Rotten Book Deals

Like many of you, I’ve been fuming about John Bolton. But I find my anger directed to people who are profiting off him, and the Trump administration, and who are rarely called out for so doing: book publishers.

I mentioned this gripe in a recent newsletter when I wrote that the imprint Jonathan Karp founded, Twelve, was publishing A Warning by Anonymous. The news was accompanied by disclaimers of a sort that the author was donating much of his royalties (how much was never specified). But no one mentioned if the publisher was going to donate proceeds. The book, currently ranked #32 on Amazon, received more than 100,000 pre-orders. No matter how much anonymous gives away in royalties, Twelve, and Simon & Schuster, and CBS, will make millions from A Warning.

Karp is a very well-respected editor, responsible for Seabiscuit and The Orchard Thief and other critically acclaimed bestsellers. When he took over his own imprint, he named it after the number of books they would publish per year,…