Here is an excerpt from my mid-December post The Problem with Commission Reports Becoming Bestsellers
“I contacted Random House , the parent company of Vintage who published the ISG [Iraq Study Group] report, to get an idea of exactly what “portion” of the proceeds they will be donating. Their response was troubling. “This is as detailed information, as we are releasing. A portion of the proceeds from the purchase of the book will be donated to the National Military Family Association. NMFA…”.
Today Forbes published an article by Eugenia Levenson on publishing houses profiting on government reports entitled “Publishing’ Easy Money“. Levenson was able to get that “detailed information” that the publisher was unwilling to share.
“According to commission staff familiar with the publication process, the publisher will contribute the equivalent of a royalty fee – generally 7.5 percent of a paperback’s cover price – to the National Military Family Association. Kirshbaum estimates that even with about $1 per book going to charity, Vintage could still take in $400,000 in profits.”
If Vantage stands to make $400k one can only imagine how much W.W. Norton raked in with the wildly popular 9-11 Commission Report.
Another interesting tidbit from the article is that other publishers are free to publish the report. There is no exclusivity here. If indeed anyone could publish the report and with the success of 9-11 report still on the radar screen one would think that there would be a little more noise from the major publishers. Why wouldn’t Norton publish it? They just cleaned up on the 9-11 report. Something is going on here.
Also of note-C.E. Petit via GalleyCat reminds us that the first of these modern government reports was the 1987 Tower Commission Report which dealt with the Iran-Contra Affair. Interestingly enough Random House was behind that publication as well issuing the hardback under their imprint then issuing it in paper under their Bantam imprint.
I can only repeat what I said in my previous post:
These reports are products of great American tragedies and a tremendous amount of suffering. Any profiteering is shameful. I look at this much like the laws that prevent convicted criminals from profiting from selling their story. The same rules should apply. Period.
This publishing trend should be clearly defined now before it corrupts the hard work and dedication of so many Americans involved in the search for truth.