Alan Shipnuck’s latest book, “LIV and Let Die,” which goes on sale on Oct. 17 (Simon & Schuster: $32.50), may be his best book yet – which is saying something.
Shipnuck, a longtime golf writer who now writes at the Fire Pit Collective, chronicles what he terms “the battle for the soul of the game” between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf League.
But this is a book – and a subject – that jumped off the sports page and onto the front page. It’s much bigger than just PGA Tour vs. LIV and he tackles it all.
Most impressively, Shipnuck succeeds in what I call “The Finding Nemo” test. Remember the Disney feel-good movie from 20 years ago? It was made for kids but there were so many one-liners and scenes that made the parents who had to sit through it cackle out loud. This book, which provides a history lesson on the last 50-plus years of the professional game, will be enjoyed by casual and non-golf fans alike but there’s so much new reporting and colorful, fresh anecdotes for even the most ardent golf fan and industry lifers.
With lawsuits flying and government interest of concern to his sources, Shipnuck has to rely on more off-the-record material and quotes than you’d typically like to see but in this case the trade-off seems worth it for the minutiae he digs up that confirm our suspicions to the various behind-the-scenes dealings by Saudi leadership and those in the Tour offices. And his trademark glib style means it can read a bit like the Page Six gossip column at times, but Alan’s gonna Alan!
He’s turned sections that could be drier than toast into a page-turner and every time I finished a chapter and thought, ‘OK, I need to do this chore or get some sleep’, it pained me to put it down, and usually I just powered on. That’s what a good book does, #amirite?
In this Q&A, Shipnuck shares a lot on how the sausage was made and sprinkles in some spicy takes along the way.
GWK: I have to begin here. Our names being what they are, how often do each of us get confused for each other? I always say if I had a nickel for every time it happens to me I'd have a lot of nickels!
ALAN SHIPNUCK: Somewhat regularly, and it’s probably a bad deal for you. I’m sure you get some of the blowback that’s supposed to be directed at me, so my deepest apologies.
GWK: You mentioned a couple people in the book, but who declined to be interviewed for this project?
AS: Well, Jay Monahan — although I did get him at some press conferences. He did promise to do an interview with me, and then when he got shut down by the lawyers — I said, ‘Hey, have the lawyers on the call. I don’t care.’ I thought that was a little weak. He’s the commissioner of the PGA Tour.
Yasir [Al-Rumayyan] before that, Majed Al Sorour when he was still integral. [Greg] Norman, I did again, I got him in the parking lot in Portland and we had more a philosophical talk about things. That was in ’22 right after I got bounced out of Phil’s [Mickelson] press conference. He agreed to do interviews with me. Those were the big ones. I was pretty much able to get every player I wanted, although maybe not for as long as I wanted.
But yeah, it was interesting that all the leaders were running for cover. I guess they’re afraid of tough questions. They just want to be in their little controlled bubbles. Really stout leadership. You should face the music. But that’s how it played out.
GWK: Is there anyone who you feel like it would have fundamentally changed or most enhanced the book if they did help contribute to it?
AS: Well, probably Yasir because he’s clearly the center of the maze, and we’ve all been left to speculate a little bit about his wishes and desires and motivations. I talked to him at Bedminster in ’22 and he was cordial, but it was a very brief chat, and he indicated he might be willing to talk. But I think he was just being polite. Yeah, he’s the most important person in all of this. He controls the money. He in a lot of ways controls the future. I think he would have been the single most important voice.
GWK: Who surprised you the most with their candor and forthrightness?
AS: I would say [DP World Tour CEO] Keith Pelley. He’s an underrated part of this whole story because the Premier Golf League first really tried to partner with the European Tour, and it was those negotiations that led to the strategic alliance between the European Tour and the PGA Tour, and that had a big domino effect. Of course, he’s on the Board of Governors of the new World Ranking, although he did recuse himself on the LIV question eventually. But Pelley has had a more open line with the Saudis and with Andy Gardiner of the Premier Golf League. He’s been more willing to engage. So I think he’s better informed. He’s a confidant of Jay Monahan. Pelley was very helpful interview along the way.
GWK: What is Andrew Gardiner, who conceived the concept of LIV, up to right now?
