Krakauer Withdraws Tillman Book

Publishers Weekly is reporting that bestselling author Jon Krakauer has withdrawn his “meditation on the nature of heroism, examined through the story of Pat Tillman, the former football star killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire.” Doubleday had a scheduled release for this coming October and a massive 500,000 first printing.

The article states that Krakauer is keeping the manuscript “indefinitely” and that if a release date is set, it won’t be until 2009.

The thing I find interesting about this is just how, exactly, do you go about withdrawing a manuscript? Certainly, Krakauer has sold a ton of books and earned the right for some slack from publishers. So I’m not criticizing the writer. I’m just curious how the conversation unfolds when you tell them they can’t have a title that surely would have played such a big role in their fall catalog.