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The latter half of New York Times bestselling memoir “Black, White and Free” deals almost exclusively with author Bernard Chaptin’s struggle to get the memoir published.
“I opened the door to yet another publisher’s office,” writes Chaptin, in a chapter titled “Simon & Schuster.” “They didn’t want it either. This was bad news. I really needed to sell my book.”
Several references to the act of conceiving and writing the memoir are present in the book’s early chapters, but it does not become clear to the reader until the halfway point that the issue of publication will be the story’s source of conflict.
Asked why he chose to feature these details so prominently in his book, Chaptin had a simple answer. “Most of the publishing houses I talked to wanted the book to be longer,” he said. “I didn’t know what else to write about.”
A follow-up memoir is already in the works, and Chaptin says it will depart from his recent work in a way few readers will predict. “You’d probably guess that the second book will be about publishing that book,” he said. “But it won’t, and it won’t reiterate the story of the first book’s publication either. It will probably be about selling the movie rights to the first book after it was already published.”
The film adaptation of “Black, White and Free” will be released alongside a feature-length documentary on the making of the film.
