Barry Ritholtz is one of the most popular financial bloggers (his blog The Big Picture gets 34K people a month and is considered one of the top 5-10 financial blogs). He recently had a run-in with his publishers McGrawHill and they’re refusing to publish his book.
We’re talking about a well established blogger who can get the word out and cause a big PR fiasco for McGraw Hill – and they still are refusing to publish his book. I can’t imagine what sort of restrictions and censoring of thoughts a normal, not so well known, author has to face.
The details are covered in his blog post About Bailout Nation …, and at this article at Portfolio.com called McGraw Hill Drops Book Critical of S&P.
Here’s what caused the problems with McGraw Hill -
When it came to chapter 14 — Who is to Blame? – there were issues about the style of what I wrote about Moody’s, S&P and Fitch’s. I literally called the ratings agencies and investment bankers “Pimps and Whores;” I accused them of engaging in pay for play (buying ratings) payola, etc. Rather than describe it, I will simply post the original version here.
Here is where the Kindle comes in. And more importantly the ability to self-publish, and have an audience of Kindle owners waiting for you. We’re in an environment where its becoming more and more difficult to publish a book that is critical of any big corporation or the government. The Publisher is scared of libel and other legal issues, and there are numerous other considerations. With self-publishing you can circumvent this and get your message out without being restricted in your freedom of speech.
If Barry were to share this book for free, or release a trial version on the Kindle, or do both, suddenly he can start spreading his message REGARDLESS of what any publisher might want him to do. A lot of people are going to read his blog post and probably take his side - However, his book isn’t getting read right now. If he makes a Kindle version available – not only does he get good publicity because of his run-in with McGraw Hill, he also gets people to actually read his book. Actually, he should also make an option for print to read available and share a free PDF version.
One last bit – the Kindle and other eReaders are important because people can actually get ‘books’ out and have people read them, as opposed to eBooks for PCs etc. that aren’t easy to read and probably won’t get read.
Filed under: publishing Tagged: | bailout nation
Well of course he can’t print that Moody’s, S&P, Fitch, etc… are the pimps and whores who should take the blame… he MUST include the pimps and whores in Congress and our state governments as well.
Give credit where redit is due.
well said – let’s not forget the great role Congress etc. are playing now.