From The London Times
Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
Michael Jackson had been dead for less than 24 hours before the race started to get his biography on to the streets
Luke Leitch John Blake is no slouch at rushing out books to anticipate public demand: this March, for instance, the day after Jade Goody’s death, Blake’s imprint released Jade Goody: Fighting To The End, a hastily updated edition of her second autobiography. It went straight to No 1 in the paperback bestseller list. Even Blake, though, has never seen a race quite as fierce as that now straining every sinew of the British publishing industry — to be the first to market with a title marking the demise and celebrating the life of Michael Jackson.
“It’s extraordinary,” Blake says: “I’ve never known anything quite like this.”
Just over three weeks after Jackson was pronounced dead in California, the first newly released Jackson book should be on sale today. Books that predated Jackson’s death have already enjoyed a huge spike in sales, just like those of Jackson’s albums. Sales of A 2004 edition of Michael Jackson: The Magic and The Madness by Randy Taraborrelli increased from eight books in the week before his death to 1,673 in the ten days after it. The Bookseller has reported that retailers have pre-ordered more than half a million copies of the new titles.
One of those titles will be Blake’s. On June 26, the day after Jackson’s death, he was called by an author named Emily Herbert. “She is good at writing fast and she was desperate to do a book,” he says. Blake, though, wasn’t keen: “My initial thought was that there are loads of titles around, why do a new one?” Then his sales manager called to say that two major retailers had contacted him and that they were “desperate for a paperback”. Blake called Herbert, commissioned the book, and by midday had secured 30,000 pre-orders for Michael Jackson: King of Pop 1958–2009, which goes on sale next Monday.
But Blake will be beaten to it by HarperCollins, whose Michael Jackson — Legend, Hero, Icon: A Tribute to the King of Pop has an official publication date of this Friday, July 17 — although Carole Tonkinson, the company’s Publisher for Non-Fiction, says that some copies may be in the shops by tomorrow. “Being first is the key,” she says. “We need to get that slot in the retailers. If our competitors sell them their Jacko book, then we’re out in the cold. We need to be in the supermarket before anyone else.”
Tonkinson’s author, James Aldis, was given 48 hours to write 10, 000 words, while the picture researchers were given a window of 72 hours to choose 250 images. Tonkinson describes it as “the tightest schedule in the history of our company”. The printing presses started rolling last Friday and yesterday afternoon Tonkinson reported that she was holding one of the first copies in her hands. “We’re really proud of it,” she says. “To be competitive, we have to be able to move quickly. In a way we acted like a magazine or a newspaper, putting together something beautiful and enduring — at speed.”
Despite this effort, the HarperCollins title is not favourite to take the checkered flag. Headline’s pictorial offering (Michael Jackson: Life of a Legend by Micheal Heatley) is also due out on Friday. Carly Cook, Headline’s publisher, says: “I have never experienced anything like this. I don’t want to sound cynical, but as soon as I heard the news I was already thinking about it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. You’re talking icon status: there was Elvis and Diana and there’s this.”
Yet both HaperCollins and Headline will be beaten by Simon & Schuster, which has pulled off a masterstroke. Its title, a warts-and-all biography by Ian Halperin entitled Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson, has been five years in the writing. Originally commissioned for a Canadian publisher, S&S stepped in to buy the UK rights only last week and the final copy (including updates from Jackson’s memorial service, where Halperin was working for the US broadcaster NBC) was delivered on Friday. After a few hours for proof- checking, it was sent to the printers — and the first copies go on sale today. “We believe we have the best book on the market,” says a perhaps justifiably smug-sounding spokesman for the publisher. “And we wanted to get it out there as soon as possible. We are the most up to date, too. This has certainly been the quickest turnaround that I’ve known.”
John Blake, however, is not convinced that Jackson fans will rush to buy Halperin’s and Simon & Schuster’s work. The book, which was serialised in The Sun yesterday, is far from a dewy-eyed homage (See box). Blake says: “One lesson I’ve learnt is that people do not want to read books that are nasty, salacious or critical. You might read that in The Sun but you wouldn’t go out and pay your £10 for a book with that kind of thing. [Our book] is a very affectionate tribute.”
The alacrity with which British publishers have reacted to Jackson’s passing is impressive and may also say something about the pressures they face to produce sales in a shrinking market. But compared with the Chinese publishing industry the tempo of ours is more Earth Song than Smooth Criminal: the first Chinese instant biography — Moonwalk in Paradise — took just nine days to write, design, print and ship to the shops. Shamon!
Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
Michael Jackson had been dead for less than 24 hours before the race started to get his biography on to the streets
Luke Leitch John Blake is no slouch at rushing out books to anticipate public demand: this March, for instance, the day after Jade Goody’s death, Blake’s imprint released Jade Goody: Fighting To The End, a hastily updated edition of her second autobiography. It went straight to No 1 in the paperback bestseller list. Even Blake, though, has never seen a race quite as fierce as that now straining every sinew of the British publishing industry — to be the first to market with a title marking the demise and celebrating the life of Michael Jackson.
