Re-Write

You will be told not to write what is currently selling, because the books coming out now were put into process as much as two years ago.

It takes time to write a book, yes, but it takes time to edit and publish it as well. Hence, the advice. Write what is coming, what isn't there yet. For an author, it's a suggestion to look into the future and predict.

Not even the publishers can do that.

Certainly not the venerable Simon & Schuster.

The publisher paid $750,000 for a manuscript back when Joe Paterno was on track to be a legend in college football coaching.

On went the process, from acquisition to final review, all typos corrected. Joe Posnanski had a last chance to verify his content, approve the cover art, and read the flap copy that the marketing department prepared.

And while all this expensive work was in motion, one of the assistant coaches at Penn State was charged with child molestation.
 
The Grand Experiment, Joe Posnanski's biography of Joe Paterno, was quickly renamed. It would be, simply, Paterno. The release date of the book was shifted from Father's Day 2013 to early August of 2012.

Already, the bean counters could see that a manuscript purchased under one set of assumptions was going to sink under unexpected revelations. What else could be done but to get the book laid down before former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky went to trial and the atmosphere became even more negative?


The printing presses were running as allegations against Joe Paterno trickled out.

Yesterday, officials at Penn State had the statue of Joe Paterno removed from its place of honor and put into storage.

Mr. Posnanski's book, already on its way, cannot be sent back for a re-write. It's too late for the author to edit his manuscript, to add a final chapter about the failings of a man the author was lauding. To erase some of the more positive phrases and harden the overall tone.

The book will come out quietly, with book tour appearances getting cancelled and some stores refusing to carry the book at all.

While Simon & Schuster bemoans the strange twists of fate that will cut into the bottom line, the author can only curse the Fates. His work will be ignored, criticized or mocked, and when he started writing, Joe Paterno was a legend, in his final season as coach at Penn State, and on track to post the most wins in the sport.

Now that the book is ready to be released, Paterno is toxic. All the hard work that went into the writing and research is not going to be rewarded because every reviewer will be compelled to note that Joe Paterno did nothing while little boys were being molested by one of his coaches but the author failed to heap scorn. So the book, therefore, is no good.

Simon & Schuster will lose money, perhaps $1 million. Joe Posnanski could see his valuable reputation as a reporter tarnished, and all because of unfortunate timing.