And Sometimes It Doesn’t Work
I debated about whether to post this bit from Galley Cat, but since it’s about collaboration and so is this website:
NO CHANCE OF EVANOVICH CANNELL COLLABORATION
When Warner Books - now, of course, known to one and all as Grand Central Publishing - first announced that Janet Evanovich and Stephen Cannell would be joining forces for a new series, it did so with a few hiccups. The deal was first posted, then taken back down, then put back again. It seemed a minor point, something to forget about - not a harbinger of things to come.
Earlier this month, Sarah Wendell at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books got a tip from an anonymous reader wondering why Evanovich’s site, after trumpeting the upcoming collaboration, no longer mentioned the book anywhere. Anonymous had read chapter one, posted on June 1, and when she went back on July 1, there was no chapter two - or chapter one, for that matter. And things got even stranger. “If you type “no chance” site:evanovich.com into a Google search, there’s remnants of quite a few pages - but they’re all 404s,” reported the tipster. “Meanwhile, Cannell used to have it on his news page, home page and appearances page - those mentions are gone, too.” An excerpt was still available on Cannell’s website as of July 9, and is now, but that’s about it.
And that’s about all we’ll see, thanks to Wendell’s update yesterday. According to her source at an unnamed Big Box Bookstore, “the Evanovich/Cannell novel NO CHANCE has ‘no chance’ of being published. The book has been canceled with no date for rescheduling.” When reached for comment yesterday evening, Evanovich confirmed the news. “Steve [Cannell] and I ran into scheduling problems,” she said by email. “We still have an active partnership but the project is on hold right now. As of right now we haven’t a publishing date.” Interestingly, the Amazon page remains active, though that may not be for much longer…
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Hrm. The dangers of going public on the intarweb.
yet more proof that Jenny is a goddess and Bob is a god among men.
I first heard about this through the smart bitches website after reading two of the No Chance excerpts on the Evanovich website. But now at evanovich.com there is a note saying that a scheduling conflict came up, and when there is a new date for publication they’ll post it. So it sounds like it could reasonably be just delayed, rather than canceled. Which would be nice.
Don’t count on it.
The book was due in bookstores in October which meant, optimally, it should have been finished last October. Publishers can crash books if they want to, but crashing a hardcover in three months is usually not done. (Agnes went in very late, too, but it went in by the end of January; that’s a six month lead time which was cutting it very fine.)
They didn’t have “a scheduling conflict” this late in the game. There are major problems that even two pros couldn’t solve. While it’s possible they can work them out, if they failed to get a book in when it had this big a publication scheduled, it’s going to take more than a coordination schedule.
On the other hand, giving back an advance of that size is very painful, so maybe . . .
Ooh, the advance. I hadn’t thought about that. Good incentive to make the danged thing work, isn’t it? Li’l tip, when you get a Google hit on something that appears to have “disappeared,” try chosing the “cached” option, rather than clicking on the title. It’s often still there. I got to the second installment that way just a couple days ago. I liked the characters and really wanted that collab to work.
I couldn’t help wondering why they even wanted to collaborate. Kind of stunt casting, maybe?
With Jenny & Bob, the attraction is obvious: they have wildly different areas of expertise, which, when combined, make for one heck of a book. Well, actually, so far, two hecks of books. (A “heck” is an ancient Sumerian measure of ambrosia and/or octopus ink.)
How big do you suppose the advance was?
I am so glad you don’t charge by the comma.
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