“It’s extraordinary,” Blake says: “I’ve never known anything quite like this.”
Just over three weeks after Jackson was pronounced dead in California, the first newly released Jackson book should be on sale today. Books that predated Jackson’s death have already enjoyed a huge spike in sales, just like those of Jackson’s albums. Sales of A 2004 edition of Michael Jackson: The Magic and The Madness by Randy Taraborrelli increased from eight books in the week before his death to 1,673 in the ten days after it. The Bookseller has reported that retailers have pre-ordered more than half a million copies of the new titles.
One of those titles will be Blake’s. On June 26, the day after Jackson’s death, he was called by an author named Emily Herbert. “She is good at writing fast and she was desperate to do a book,” he says. Blake, though, wasn’t keen: “My initial thought was that there are loads of titles around, why do a new one?” Then his sales manager called to say that two major retailers had contacted him and that they were “desperate for a paperback”. Blake called Herbert, commissioned the book, and by midday had secured 30,000 pre-orders for Michael Jackson: King of Pop 1958–2009, which goes on sale next Monday.
But Blake will be beaten to it by HarperCollins, whose Michael Jackson — Legend, Hero, Icon: A Tribute to the King of Pop has an official publication date of this Friday, July 17 — although Carole Tonkinson, the company’s Publisher for Non-Fiction, says that some copies may be in the shops by tomorrow. “Being first is the key,” she says. “We need to get that slot in the retailers. If our competitors sell them their Jacko book, then we’re out in the cold. We need to be in the supermarket before anyone else.”
Tonkinson’s author, James Aldis, was given 48 hours to write 10, 000 words, while the picture researchers were given a window of 72 hours to choose 250 images. Tonkinson describes it as “the tightest schedule in the history of our company”. The printing presses started rolling last Friday and yesterday afternoon Tonkinson reported that she was holding one of the first copies in her hands. “We’re really proud of it,” she says. “To be competitive, we have to be able to move quickly. In a way we acted like a magazine or a newspaper, putting together something beautiful and enduring — at speed.”
Despite this effort, the HarperCollins title is not favourite to take the checkered flag. Headline’s pictorial offering (Michael Jackson: Life of a Legend by Micheal Heatley) is also due out on Friday. Carly Cook, Headline’s publisher, says: “I have never experienced anything like this. I don’t want to sound cynical, but as soon as I heard the news I was already thinking about it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. You’re talking icon status: there was Elvis and Diana and there’s this.”
Yet both HaperCollins and Headline will be beaten by Simon & Schuster, which has pulled off a masterstroke. Its title, a warts-and-all biography by Ian Halperin entitled Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson, has been five years in the writing. Originally commissioned for a Canadian publisher, S&S stepped in to buy the UK rights only last week and the final copy (including updates from Jackson’s memorial service, where Halperin was working for the US broadcaster NBC) was delivered on Friday. After a few hours for proof- checking, it was sent to the printers — and the first copies go on sale today. “We believe we have the best book on the market,” says a perhaps justifiably smug-sounding spokesman for the publisher. “And we wanted to get it out there as soon as possible. We are the most up to date, too. This has certainly been the quickest turnaround that I’ve known.”
John Blake, however, is not convinced that Jackson fans will rush to buy Halperin’s and Simon & Schuster’s work. The book, which was serialised in The Sun yesterday, is far from a dewy-eyed homage (See box). Blake says: “One lesson I’ve learnt is that people do not want to read books that are nasty, salacious or critical. You might read that in The Sun but you wouldn’t go out and pay your £10 for a book with that kind of thing. [Our book] is a very affectionate tribute.”
The alacrity with which British publishers have reacted to Jackson’s passing is impressive and may also say something about the pressures they face to produce sales in a shrinking market. But compared with the Chinese publishing industry the tempo of ours is more Earth Song than Smooth Criminal: the first Chinese instant biography — Moonwalk in Paradise — took just nine days to write, design, print and ship to the shops. Shamon!
Additional reporting by Chloe Lambert
Thrillers or fillers?
Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson
Author: Ian Halperin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date: July 17; Price: £10
According to author Ian Halperin: “Even those who are his most ardent defenders, people who maintain he is innocent of the molestation charges, insist that he is homosexually inclined.” Halperin claims that Jackson would sometimes disguise himself as a woman to avoid being recognised en route for his assignations. It’s fair to say that this biography might alienate some of Jackson’s conservative fanbase. Yet it will be the first to hit British bookshelves.
