S&S US releases editorial notes on Yiannopoulos draft manuscript

Milo Yiannopoulos’ original manuscript for his memoir Dangerous has been revealed along with critical notes from his Simon & Schuster US editor.

Details are available online, along with other court documents, as part of the legal dispute between the controversial rightwing blogger and the publisher. Yiannopoulos launched a $10m lawsuit earlier this year after S&S US cancelled planned publication of the book.

S&S US’ documents, submitted to the New York County Clerk's office and available via the New York State Court's website, include editorial notes on an early version of the memoir suggesting that the book’s principal editor, Mitchell Ivers, saw the book as unfit to publish, according to Publishers Weekly.

The comments from Ivers, who is the v.p. and editorial director of the imprint Threshold Editions, include: “Three unfunny jokes in a row. DELETE,” “Gratuitous,” and “I will not accept a manuscript that labels an entire class of people as ‘mentally ill’. On page 84 of the manuscript, in a section about feminism, one comment from Ivers reads: “DELETE UGH.”

S&S US dropped Yiannopoulos' Dangerous in February, saying the decision had been taken "after careful consideration". The move followed a podcast interview in which he made comments appearing to condone paedophilia. The publishing house severed ties with Yiannopoulos despite having already paid an advance, from Threshold Editions, of $80,000 (of a total $255,000 advance) in January for signing.

S&S US claimed in July that by failing to return its advance or respond with “protest or reservation”, Yiannopoulos accepted the cancellation of his book contract. However the following month the former Breitbart editor argued his acceptance of the money could "not be deemed to be in 'satisfaction' of any dispute because none then existed" and since then he had not signed any modification of the agreement. 

Yiannopoulos has responded to the publication of the Dangerous manuscript notes by accusing Ivers of “giggling and flirting” with him, according to to the Telegraph. "Ivers said one thing in manuscript edits, but quite another when he was giggling and flirting with me. I look forward to prevailing in court," he said in a statement sent to the newspaper.

Text messages reportedly from Ivers, published on Page Six, show the editor telling Yiannopoulos that the writer had “done good” with pre-sales of the book. Yiannopoulos’ lawyer Stephen Meister reportedly told Page Six that S&S US decided to cancel the book deal before Ivers ever read the draft and the edits were used as a "cover-up" to justify dropping him.

Yiannopoulos went on to self-publish the book through Amazon on 4th July through his imprint Dangerous Books.