We may be headed straight into Inside-Publishing Wonksville here, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t say we weren’t getting a huge kick out of the public hissyfit currently being thrown down by ex-Inky scribe John Grogan, author of Marley & Me, that book about how bad dogs can, you know, teach you so much about life. For the uninitiated, Grogan’s rap is basically this: Take Jennifer Weiner, take away the vagina, and replace the bits about shoes with bits about adorable-but-misbehavin’ doggies. As you can imagine, in today’s book market, Grogan has made a mint off of recycling the poetry of Jimmy Stewart into memoirs. There is now: Bad Dog, Marley!; Marley, A Dog Like No Other, Marley & Me Illustrated Edition: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog and Bad Dog, Marley! Beloved Book and Plush Puppy. So guess who is crying foul now that The Inky has jumped into the fray with a cash-in called Bad Dogs Have More Fun: And Other Tails of Animals, Life and Family? That’s right: John Grogan.

After the jump, oh the pique of the pernicious plank walked by the world of puff publishing!

The book, which compiles a bunch of Grogan’s columns from the Inky and features a mutt on the cover, has reportedly been in the works since April’s London Book Fair; a deal was hammered out between Philadelphia Media Holdings and Vanguard Press in the last few weeks. But when Grogan was notified a few days after ink was put to paper — the Inky owns the rights to his columns, so legally, they can and do do whatever the fuck they want — he very quickly threw a shitfit that is still reverberating throughout the publishing world. It’s a place where, it must be said, even the tamest shitfit can reverberate for years. After being invited to share profits in exchange for helping to promote the book, Grogan’s agent quickly spammed the entire publishing/bookseller world with a message that reads, in part:

By now you have probably heard that Vanguard Press has made a deal with the Philadelphia Inquirer to publish a collection of some of John Grogan’s previously published newspaper columns — columns for which the Inquirer owns the copyright.

John has not been an employee at the Philadelphia Inquirer for several months. It was after his departure that the Inquirer and Vanguard struck a deal without John Grogan’s knowledge and, in fact, the Inquirer purposely waited until after a contract was signed before informing John of their intentions. Further, Vanguard Press negotiated and signed the deal knowing that John Grogan had not yet been made aware of the publication.

So clearly there is bad blood between Grogan and the Inky — bad blood that The Grogan Posse expects Joe Bookseller to give a shit about, too, which is funny. And the message goes on to say how Grogan will not be granting any interviews, making any appearances, or lifting a fucking finger (well, maybe one) in relation to the book. But why? Does he feel smited because he had sooooo much more input into the production of Bad Dog, Marley! Beloved Book and Plush Puppy? We can only assume he’s got his panties in a twist about the following: He’s pissed that the Inky owns his columns and he does not (read the fine print, douche), and he’s probably pissed off at Tierney and Co. overall because, hey, why not? For his part, Tierney has claimed in the press that he’s been trying to get Grogan on board even still, but you know what? A true playa doesn’t sweat it:

“This is a $500 million company,” [said Tierney]… and while we’re excited about this book, it’s not as if it’s going to be a significant revenue stream.”

Woof woof.
PublishersWeekly: Who Let The Dogs Out?
Poynter: You Ain’t My Dawg, Dawg

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 12:15 pm.