he simultaneously claims “I ended a book deal” and “the book deal went away,” so make of that what you will.

Gawker has their not-even-trying theory about which formerly high-placed publishing woman Schaeffer might have been talking to, assuming any of his story is true, but it can’t be Judith Regan: Not only does she have an adult son already, Schaeffer’s on record in the same interview as saying about women: “I’d have to have a sense that she’s under thirty-seven to have a date with her.” Which means that even if he were lucky enough to have Regan give him the time of day, he’d probably blow the opportunity.