Pass from Crown.

 

 

Dan,

 

I shared the proposal with interested readers here over the weekend (and yesterday after we discussed it at our editorial meeting) and I’m afraid this morning we decided to pass.  We all agreed that Housh is the ideal guy to tell the story of Anonymous from the inside and I pointed out that I’ve heard him interviewed and he’s an articulate and smart spokesperson for this organization.  But our consensus ended up being that it’s just not clear enough that the war stories he has will sustain a book.  And we worry that a book of them will end up seeming rather one note.  This was a problem with our own Wikileaks expose (which, by the way, didn’t end up exposing all that much, or, at least, enough to attract a large audience).  So, bottom line:  too many hurdles here. 

 

Thanks very much for sending this my way.  I wish you success with it and hope we can get together on a book soon.

 

Best, Charlie

 

Charles Conrad
Vice President, Executive Editor
Crown Trade

The Crown Publishing Group
Random House, Inc.
1745 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10019

212-782-9277
cconrad@randomhouse.com

 

 

 

Hey, Charlie—

 

Don’t know if you had a chance to look at that ANONYMOUS proposal I sent you last week, but there’s interest in meeting with Gregg Housh and Barrett Brown and talking about various directions the book might take.  Looks like they’ll be in town a week from now, Monday and Tuesday, Sept 19 / 20.  

 

Is it too early to know, or do you think you might be interested in sitting down with them?  (A phone chat’s always an option too, of course.)

 

Meanwhile, don’t know if you saw it, but in Vanity Fair’s annual media movers-and-shakers rankings (this month) the first listing in “The Anti-Establishment” category is, of course, Anonymous:

 

“The world’s pre-eminent hactivist affinity group has waged holy cyber-war on a laundry list of Establishment brands, including PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa—rallying to the defense of their mother ship, WikiLeaks.  And no matter how many neckbearded I.T. guys the feds round up, it seems the “Anons”—a border-less, leader-less, ever expanding army of techno-vigilantes, misanthropic pranksters, human-rights crusaders, and free-speech absolutists—are here to stay.  In mid-July, some Anons took on the ultimate Establishment target, vowing to “kill” almighty Facebook on November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day).  As their slogan warns, they are legion, they do not forgive, and they do not forget.  If you mess with the little guy, expect them.”

 

Let me know if there’s a chance you might want to meet next week, will you?  Thanks.

 

-Dan

 

Literary Agent

Writers House

(212) 696-3825