We're back! Charles Duhigg for the defense. #DOJvPRH
"Mr. Duhigg, do you have a job?" #DOJvPRH
Yes, he does, and is describing his career in journalism now. #DOJvPRH
Duhigg responds to question about whether or not he's won any awards. . . Let's talk Pulitzer! #DOJvPRH
Duhigg says he's "a little nervous" and defense asks him to speak a little more slowly. #DOJvPRH
Duhigg explains that his editor, Andy Ward, is at Little Random, part of PRH. #DOJvPRH
Duhigg discusses the process of selling a nonfiction book on proposal ("The Power of Habit"). #DOJvPRH
Duhigg's story about how he got Scott Moyers at The Wylie Agency to notice his writing shows how actually random (pun NOT intended) a publishing journey can be. #DOJvPRH
"Does that mean you don't, typically, as an author, ask your agent for blow by blow from editors?" Duhigg says yes. Says he trusts agent to let him know what he needs to know. #DOJvPRH
Says Duhigg: "To be great, you really need an editor that makes [your writing] great." #DOJvPRH
Duhigg received a $750K advance. Is now explaining the advance-payout process. First check: $115K (first of four). "That was about what I was earning as my salary at [The New York Times}."
"I wrote this book to make money," says Duhigg. #DOJvPRH "I wrote this book to sell millions of copies. . . because that's what allows you to make money." #DOJvPRH
"Did you have an expectation of what a publishers would pay for 'The Power of Habit'"?

No. #DOJvPRH
"The biggest issue is not the advance. . . it's the editor. . . because that's what will allow me to sell millions of copies," says Duhigg. "There's so many things that matter more than the advance. You make so much money from things beyond the advance." #DOJvPRH
"How did 'The Power of Habit' perform?"

4 million copies here/more overseas #DOJvPRH
Duhigg says Andy Ward made his book a success. . . everything from strategizing chapters to line-editing each sentence to editing "again and again and again" a good editor, he says, "is sitting by you for every page" #DOJvPRH
Duhigg talks other ways PRH made book a success. 15 cover mocks. 2 marketers and a PR. "those people worked tirelessly" for POWER OF HABIT. Sales staff: "This is how you talk to the Costco in Des Moines. . . but Books Are Magic in Brookly, you talk to them differently." #DOJvPRH
Duhigg goes on to talk about support post-writing/editing, "the book has to earn that support." #DOJvPRH
"The only thing that matters more than writing is gossiping about book stuff." (He's being cheeky.) #DOJvPRH
"Mr. Duhigg, do you measure the success of THE POWER OF HABIT by the advance you received?"

"No. The goal of being a writer is to write something beautiful and true that people want to read. If you do that, they will buy it. And you will get the royalties. . . (etc.)" #DOJvPRH
"Mr. Duhigg, did you earn out your advance?"

Yes. . . and he's made over five million dollars from North American royalties.
Moving on to SMARTER, FASTER, BETTER about the power of productivity.

"How did you sell your second book?"

