Penguin sues authors for not delivering manuscripts

It has long been something of a formula in the traditional publishing industry: author signs book deal – author gets advance – author delivers book to publisher. Most of the time, it seems to have worked pretty well, but apparently this is not always the case.

I was interested to read that the publisher Penguin is suing a dozen authors in court for failing to deliver manuscripts for which they received advances. The cases include Elizabeth Wurtzel (who wrote Prozac Nation), who received a $33,000 advance for a book in 2003. The book was meant to be delivered in 2004, but wasn’t. The publisher is now looking to get back its advance, along with interest.

Other authors being chased by Penguin for failing to deliver books include Ana Marie Cox, Conrad Tillard and Herman Rosenblat.  The case has yet to be settled, but it has received opposition from literary agents who are against the legal action.

Whatever your views on the court case, in some ways it does make the self-publishing model seem more appealing to writers. Sure, we might not get advances for what we write, but it does mean that we can write what we want, when we want, without having to worry about repercussions if we don’t get things done on time, or don’t manage to fulfil a contract for some other reason.

Still, it will be interesting to see what comes of Penguin’s legal action against this group of authors. In the meantime, you can read more about the case in question here.