Annotations for Professional Life: Publishing

Rutgers? University Press.

No… Rutgers University Press published it. Finally. They gave me, I think, $2,000. And then Knopf wanted their money back. They had given me maybe $7,500. They sent me, they sent me, uh, Dunning letters. So I went up to see the lawyer at Knopf. Don't put this, don't say that I said, fuck you. I said, you sue me. You do anything you want. You are not getting a goddamn penny of this $2,000. And they didn't. They dropped it.

And you found another publisher, it came out and got that review -

It came out and then it... Actually, it did come out in paper, too. Viking published it. A thousand copies or so in paper.

And sell it to the movies, then.

I tried. I thought it would be a great story for one of these Italian guys. For De Niro or Al Pacino or... No, nobody wanted to do a costume drama. Warren Beatty. But he had already done Reds. No. No movies.

Not this time, apparently. It's a black hole I'm used to.

We're all used to it! The writers get together… Black holes.

A black hole.

Publishers black holes - that's right.

Yeah. I was very lucky this time. I had a wonderful editor. I have a wonderful editor. And he did everything for the book, and I'm not used to that either. I'm not used to an editor really championing the book.

I want to get back to the book itself--

Yeah.

But mentioning editors, was Bob Gottlieb the first editor who turned down the other book?

Oh, yes.

Yeah, that's what I figured.

That's publishing for you. Any case, go back to the editor. This book, you said, he really was very good about it.

Oh, yeah. He's actually, he's a very old and dear friend, so I knew he wouldn't abandon me.

But he was terrific. I mean, he really liked the book, and he really stood up for it, and he really tried to push it and promote it.

Yeah. Absolutely.

But who would be interested?

Now… somebody was interested. Somebody will be interested in yours.

Even if Bob Gottlieb is not interested, there are people out there.

There are people out there.

Have you been traveling with the book at all? On a tour?

No. Nobody sent me on tour. We just to read locally. I've done radio. I've done News Day. I've done readings. I did a couple of readings. But, no, I haven't been traveling. I'm going to travel to Missoula, Montana. My stepdaughter has arranged a reading for me there.

In Missoula?

[laughing] In Missoula.

They're interested.

Yeah.