But you didn't, did you? You just let this grifting couple who don't even use their real names tell you it's all kosher, honest, and ticked the "due diligence" box. Which isn't good enough.
Replies
From the sounds of it the "due diligence" was making them sign the standard document stating that if it's all a pack of lies, they're liable, not the publisher.
jul 9, 2025, 2:47 pm • 14 0 • view
I do hope this is going to financially bite them hard in the arse
jul 9, 2025, 2:48 pm • 8 0 • view
Call me cynical. But I imagine a CBD charity is in for a whacking great windfall in the hope people don't realise it's not quite the vast amount of money everyone concerned has made out of this fiasco.
jul 9, 2025, 2:51 pm • 1 0 • view
I think Penguin are saying it's not their problem. As long as the boxes are ticked, the necessary diligence is met, and you can believe what you want. Penguin are fine and that's the line they are sticking to.
jul 9, 2025, 5:19 pm • 1 0 • view
My publisher - and this for a piece of genre fiction - had me running around like a loon last minute to clarify the historical accuracy of one word. I had to double check with a medieval clothing specialist in Aus, and was also saved by the lovely @divaaugusta.bsky.social. Siskin, since you asked.
jul 9, 2025, 3:07 pm • 7 0 • view
It was a pleasure. I could have done the due diligence on that book as well, somewhat less happily. Honestly, what an absolute disgrace.
jul 9, 2025, 3:15 pm • 3 0 • view
that's good to hear!
jul 9, 2025, 3:14 pm • 1 0 • view
… then the film folks just said ‘we bought the rights to the book and produced a film based on the book’ so we did our part too!
jul 9, 2025, 3:15 pm • 3 0 • view
Presumably the paycheques (bank transfers) require a name.
jul 9, 2025, 2:43 pm • 2 0 • view
In whose name did they write the cheque / transfer the £££?
jul 9, 2025, 4:33 pm • 2 0 • view
They may well calculate that if the legal/reputational damage is less expensive than the profit from the book, then it was a good financial decision. Rather than simply being morally right or wrong.
jul 9, 2025, 2:48 pm • 6 0 • view
Did they outsource the due diligence to Banijay?
jul 9, 2025, 3:05 pm • 5 0 • view
I'm not blown away by a publisher using a completely superfluous "necessary" before "due diligence".
jul 9, 2025, 2:44 pm • 9 0 • view
"my T-shirt with 'I performed all necessary due diligence' printed on it is raising a lot of questions that are already answered by my shirt"
jul 9, 2025, 3:16 pm • 3 1 • view
Necessary to Penguin. ie all it thinks it's required to do. Anything beyond that is none of its business. Penguin is specific in its use of necessary, if maybe somewhat irresponsible.
jul 9, 2025, 5:26 pm • 1 0 • view
Sure. But, in this context, that's what "due" means.
jul 9, 2025, 5:45 pm • 1 0 • view
Fair point. I suppose there's a question of due to whom. I think this tells us Penguin is more concerned about being sued than the reputational damage of being sold a pup.
jul 9, 2025, 6:17 pm • 0 0 • view
ha ha, yes
jul 9, 2025, 2:47 pm • 0 0 • view
I got no further than page 2 or maybe 3 because the story of the court case was so clearly a crock of manure. What was the investment? How did it lose you your house, did you become Lloyds Names by accident you turnips? What was the vital document? How did it suddenly turn up? Due diligence my arse.
jul 9, 2025, 3:27 pm • 6 0 • view
It was the dying of cancer, but still not dead that put me off.
jul 9, 2025, 4:13 pm • 0 0 • view
The part I don’t get is how it got past the film producers. Apparently they’re much more diligent than publishers. And hey, you can’t libel a dead person who now owns your former home, I guess!
jul 9, 2025, 2:45 pm • 1 0 • view
there's a quote in that piece that says "there were no known problems when we optioned the book ... it's a faithful adaptation of the book we optioned", which clearly is arse-covering for "we accepted what the publisher said".
jul 9, 2025, 2:47 pm • 11 0 • view
I know only one person with direct knowledge of this kind of thing, and they found film producers far more cavalier than publishers
jul 9, 2025, 2:53 pm • 5 0 • view
but they made a ton of money so everything is fine
jul 9, 2025, 2:42 pm • 7 0 • view
Money is a proxy for Okay, fundamental rule of business.
jul 9, 2025, 2:45 pm • 4 0 • view
There's an important difference between *necessary* due diligence (aka box ticking) and actual due diligence (aka fact checking).
jul 9, 2025, 3:48 pm • 4 0 • view
Just baffling how Penguin can brazenly say that when they clearly didn’t check anything!
jul 9, 2025, 4:10 pm • 2 0 • view