Publishing industry mired in harassment
Elizabeth Rusch’s picture book about Mario Molina, the Mexico-born chemist who won the Nobel Prize for his work studying the destruction of the Earth’s ozone layer, was a decade in the making. It took her nearly 30 drafts to get it right, and she was thrilled when the children’s publisher Charlesbridge acquired it in 2013. The book was finally due out this week.
Then, news broke that the book’s illustrator, David Diaz, had been accused of sexual harassment. Worried the book would be clouded by the controversy, Charlesbridge decided to postpone publication of “Mario and the Hole in the Sky,” pulp the finished copies and hire a new illustrator.
“It’s really sad that people won’t be able to read this version,” said Rusch, who posted a comment on Facebook strongly supporting the women who came forward. “But it’s the right thing to do for the book, and the industry, as painful as it was.”
The list of prominent authors mired in harassment scandals has grown in recent months, and now includes best-selling children’s book authors, prominent political journalists and a National Book Award-winning novelist.
“It’s a pretty tumultuous time,” said Sarah Burnes, a literary agent with the Gernert Co.
In October, Penguin Press quickly scrapped a forthcoming book on the 2016 election by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, coauthors of the best-selling political tell-alls “Game Change” and “Double Down,” after it emerged that Halperin had sexually harassed multiple women at ABC News, where he oversaw political coverage years ago. (Heilemann has said in a radio interview that he hopes to revive the project on his own.)
Other publishers have issued bland statements — or taken no action at all. Henry Holt & Co. has continued to publish Bill O’Reilly following a New York Times report that O’Reilly settled claims by multiple women who accused him of sexual harassment and verbal abuse.
Some publishing houses, including Hachette Book Group, are expanding the use of morals clauses and “author conduct” clauses in book contracts.
In an industry that is overwhelmingly female — women account for about 80 percent of people who work in publishing — publishers might also face pressure from within their own ranks to take a firm stance against sexual harassment.
In February, when novelist Anne Ursu published an article on Medium about sexual harassment in the children’s book world, it set off a cascade of online accusations against prominent authors, many made anonymously.
After Ursu’s article sparked an outpouring of allegations, the fallout was swift for several best-selling authors.
Ballantine, a Random House imprint, canceled a contract for a novel by James Dashner, after multiple women accused Dashner of harassment. Dashner is one of the industry’s most successful young-adult novelists: His dystopian series “The Maze Runner” has sold more than 14 million copies across all formats. Dashner, who apologized for his behavior, was also dropped by his agent.
“Apparently no industry is exempt from the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and misogyny,” said Yolanda Scott, the associate publisher and editorial director of Charlesbridge, which destroyed finished copies of the picture book “Mario and the Hole in the Sky.”
The company, now searching for a new illustrator, has pushed the publication to 2019.
In an interview, Diaz acknowledged that he made flirtatious comments and advances at a conference hosted by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and that he had gone through harassment training after the society’s board received a complaint about his behavior in 2012.
“It stings a little bit, knowing the work that I’ve done, but I support their choice,” Diaz said about Charlesbridge’s decision to withdraw the book with his illustrations. “If I were the author, I would want my book to have every chance at success, without anything attached to it that might hinder it.”