Of Course Woody Allen's Memoir Has Been Picked Up By Another Publisher

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Miscellaneous | March 23, 2020 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Miscellaneous | March 23, 2020 |

Hey, remember when Hachette acquired then quickly dropped Woody Allen’s memoir after their own staff protested and noted the obvious ethical issues of helping to support an accused child sex offender? Remember how that kicked off an entire rant of ‘but free speech’ screeching from people who don’t seem to know how free speech actually works? Remember all the usual cancel culture smarmy nonsense? It feels so long ago. Don’t worry though, because Allen’s memoir got picked up by another publisher and you can buy it now. It’s almost like rich and powerful white men can do whatever they want because a broken system will always support them in some form or another.

As noted by the Associated Press, Apropos of Nothing was released today by Arcade Publishing. While the company does not come with the Big Five prestige of Hachette, Arcade, a division of Skyhorse are a legitimate group with some serious authors and award-winning titles to their name. Skyhorse has its fair share of, to put it bluntly, controversial titles on offer, such as Alan Dershowitz’s recent rant against #MeToo and his support of Trump in his impeachment battle.

Skyhorse and Arcade basically got this book out as quickly as possible and right in the middle of a bloody epidemic, most likely to avoid scrutiny or pushback from the public and their own employees. No financial details were released for this deal and it’s unknown if Allen intends to do any promotional stuff for it, as he would have with Hachette.

I’m still curious as to who the intended audience for this book is. Yes, Allen is a major part of American cinema and has his defenders, but even if you’re publishing this book out of pure provocation or as part of some bastardized freeze peach stance, what’s the financial incentive for doing so in North America? It makes somewhat more sense in Europe where Allen is still working and being supported by local campaigns.

So yeah, Stephen King can relax now. Allen was never in danger of being silenced or censored or whatever.

Read other books. Hit me up for recs not written by an accused child sex offender.