Milo Yiannopoulos is suing Simon & Schuster publishing for canceling his book deal and the court filings have revealed a treasure trove of cynical, scathing, and downright embarrassing editor’s notes on the manuscript.
The book publisher canceled the deal shortly after Yiannopoulos was embroiled in controversy after making what were perceived as comments endorsing pedophilia and statutory rape. Yiannopoulos sued the publisher for breach of contract, but Simon & Schuster fired back saying the real reason the deal was canceled was because it was simply “unpublishable.”
Software engineer Sarah Mei went to the New York county clerk’s website and pulled down a copy of the paperwork after seeing a tweet from author and publisher Jason Kinder that included snippets of the comments from editor Mitchell Ivers.
This section of Simon & Schuster’s rebuttal to Milo’s lawsuit over DANGEROUS. 🤭 pic.twitter.com/JxydVQpx4f
— Jason Pinter (@jasonpinter) December 27, 2017
She was delighted to discover the filings included a full copy of the manuscript along with the editor’s notes.
The editor is a conservative man who has published books for 45 & other folks with similar opinions. You can see that in the occasional “good point” comments. But mostly he was very politely having NONE of Milo’s bullshit.
It’s glorious.
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) December 28, 2017
“Throughout the book, your best points seem to be lost in a sea of self-aggrandizement and scattershot thinking,” Ivers says in one note. Another said the gay provocateur needed a “stronger argument against feminism than saying that they are ugly and sexless and have cats.”
The most common editorial remark were demands for citations and proof of assertions.
One of the most talked about responses is when Ivers calls a section of the book “hogwash.”
“You can’t say ugly people are drawn to the left,” Ivers wrote. “Have you ever seen the people at a Trump rally?”
Also I now know I can write a book, because ffs he wrote A WHOLE CHAPTER about how ugly people hate him
Literally anyone could do better than this pic.twitter.com/xdPhoioUT9
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) December 28, 2017
Then the frustration starts creeping in pic.twitter.com/ltVOZ12BaL
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) December 28, 2017
As Mei discovered more and more exasperated comments from Ivers, she continued to tweet them out gleefully. Most of them were what she described as “things a professional editor never imagined they’d need to tell someone.”
“This entire paragraph is just repeating Fake News. There was NO blood, NO semen, and there was NO Satanism. Delete,” reads one.
“This entire section is the most poorly thought out section in the book,” reads another. “If you want to make the case for gay men going back in the closet and marrying women just to have children, you’re going to have to employ a lot more intellectual rigor than you use here.”
Then the frustration starts creeping in pic.twitter.com/ltVOZ12BaL
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) December 28, 2017
Will immediately start using “if you want to make a case for [fucking ridiculous thing], you’re going to have to employ a lot more intellectual rigor than you use here.” 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/WV8xwt8cwj
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) December 28, 2017
Mr. Ivers is getting pretty sick of your bullshit, young man. pic.twitter.com/o4TEyYhomi
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) December 28, 2017
And the humor – pic.twitter.com/x24gHa7phN
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) December 28, 2017
Out of all the editor’s comments, this one most tempted me to read the manuscript. BUT I STAYED STRONG
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) December 28, 2017
The positive comments were instructive too. Interesting window into how they reframe things to make them sound reasonable.
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) December 28, 2017
Honestly, when I write a book, I hope my editor will be as straightforward with my work.
But I also hope I earn fewer “I’m very disappointed in you“ notes, and maybe a little less exasperated yelling. [fin]
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) December 28, 2017