Phone call w/editor. . . who then talked w/agent. . . no proposal ("I do not recommend doing that because it makes writing the book really hard")
Duhigg speaks really quickly. . . trying to keep up! #DOJvPRH
The new advance "meant that we got to buy a house," says Duhigg. #DOJvPRH
Size of second advance, which Duhigg has said was the same as first, did not affect his decision to sell to Andy Ward. He wanted to work with Ward again. #DOJvPRH
"An author doesn't want to negotiate, right?" Duhigg says his second book sold out its advance and has made about one million dollars in North American rights. #DOJvPRH
Duhigg says for his first two books rights outside of North America equaled his advances but royalties and speaking fees higher. #DOJvPRH
Duhigg is talking about other ways authors make money. He is working on a third book and has sold that book. It's about the science of communication and conversation. He sold it to Andy Ward. Advance of $2 million dollars. "Because I want to work with Andy."
"Not only do I enjoy working with Andy, but I'm going to sell the most books with Andy. . . I don't work for Random House, I work for Andy Ward." #DOJvPRH
Duhigg says he would follow Andy to another publisher "unless he went to some far-right publishers, but Andy wouldn't do that!" #DOJvPRH
"I could have received far far more" of an advance, says Duhigg. Told his agent he'd be happy if they could get more than $5 million. No one offered that formally, but other publishers have made clear that if he's ever unhappy they would welcome Duhigg's move. #DOJvPRH
Negotiations: "Andrew Wylie does them on my behalf." #DOJvPRH
Duhigg explains how PRH audio division made money from his books but did not pay any of his advance and talks about how he asked agent Wylie to renegotiate with Audible. . . #DOJvPRH
Duhigg talks about minimizing risk on both sides and why that means taking a lower advance is smart, selling books into the future is "the end of the rainbow" for him #DOJvPRH
Duhigg says, of his current $2 million advance, Andrew Wylie was able to get it b/c "he could squeeze blood from a rock." "He can't help himself."
But he says agent's duty is to find the best place for a writer's book, and not to get the highest advance. #DOJvPRH
(Still not sure if I'm threading everything correctly. Thank you for your patience. I will TRY HARD during lunch to get it all sorted.) #DOJvPRH
Duhigg says "Nobody knows who I am" the market is so different now, "you can't be Stephen King, you can't be Malcolm Gladwell, that age is over" #DOJvPRH
He says his only hope is finding a tech geek in "10,000 different ways" i.e., discoverability is the hardest thing #DOJvPRH
He's playing up PRH sophistication in promotion/tools "if this merger goes through. . . PRH wants to make the world better for writers. I think expanding that world for another group, S&S, will be a good thing."
Duhigg admits if PRH offered him a lower advance for his next book? "I'd go on Twitter!" But he believes his editor would threaten to resign in protest. #DOJvPRH
"The thing I know about Andy Ward and PRH is that they love authors. . . to give us the freedom to write what we want to write." #DOJvPRH
No further questions. Cross about to begin. #DOJvPRH
Cross-examination of Duhigg: "An advance doesn't matter that much, right?"

Duhigg: "No, that's not it, it matters, but it's the royalties that matter. The advance is just the publishing house giving me an advance on those royalties." #DOJvPRH
Government is asking more questions about Duhigg's advances, pushing into what those advances helped Duhigg accomplish/finance. #DOJvPRH
"So the advance has helped you with your expenses?"

Duhigg: "Yes. . . and with promotion [of books]."
Duhigg says it's the editing that matters, many other publishers could provide the same marketing/promo as PRH. #DOJvPRH
"You don't seek a higher advance b/c you always expect your book to earn out its advance, correct?"

Duhigg says he expects advance to allow him to take enough time off to write the book. #DOJvPRH
Duhigg: "The best way to sell an old book is to write a new book." He says that's what allows you to keep up a lucrative speaking career. "Some speeches earn my $100K." #DOJvPRH
"If you do not earn out your advance, you do not receive royalties?

Duhigg: "I believe so, yes." #DOJvPRH
Duhigg admits he does not know anything about how often other authors do not earn out their advances. #DOJvPRH
"You don't write a book for the pressure of sales. . . u write a book because you're hopeful. . . that if u write a great book, people r going to read it, and they're going to buy it. This will happen to me. Some book I write will not earn out its advance. But this is a career."
Duhigg starts telling the courtroom that "we could all make more money" -- "You guys are government lawyers!" -- says we all do things b/c we believe in them. #DOJvPRH
Duhigg had mentioned the cons of S&S going to a private-equity firm but now confirms he has no knowledge of that option. #DOJvPRH
Government is talking datanalytics. (Did I spell that correctly?) NOW THINGS ARE HEATING UP. (Joke!) #DOJvPRH
Wait! No further questions? Time for a break? Wait wait. Some questions from the Judge. #DOJvPRH
"Congratulations on your success," says the Judge.

