10 March 2020 - Hachette Book Group cancels Woody Allen’s memoir
Hachette Says It Won’t Publish Woody Allen’s Book
John Williams (The New York Times, 06/03/2020)
Hachette Book Group dropped its plans to publish Woody Allen’s autobiography and said it would return all rights to the author, a day after its employees protested its deal with the filmmaker.
“The decision to cancel Mr. Allen’s book was a difficult one,” a spokeswoman for the publisher said in a statement. “We take our relationships with authors very seriously, and do not cancel books lightly. We have published and will continue to publish many challenging books. As publishers, we make sure every day in our work that different voices and conflicting points of views can be heard.”
Woody Allen's Publisher Cancels His Memoir 4 Days After Announcing It
Andrew R. Chow (Time, 06/03/2020)
After an intense backlash both online and within the company, the Hachette Book Group will no longer publish Woody Allen’s memoir.
“Hachette Book Group has decided that it will not publish Woody Allen’s memoir Apropos of Nothing, originally scheduled for sale in April 2020, and will return all rights to the author,” a representative for Hachette wrote in a statement to TIME on Friday.
The statement responded to internal backlash over the book at the publishing house: “Also, as a company, we are committed to offering a stimulating, supportive and open work environment for all our staff. Over the past few days, HBG leadership had extensive conversations with our staff and others. After listening, we came to the conclusion that moving forward with publication would not be feasible for HBG.”
Woody Allen’s publisher canceled his memoir after staff walked out
Constance Grady (Vox, 06/03/2020)
Hachette Book Group announced it is dropping Woody Allen’s memoir, following a staff walkout.
Hachette, one of the “Big Five” houses in trade book publishing, announced that it would be publishing Allen’s memoir Apropos of Nothing through its imprint Grand Central Publishing in April. The company apparently acquired the book last year, but it kept the sale a secret from the public, as well as from most of its employees, until this week. An anonymous Hachette staffer told Slate that she learned about the acquisition through an AP newswire article. “Obviously, they must’ve known that they were doing something wrong,” she said.
Woody Allen memoir may still go ahead in France, despite controversy
Alison Flood (The Guardian, 09/03/2020)
Woody Allen’s controversial memoir will still be published in France despite its US publisher dropping it, with his French publisher saying that the film director is “not Roman Polanski” and that “the American situation is not ours”.
Allen’s memoir, Apropos of Nothing, was acquired last week by Hachette in the US. The move was quickly condemned by the author’s daughter Dylan Farrow, who has alleged that Allen sexually abused her as a child, allegations that Allen has denied. Allen’s son Ronan Farrow, whose book Catch and Kill – also published by Hachette – details his investigations into institutional sexual abuse in the media and Hollywood, also blasted the decision and announced he would no longer work with Hachette.