Michael Jackson — Legend, Hero, Icon: A Tribute to the King of Pop
Author: James Aldis
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date: July 17; Price: £12:99
Ten thousand words, 250 pictures, 196 pages and 72 hours – HarperCollins put together this glossy, tribute to The King of Pop at top speed. Includes a free poster. “We’re offering the fans a beautiful book that’s tremendous value at exactly the right time,” says the publisher Carol Tonkinson.
Michael Jackson: Life of a Legend
Author: Michael Heatley
Publisher: Headline
Date: July 17; Price: £17.99
The music journalist Michael Heatley — who wrote a well-received John Peel biography — says: “We hope fans of all generations feel we have paid tribute to a musical icon.” As much a pictorial tribute as a written one, Heatley’s book includes never-before-seen (according to the publisher) family pictures.
Michael Jackson: King of Pop 1958–2009
Author: Emily Herbert
Publisher: John Blake
Date: July 20; Price: £7.99
A first print run of 150, 000 copies will hit shops on Monday, making it the first significantly text-based, newly written assessment of Jackson’s career to go on sale. Publisher John Blake says that while Herbert has covered all the controversy and rumours that marked Jackson’s career it is, at heart, an “affectionate tribute”.
Michael Jackson: The King of Pop 1958–2009
Author: Chris Roberts
Publisher: Carlton
Date: TBC – but definitely by the end of this month; Price: £14.99
Originally due for September to coincide with Jackson’s O2 concerts in London, Carlton have rushed forward publication of this pictorial biography, which will include pictures from the singer’s funeral concert and unseen pictures from Jackson’s Thriller tour. The words have been written by experienced music writer Chris Roberts, and UK printers are being used to get the books into the shops faster.
Michael Jackson: Legend 1958-2009
Author: Chas Newkey-Burden
Publisher: Michael O’Mara Books Ltd
Date: September 2009; Price: £14.99
Amy Winehouse biographer Newkey-Burden was commissioned on the day of Jackson’s death, and was yesterday interviewing subjects for his biography. It will be published at around the same time as his biography of Simon Cowell. Ana Sampson, from Michael O’Mara Books, says: “This is an unusually quick turnaround but we’re confident that it will do well.”
Thrillers or fillers?
Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson
Author: Ian Halperin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date: July 17; Price: £10
According to author Ian Halperin: “Even those who are his most ardent defenders, people who maintain he is innocent of the molestation charges, insist that he is homosexually inclined.” Halperin claims that Jackson would sometimes disguise himself as a woman to avoid being recognised en route for his assignations. It’s fair to say that this biography might alienate some of Jackson’s conservative fanbase. Yet it will be the first to hit British bookshelves.
Michael Jackson — Legend, Hero, Icon: A Tribute to the King of Pop
Author: James Aldis
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date: July 17; Price: £12:99
Ten thousand words, 250 pictures, 196 pages and 72 hours – HarperCollins put together this glossy, tribute to The King of Pop at top speed. Includes a free poster. “We’re offering the fans a beautiful book that’s tremendous value at exactly the right time,” says the publisher Carol Tonkinson.
Michael Jackson: Life of a Legend
Author: Michael Heatley
Publisher: Headline
Date: July 17; Price: £17.99
The music journalist Michael Heatley — who wrote a well-received John Peel biography — says: “We hope fans of all generations feel we have paid tribute to a musical icon.” As much a pictorial tribute as a written one, Heatley’s book includes never-before-seen (according to the publisher) family pictures.
Michael Jackson: King of Pop 1958–2009
Author: Emily Herbert
Publisher: John Blake
Date: July 20; Price: £7.99
A first print run of 150, 000 copies will hit shops on Monday, making it the first significantly text-based, newly written assessment of Jackson’s career to go on sale. Publisher John Blake says that while Herbert has covered all the controversy and rumours that marked Jackson’s career it is, at heart, an “affectionate tribute”.
Michael Jackson: The King of Pop 1958–2009
Author: Chris Roberts
Publisher: Carlton
Date: TBC – but definitely by the end of this month; Price: £14.99
Originally due for September to coincide with Jackson’s O2 concerts in London, Carlton have rushed forward publication of this pictorial biography, which will include pictures from the singer’s funeral concert and unseen pictures from Jackson’s Thriller tour. The words have been written by experienced music writer Chris Roberts, and UK printers are being used to get the books into the shops faster.
Michael Jackson: Legend 1958-2009
Author: Chas Newkey-Burden
Publisher: Michael O’Mara Books Ltd
Date: September 2009; Price: £14.99
Amy Winehouse biographer Newkey-Burden was commissioned on the day of Jackson’s death, and was yesterday interviewing subjects for his biography. It will be published at around the same time as his biography of Simon Cowell. Ana Sampson, from Michael O’Mara Books, says: “This is an unusually quick turnaround but we’re confident that it will do well.”
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