Now she asks, "What if you're an author who didn't earn out your advance but wants to write a second book?" #DOJvPRH
"Also, 98% books are not top sellers? So I feel like you are maybe not typical?" #DOJvPRH
Duhigg responds by talking about his expertise as a journo, saying that there arent' many NYT journos who would write books that wouldn't sell. #DOJvPRH
"You give very interesting testimony. . . but the data would suggest that you're not typical." #DOJvPRH
Duhigg says he would suggest that no one is typical, gives hypothetical examples of other types of writers, incl. those "who write books essentially as a sideline." #DOJvPRH
Duhigg: "There are people who write bad books" #DOJvPRH
"But the focus of this trial is particular and you may be atypical for our purpose," says Judge.
Judge talks about some writers needing more money in advances to offset risk. #DOJvPRH
Duhigg says he thought the group being discussed was top sellers who could rely on post-advance royalties. #dojvprh
Sorry that I'm writing so many shorter tweets today, doing my best over here. . . thanks for following along as I spam you all with scores of tweets. #DOJvPRH
Judge says Duhigg's explanation "helpful," asks "If you were an author who wasn't from NYT, didn't have sense that people wanted your work, bigger sense of risk, would you want a higher advance?" #DOJvPRH
"For anyone else who wants to write multiple books, you don't want to put your publishing partner in a position" where things seem insurmountable. #DOJvPRH
"There's no author who wants to get more money than they can possibly earn out" says Duhigg. #DOJvPRH
BREAKTIME. Back at 11.30. Everyone stretch!!! #DOJvPRH

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Bethanne Patrick

Bethanne Patrick Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @TheBookMaven

Aug 11
Back! "The defense calls Sally Kim, who is the publisher of Putnam." #DOJvPRH
Another decoder sheet! Cannot wait.
I do like seeing how many witnesses have water bottles. Just plain smart. #DOJvPRH
Read 73 tweets
Aug 11
GOING TO DO MY BEST TO THREAD now.

Glusman says merger would be bad for midlist authors.
#DOJvPRH
Why would someone go with Norton at a lower advance?
"Because we're fabulous!" says Glusman, who adds that he's "being quite facetious" about this. #DOJvPRH
"And a result of Norton's reputation in the industry. . . Nortons ometimes wins as the underbidder even when bidding against Big Five publishers?"

"Correct." #DOJvPRH
Read 7 tweets
Aug 10
Judge Pan stops Walsh in her tracks by clarifying that hoping for bestsellers and expecting bestsellers are different, and the questions here are about expectations, NOT hopes. #DOJvPRH
Walsh says, in discussing the work publishers put into each book, says it’s not as if some authors get paper plates and others get fine China. #DOJvPRH
BUT THEN she tells us that different authors have different needs. Some authors, e.g., need first-class air travel

Do those flights use paper plates?

#DOJvPRH
Read 4 tweets
Aug 10
Eating my tuna sammie and wondering where Jennifer Rudolph Walsh is having lunch. . . Sushi Taro takeout? Limo to BLT Steak? #DOJvPRH
Just spoke with my lovely editor and I am definitely gathering the right stuff to file, even if not to tweet! I promise to BRING IT tomorrow through Monday, when PRH’s Madeline McIntosh takes the stand (and I will still be on the case!). #DOJvPRH
And we’re back! Jennifer Rudolph Walsh begins by talking about some of her big sales. . . Sue Monk Kidd, Jeannette Walls, “and all of Brené Brown.” #dojvprh
Read 9 tweets
Aug 10
Taking 15 minutes to pay attention to imprint talk, back soon. #DOJvPRH
Ok, so here’s what Hill is saying, ultimately: A MERGER CHANGES THE WAY PARTIES COMPETE. Surprise! #DOJvPRH
NB my grades in undergrad micro and macro were quite low. #DOJvPRH
Read 25 tweets
Aug 10
Threading #DOJvPRH tweets!

“A vast amount of this information isn’t public knowledge?”

Hill: “Yes, but the winner is always known!”
The one thing that’s clear is analysis of edit minutes cannot show the runner up. OK.
And neither big publisher has good data about the runners up. They may use “different language” as Hill says — but no one has enough data, basically.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(