As readers of this blog know, Thriller Guy is always happy
to speak ill of the dead, so, he would like to announce that it is well known
in the book world that Tom Clancy was, personally, an insufferable ass. Before
you chastise TG for being cruel, be aware that many in the Publishing Bizz also
think that TG himself is an insufferable ass. And TG would like to state right
up front that Clancy’s early books were favorites and that he has reviewed the
books over the years and has always admired the work, even if the middle years
were sort of boring. But the guy could be a real mean, arrogant bastard. Many
are the stories, and if one goes back into the thriller Guy archives one would
find this one by my friend Kathleen Ewing but TG will not report any of the
better ones here because the people involved are all afraid that somehow this
will anger the book gods and go against them the next time they’re trying to
peddle a book or manuscript. Today’s Washington Post is the first to touch on this touchy subject with a piece about an interview Peter Carlson did with
Clancy years ago. If anyone would like to chime in with one of these stories TG
would be glad to put it on the blog.
Clancy lived just down the road from TG. When his first
book, The Hunt For Red October came
out and was beginning it’s phenomenal rise up the bestseller lists, TG went to
the local bookstore in our small community. TG can’t remember what this
bookstore was, but it was a small version of one of the big chains. It was
always an odd store, with books piled haphazardly on the floor and scattered
carelessly across the shelves. The manager and seemingly only employee was a
gray-haired frazzled woman who always looked like she was in way over her head.
On the day of TG’s visit, he noticed a pile of Clancy’s Red October book on top of which the woman had written in ballpoint
pen on a piece of shirt cardboard: Local Author. I commented on the book and
sign and she said that since she had put up the sign Clancy had become a
bestselling author. TG asked a couple of questions, but the woman firmly
believed that the sign was the single cause of his success. TG went home and
wrote a little note to Clancy to tell him this mildly amusing story and sent it
off. Of course he never wrote back.
But TG has a more important reason for bringing up Clancy,
besides the fact that he enjoys speaking ill of the dead and saying things that
everyone else is too polite and afraid to say. Here’s a lesson in the business
of writing.
The story of Clancy selling his book to the Naval Instituted
Press has been told over and over again for years. How they gave him $5,000 for
what was the first novel they had ever published, having done nothing but
non-fiction before that. How Ronald Reagan plugged it and the rest was history.
So skip ahead to the day Clancy wanted to dump the N.I.P. for a Big Time Publisher,
Putnam, in this case, where he could make even more millions than he was
currently making. Turns out that the first contract he signed with N.I.P. – he
had no agent – gave all the rights to all his characters to them. In other
words, they, not Clancy, owned the rights to his series character, Jack Ryan.
Clancy had to go to the mat with the N. I. P. and in the end had to pay them a
bundle -- TG heard at the time it was a million dollars -- to get the rights
back. Think this sort of thing is rare? When TG signed his first contract for
the first book in the Pastmaster series (available for Kindle here) his brand
new agent pointed out that the same clause was in his contract. TG only wishes
he could go on to say that after the Pastmaster book and a couple of more came
out that he had to pay a million bucks to get his character, Alex Balfour,
back. No such luck. TG’s agent, the Nedster, Xed out that pesky clause and made
sure it never crept back into the contracts of the many books that were to
follow.
Oh, did TG remind everyone already that all of these wonderful books can be found on Kindle here?
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