News

Government pays £150,000 to pulp Quercus title

04.03.11 | Bookseller staff

The Ministry of Defence has paid more than £150,000 pulping a Quercus title about military operations in Afghanistan.

The Daily Telegraph reports the book, Dead Men Risen by the paper's US editor Toby Harnden, had issues that could damage national security, according to the MoD. The book had been cleared after a four month review process by the ministry but on eve of publication, senior officials decided to make new amendments.

Quercus had already completed the 24,000 print run and because of the this, the MoD spent £151,450 to purchase all of the copies and destroy them. A number of minor alterations have since been made and the book will be published on 17th March.

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By Tuppy

Fantastic. Every author's dream. A lovely royalty on that!

Fri, 04/03/2011 - 11:37
By fotoLibrarian

Sold out in one day!
And using our money!
But the MoD could have bought 6,728 lightbulbs for the same price.

Fri, 04/03/2011 - 12:03
By Ali

Tuppy, at the rate they're paying, it's very bad news for the author and not great for the publisher. The RRP is £18.99 and the MOD paid about £6.31 a copy so his standard royalty per centages would have been drastically reduced. Great publicity, though and I hope it's a best-seller so Harnden can make some money out of his hard work after this delayed start. It's not his fault, or Quercus', that the MOD changed their mind after signing off the project.

Fri, 04/03/2011 - 19:50
By Tuppy

Fantastic. Every author's dream. A lovely royalty on that!

Fri, 04/03/2011 - 11:37
By fotoLibrarian

Sold out in one day!
And using our money!
But the MoD could have bought 6,728 lightbulbs for the same price.

Fri, 04/03/2011 - 12:03
By Ali

Tuppy, at the rate they're paying, it's very bad news for the author and not great for the publisher. The RRP is £18.99 and the MOD paid about £6.31 a copy so his standard royalty per centages would have been drastically reduced. Great publicity, though and I hope it's a best-seller so Harnden can make some money out of his hard work after this delayed start. It's not his fault, or Quercus', that the MOD changed their mind after signing off the project.

Fri, 04/03/2011 - 19:50

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