Nearly one year after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, it's business as usual in the publishing world—at least in terms of donating revenues from September 11—related books. A survey by PW has revealed that only one of the publishers with major 9/11 titles has made plans to contribute any of the profits to victims' charities.
This stance contrasts markedly with that assumed by publishers in the aftermath of the attacks, when many donated at least a share of the proceeds from related books and products. Last fall, Workman rushed out 800,000 copies of Glory, a calendar featuring U.S. flags displayed after the attacks, and later contributed $900,000 in profits and royalties to the Red Cross and the New York Times 9-11 Fund. Abrams, meanwhile, donated $8 from every copy sold of New York magazine's photography book September 11th. And Little, Brown, contributed 10% of the $29.95 list price from Life magazine's One Nation.
Several corporate publishers also undertook company-wide initiatives last fall. For example, HarperCollins's parent company, News Corporation, matched employee donations to the New York Times Fund in addition to contributing to other funds. HarperCollins also donated a portion of the proceeds from God Bless America (Zondervan) and the photo tribute In the Line of Duty (Regan Books) to several charities, and sent copies of Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People to family relief centers in New York and Washington.
This fall, the house has invested more heavily than any other publisher in September 11 books, but it will keep all proceeds from such likely winners as On Topof the World by Howard Lutnick (CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald) and Among the Heroes: United Flight 92 and the Passengers and Crew Who Fought Back by Jere Longman. Of the other major publishers, Simon & Schuster, Doubleday, Hyperion and Viking are all taking similar positions and do not plan to donate any profits from their September 11 books.
So far, the lone exception is Basic Books, publisher of Terry Golway's forthcoming history of the New York City Fire Department, So That OthersMight Live. The house is joining Golway in contributing a portion of the proceeds to the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund.
Given that most media organizations are for-profit entities even when covering tragedies, it remains an open question whether they are duty-bound to share their proceeds. "That's a decision publishers have to make on their own," said George Burke, communications director for the International Association of Firefighters, whose 9-11 fund has so far raised more than $155 million. "These books do provide a service, in that they remember the dead and honor the heroes. But is that enough? I don't know.... I guess the public will make that judgment when they decide whether or not to buy the books," Burke concluded.
Publishers know they are confronting a tough situation: the economy is bad, and the competition among September 11 titles will be intense. "We're publishing the book," one publicist at a small press answered when asked if they were considering any acts of charity. "I don't think we realistically can be expected to do anything more." For some smaller and academic presses, she noted, the mere act of publishing is already close to charity.
With publishers largely keeping their profits, some authors have chosen to make charitable gestures. The general pattern is that only those who wrote books directly covering the New York City police or fire departments, or other victims or survivors, are making public donations to September 11 charities. Thus Lutnick is donating all his proceeds from On Top of the World to the Cantor Fitzgerald Fund. And the NYPD photographers are donating their royalties from Above Hallowed Ground (Viking Studio) to the New York City Police Foundation.
Similar efforts are not being made, however, for books more removed from the visceral events of September 11. For example, John Miller, Michael Stone and Chris Mitchell, who analyze the intelligence failures leading up to the disaster in The Cell (Hyperion), are not giving any of their advance or royalties to charities.
One thing is clear: for the authors of the most intimate September 11 books, the tragedy has stayed close to their hearts. Dean Murphy, author of Doubleday's oral history September 11, was one of many New York Times reporters who helped write the Portraits of Grief series. That experience, he said, as well as the act of writing his book, has stayed with him.
"My motivation for doing this book was not to make a buck," said Murphy, who was still deciding where to make his donation when PW called. "I just wanted to provide a serious, respectful oral history of what happened. To help describe, for people who weren't there, what it was like that day, and how horrible it was."
