Courtiers the release !

[jeffgoldblum]

In preparation for the books release , and with permission from randompenguin , I thought it would be good to start this thread now !

If its £20m for 4 books, would they give him the advance for all 4 at the same time? Wouldn't they wait to see how well Book 1 sold before investing in Book 2

The advance is paid no matter how the books do @Dinoteeth. Remember, it's an advance on royalties, so it's a gamble for the publisher who will have calculated how much they think they can earn. Once they agree the advance, the publisher is contractually bound to pay it, unless the manuscript is not delivered. If an author earns beyond the advance, s/he will get residual payments in the form of royalties every 18 months. The advance is at best a gamble. The larger the advance, the more motivated the publisher will be. I imagine Harry's publisher will be VERY motivated.

Would he/they really get the same amount for each book though? I’d have thought this book would be the one with the biggest advance because it’ll be the one with the biggest potential audience. And the work and “self” that goes into it will be greater than that of the wellness book.

That is a great point @RandomPenguinHouse. It may well be that the advance for the memoir is higher than for the others, but if I were his agent, I would negotiate equal value for each book so that the publisher is invested in each book. But you are right that different amounts may well have been allocated. Bottom line though is that only a third of 20 mill will have been paid, no matter the allocation per book.

Another curious question, if a boom is being release say 1st November how far in advance would they start printing it?

This is what is so strange with Harry's book @Dinoteeth . Normally , galley copies, or advance copies, are produced 3 to 6 months in advance of publishing, it's how reviewers manage to publish reviews the week a book is published, excerpts are arranged, eg with Courtiers and Angela LeviN's book on Camilla.

It also takes a massive amount of time to get books to UK shops, and the lucrative Commonwealth markets of Australia and New Zealand etc.

All of this tells me that harry's book is nowhere near ready, even factoring in HM The Queens's death.

My gut feeling is that this is a book that has been in trouble for some time.

@MrsMaxDeWinter

Thanks again for your clear insights.

@MrsMaxDeWinter

Once a book is handed in, does the publishing house own the script or does it remain in control of the author, or does it vary by book deal.

Does the use of a ghostwriter impact the ownership in any way.

@MrsMaxDeWinter
Please kindly desist from tagging me across various threads. Please also desist from telling me repeatedly where I am not welcome to post and where I am allowed to post.

The thread you started had several people leave, because of bullying. Maybe have a think about that.

It does sound like there an issue with the book, could the publisher be unhappy they gave away all the juicy gossip to Oprah and little new stuff to fill the pages. Is the publisher trying to fact check so they (writer and publisher) dont end up looking like fuds. Could it have been held back to allow for HMQs health?

But 3-6 mths before release sounds logical to me.

Once a book is handed in, it is still within the control of the author until the final proof is agreed, after copy editing etc.

The book's copyright will belong to Harry and not J Moehringer. If you look at the copyright page of Andre Agassi's memoir, which JM ghost wrote, you will see that copyright belongs only to Andre.

Mr Moehringer will have been paid a separate fee for ghostwriting.

One of the great injustices of publishing is that ghostwriters and translators have no copyright and are not paid royalties, but are paid once off payments under "work for hire" contracts. I work in translation and it is something more and more people are speaking out on.

@Dinoteeth indeed. My understanding is that the first draft had to be revised, even before recent events.

@Jibbajabba1 my sincere apologies to you. I had no plans of tagging you further, but obviously had to for this apology.

I just saw an article about this? Does she think people will have forgotten what she told Oprah?

The fact checker was always there, Nicole Pasulka is her name and she has been credited since the first episode with Serena. The "new fact checker hire" has been debunked: she was always there.

I believe what she said in the OW interview was that she went to HR to get help. Not that Harry didn't help her.

Do we really have to be nasty about a woman talking about the help she sought when she was mentally unwell? The podcast touched on some pretty heavy themes and I admired the Constance and Deepika for willing to be so vulnerable.

But if Harry has got her help then why did she go to HR?

The sequence of events may well have been that she went to HR, and when that failed, Harry got her the help she needed outside the institution. Who knows? I just don't think this is something to beat her over the head with.

@MrsMaxDeWinter , with all due respect, I left your thread as you wanted critical posters to come on my " bashing thread", I don't believe in thread policing and everyone is welcome, however please don't tell other posters here what they can post.
Many thanks

Really interesting insight into the publishing world , thanks @MrsMaxDeWinter

The sequence of events may well have been that she went to HR, and when that failed, Harry got her the help she needed outside the institution. Who knows? I DeWinter sorry but do you realise that what you just said makes everything MM said about the case misleading ?

I find it really puzzling that she went to HR in the first place! Obviously they aren’t there to find a counsellor for members of the RF. surely she was capable of finding someone online and booking a session!

I'm sure @Serenster had a transcript? , apologies if wrong poster.

@MidnightConstellation I don't know how the RF works as an institution, but I genuinely don't see any contradiction in what she said, as she could have asked more than one person for help.

@Arnaquer glad you found my posts on publishing useful.

@queenofarles One thing that was confirmed from listening to Constance Wu is that we never know the full story unless we were there. I am not in a position to debate what exactly happened with Meghan when she asked for help, but I am saying simply that to my mind at least, what Meghan said is not contradictory. But I don't want to belabour the point, so will respect that you see things differently.

I’d read the book and Netflix series were likely to be dropped, but the telegraph are claiming it’s all still going ahead:

www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/10/08/harry-meghans-netflix-documentary-will-pull-no-punches/

Meghan and Harry felt the way they did at the Oprah interview. The dust has settled and perhaps looking back, they view things a little differently now.

I do think they would have been better served to have waited a while to have down the OW interview, but what’s done is done.

That is a surprisingly balanced article, and it even has a bit of humour about the whole situation. Thanks so much for sharing, I also liked the Harry story on the same page.

@Ohnonevermind I agree that it is likely that the tone of both book and series will be different from the OW interview.

God knows

‘But if Harry has got her help then why did she go to HR?’

Maybe it was as the couriers claimed in the book, that they were set up and that MM and H had been looking for reasons to leave anyway. Does seem odd to have also approached a HR department when they already had access to the best medical care themselves and Harry had been kind enough to source it for her anyway.

@Ohnonevermind
Sad to read how the Queen had to deal with the Oprah interview fallout, whilst her husband was dying. You’re quite right, what’s done is done. But what a terrible regret for them to live with.

She was far too indulgent with poor wee Harry.

That pair presented themselves as great lovers who had the love affair of the century.
In fact she wanted out of the relationship. When he died she said ,'He gave up so much for so little.'
That about sums it all up.

Fashion is cyclical, I can’t image it was a deliberate copying, but I can imagine them looking to produce a Windsor biopic, so then she could have been looking at documents so the clothes appealed on a subconscious level.

Perhaps they had hoped to get the Queens approval for such a project