OMG the FUNNY!

[lagilman]

from an article (via jaylake) on Dan Brown's long-awaited follow-up to The Da Vinci Code:

"As far as we are concerned he’s at work on a sequel and it will be published and we will be publishing it," Barrow said. "There is never any clause from publisher to a novelist that they have to deliver at a certain time. We would not impose such a thing on a contract." [emphasis mine]

*does best drop-jaw and howls for da (painful) funny*


(in case anyone here has missed this essential fact of writing-life: deadlines are the things publishers put into contracts at which point the book is due. Yes, even for Dan Brown and JK Rowling, etc. They may be politely overlooked, but they ARE in the contract. Fifteen years on the editorial side, and I never once heard of a contract being drawn up without a delivery date.)

Comments

[mcurry.livejournal.com]

"Here's your advance check. You just hang on to that, and get us the book whenever you feel like it. No rush."

[terri-osborne.livejournal.com]

*howls with laughter*

*coughs heinously*

*howls with laughter some more*

Oh, that's just frigging hilarious.

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

*blink*

*blink blink blink*

Are they freakin' kidding??

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Saw that quote. Know what I did when I saw that quote? Look at my icon. That's what I did.

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

"There is never any clause from publisher to a novelist that they have to deliver at a certain time. We would not impose such a thing on a contract."

*boggles*

when did we started getting publishing news from other planets? Has NASA been informed?

*boggles*

[dianora2.livejournal.com]

What a dumbass.

[kradical.livejournal.com]

Sweet mother-lovin' touchdown jumping Jesus H. cluny frog on a goddamn stick.....

[smoemeth.livejournal.com]

Maybe what they mean is, he's got a special clause in his contract that says "Manuscript is due once author actually learns how to write." That is essentially taking away this deadline in Brown's case, is it not?

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

I take this to mean that you didn't like his book? LOL

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I think what he meant was, "When an author is going to make us the kind of appalling money we anticipate from the next Dan Brown book, we overlook the fact that it said in the contract he'd turn that book in thirty-seven months, three weeks, four days, six hours and two minutes ago because we really don't want him to sell it to somebody else when he finishes the )($*&%)(&* thing."

[lagilman]

That may have been what was meant, but that's not what was said. "(There)is never any clause from publisher to a novelist that they have to deliver at a certain time" is precise and pointy.... and wrong.

[lagilman]

I have been reminded that the proper way to respond to someone asking about an overdue book is "we have complete confidence in Author's ability to deliver, and we stand behind him/her all the way."

All the way to where being intentionally left undefined.