Today’s Publishers Lunch column is required reading, but Michael Cader really hits home with this point: “This isn’t just about Judith. Officially, she reports to Jane Friedman. (And if she doesn’t, now is the time to make clear to whom she does report.) Regan is part of HarperCollins, which finances, sells, and collects the receipts for the book. As the Boston Globe editorial page says today, ‘this supposed tell-all degrades the publishing business and calls into question the integrity of everyone responsible for putting it into print.’ So who is responsible? And where is Jane? So far Friedman and HarperCollins have declined requests to comment publicly. But Friedman has the power to do the closest thing left to making this right.”
Well, let’s see. One way would be to cancel the book entirely, but somehow I doubt that will happen at such a short notice. Besides, the long-term repercussions are what’s really at stake here: when independent booksellers, already pissed off by previous embargo antics, are justifiably foaming at the mouth at the sell sheet presentation of IF I DID IT, will that affect future orders of all HarperCollins books in the future? Is Reganbooks’s profit margin so steep that it offsets nearly every other imprint at the company?
So let’s come right out and say this: Maybe the time has finally come for Regan and HarperCollins to get a divorce. Or at least, making Regan an “independent entity” of NewsCorp so that she reports directly to Murdoch and is chiefly responsible for all marketing, promotion and distribution of future books published by the imprint. The likelihood is probably slim to nil, and even if it were to take place, the custody battles could get incredibly ugly, but when a parent publishing house – and an entire industry – is ultimately going to be held responsible, perhaps drastic actions are in order.