From today’s Financial Times:
When Mark Kitto received a draft contract late last year from Wiley, the US-listed publishing house, he had every reason to feel confident that his book about doing business in China would soon be released for sale.
With China’s rise gripping global business, the British entrepreneur had a topical tale to tell about his battle with the country’s print media regulator for control of a successful listings magazine empire…
…Wiley initially embraced Mr Kitto’s story about how the General Administrationof Press and Publishing had taken control of the listings magazines he had managed in China’s three richest cities. The publisher had the book edited, held detailed negotiations over contract clauses with Mr Kitto, with the publisher agreeing to changes, and even commissioned covers.
Ms Hwu wrote another e-mail in November to a Hong Kong newspaper editor promoting Mr Kitto, saying the book was “quite a page-turner and we are planning to publish it”. By December, however, the deal was dead, tipping Mr Kitto into another dispute, this time with Wiley itself. Mr Kitto charges that Wiley backed off because the publisher was concerned about the book’s impact on its business in China and specifically on the safety of its staff based there. Wiley disputes this account.
The article also quotes Tim Clissold, author of Mr China:
Mr Clissold, who read Mr Kitto’s manuscript and enjoyed it, said Wiley’s publishers would have been “absolute patsies” to drop the project on political grounds. “The fact that [my book] was published in China is important, because it tells you the Chinese are rather more self-confident about accepting criticism than the average foreign publisher might think,” he said. “The whole thing comes down to the tone – it’s how you write, not what you write.”
Read the whole thing at the FT link below — subscription not necessary.