Despite allegations against Arday, Simon & Schuster said earlier this week it was planning to go ahead with the publication of his memoir Great and Unfortunate Things on 11 August in the US, and 27 August in the UK.<\/p>\n
In a previous interview with the Guardian, Arday said Simon & Schuster had offered 1.4m for the book in a \u201cpre-empt\u201d, a type of deal in which a publisher is so keen on a book they put in a high offer to take it off the table before it can go to auction. Arday did not specify whether the 1.4m figure was in pound sterling or US dollars. Simon & Schuster did not respond to a request to comment on the sum.<\/p>\n
While it is a high figure, publishing sources said it would be plausible if Simon & Schuster US and UK teamed up to buy the book and sought worldwide rights \u2013 meaning they could sell the book into other regions as well as the UK and US. After the deal was signed, it was rumoured to be a seven-figure sum.<\/p>\n
One senior publisher said it was an utterly mad number, but that \u201cmadness sometimes happens\u201d, so it was conceivable. They said a book such as Arday\u2019s would normally be expected to sell about 5,000 copies, so with \u00a32 of royalty per copy, that equates to an advance of \u00a310,000, not 1.4 million dollars or pounds.<\/p>\n
The book recounts the story of Arday\u2019s life, from being diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay aged three, to speaking his first words \u201cmonths before starting secondary school\u201d. In it he claims to have learned to read and write aged 18, before ultimately becoming the youngest ever<\/a> Black professor at Cambridge at 37.<\/p>\n Arday has been at the centre of a media storm since late July, when the Telegraph reported that<\/a> more than 100 passages of his PhD had similarities to a thesis published six years earlier.<\/p>\n Doubts have been raised about claims Arday has made about prodigious fundraising feats and a Guardian investigation<\/a> raised questions about his claims to have been targeted by knife-wielding masked intruders and sent a pig\u2019s head.<\/p>\n Cambridge initially came to Arday\u2019s defence, describing the claims as part of a \u201cvile smear campaign to undermine his credibility\u201d. It said it had passed complaints on to Liverpool John Moores University, where Arday had completed his PhD. LJMU cleared him of plagiarism, but academics said legitimate concerns remained<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, it also emerged that Arday had appeared to have falsely claimed to have published a book titled Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the Dominant Discourse. While Palgrave Macmillan accepted the book\u2019s proposal, it did not go ahead with publishing it, reported the Telegraph<\/a>.<\/p>\n One publishing executive said Simon & Schuster\u2019s decision to stand by its author thus far may simply be because \u201cthey had a contract, and they\u2019re sticking with the contract\u201d.<\/p>\n If there was a significant advance involved, there may be more motivation on the publisher\u2019s side to \u201crecoup\u201d it, they added.<\/p>\n There have been suggestions that the publisher had to amend elements of Arday\u2019s work. The journalist Benjamin Ryan shared a series of screenshots<\/a> on social media of different versions of the memoir\u2019s manuscript suggesting that edits had been made to dilute claims related to Arday\u2019s fundraising efforts. Ryan has written pieces on Arday for the Washington Free Beacon, the conservative outlet behind the investigations<\/a> that led to the Black academic Claudine Gay\u2019s resignation from Harvard. Simon & Schuster did not respond when asked why these edits were made.<\/p>\n Pulling the book at this point would be a \u201cpretty massive decision\u201d, one publisher said, if only for logistical reasons: Simon & Schuster has \u201cprobably printed the book already, probably paid the author, and may have started shipping the book all over the world\u201d, so \u201cactively withdrawing the book now is both extremely difficult and quite expensive\u201d.<\/p>\n In a statement before Arday\u2019s resignation, Simon & Schuster said: \u201cWe have worked closely with Professor Jason Arday on Great and Unfortunate Things since acquiring it and can speak to the professionalism and integrity he has brought to every stage of the publication.<\/p>\n
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