Readers in Australia, UK and New Zealand will not be able to read the new Tom Cruise bio written by Andrew Morton. Fearing a threatened $100mm lawsuit, the Pan Macmillan business units in those countries are backing off. According to the book, Cruise is not gay, is second in command of the church of Scientology and (more bizarrely) his current wife was impregnated with the sperm of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Through a combination of web reports and Youtube, readers in the UK, Australia and New Zealand will be able to get the essential elements of the book without actually having to buy it. In that respect, they might have an advantage. Having said that, there is so much 'leakage' in the antipodean market that booksellers will continue to import the title direct from the US. The Dymock chain said earlier this week that they would not stock the title but many other retailers are likely to order it.
SMH
Edge Boston (Where they name the author 'Thomas' Morton).
1 comment:
Michael, it's looking less and less likely that any more than a few hundred copies will reach our shores. Both Ingram and B&T have told Australian stores that while they will ship initial pre-orders, they have now been instructed not to sell the book to any clients outtside the US and Canada. Amazon says it will not ship the book to individuals outside the US and Canada; there's even a suggestion that if an individual could download a e-book if it then it would effectively be 'published' here and thus make Morton/Pan Mac liable in a suit. cheers, Tim Coronel
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