AS: He’s just disappeared. I’ve heard speculation that the Saudis basically have brought him into the fold and he has an NDA. I was not able to confirm that. It would make sense how he’s gone so dark. It would also explain why he hasn’t filed a lawsuit against LIV Golf because LIV Golf pretty much cut and pasted everything from the PGL.
If I was going to steal somebody’s idea, I would probably change a few of the details just for appearances. They didn’t even bother doing that – 48 players, 12 teams, 54 holes, 14 events. You name it, they were pretty brazen in just copying the PGL model. Given how much money is at stake and the fact that Gardiner has gone underground, it makes sense that he’s perhaps in some ways become affiliated with the Saudis.
Someone close to him also said that he still thinks the Premier Golf League could be a thing if this framework agreement blows up and he’s waiting in the wings. I feel like the ship has sailed for the Premier Golf League, but that could be informing his thinking.
He’s another one I had text volleys with and asked if we could talk at this time and then the trail went cold. I don’t know what Andrew Gardiner is doing these days.
GWK: How would the current pro golf dynamic and framework be different if you hadn't released the Phil scary mothers quote during the week of Riveria and instead posted it leading up to the May book release of "Phil?"
AS: Yeah, they were still able to launch. I think they would have had Brooks [Koepka] and Bryson [DeChambeau] and Patrick Reed in the inaugural field instead of having to onboard them a few weeks later. But they eventually got them.
I don’t know if it would have changed the landscape at all, and even if Phil had never called me and said those things to me, it would have played out differently for Phil, but I think LIV Golf was too far down the road. If it had come out a year earlier, it could have had a more substantial effect, but at that point LIV was still committed. But it’s an interesting thought exercise.
GWK: Have you felt unsafe or threatened in any way in the past two years due to the Phil book or what you’ve been doing with this book?
AS: No, not at all. I mean, there’s a lot of tough guys on social media who like to say mean things, but I haven’t — I’ve felt bothered, but I haven’t felt unsafe. But you know, I haven’t gone to the LIV event in Jeddah. That was a decision. I think it would have been a little edgier over there perhaps.
GWK: What questions do you continue to not get clear answers to about the LIV-PGA Tour saga?
AS: I was able to unravel most of the mysteries in my mind. I was able to get the numbers (guaranteed contracts) of some players but not all. It would be wonderful to get a final accounting of who made what definitively. I was able to get snapshots. Because the money is just interesting, and it’s fundamental.
I’ve asked a lot of people this: What is MBS’s level of interest and oversight of LIV Golf? I’ve gotten different answers. But nothing definitive or authoritative. I’d love to know that because from what I can ascertain, it’s not a lot. I mean, Yasir is one of his closest confidants. I’m sure they talk about a lot of business all the time, but it doesn’t seem that he’s tuned into it, which is interesting because it’s often ascribed to his political ambitions.
I mean, those would be the big ones that come to mind immediately.
GWK: What's been your most shocking revelation when making this book?
AS: Yeah, there’s probably no scary mofo style earthquake. It’s a lot of little revelations, a lot of context, a lot of unknown details, taking people inside the room where it happened.
I would say unwinding the early history of how Jay Monahan fumbled the ball is really important. That letter that Majed al Sorour wrote to Jay in August of 2021 which I reproduce in the book and talk about in great detail, that’s really the moment of truth for Monahan, where the Saudis had been aligned with the Premier Golf League, Monahan pretty masterfully swooped in, killed the Premier Golf League, the Saudis moved their money out, they lost confidence in Andy Gardiner, and they decide to go at it alone, but before they went all in and before they blew up professional golf, they were trying hard to have this dialogue and this partnership with the Tour. Majed reaches out to Jack Nicklaus and asks him to begin a dialogue with Monahan, and Monahan shoots it down, and an increasingly frustrated Majed sends this letter. This was an opportunity for the Tour to co-op this incredible source of funding and bring them into the fold and completely control the situation before LIV Golf had ever launched.
Instead, out of pride, out of pugnaciousness, out of lack of foresight, Monahan went in this board meeting and told the whole room, we’re at war, and that really set the tone for this era of professional golf.
I think that’s super important for people to understand how it played out. I give this whole moment in time a lot of pages in the book because to me, and I think to a lot of people they had never been totally clear, what did Jay know and when did he know it, to use an old Watergate refrain. And could he have changed the trajectory of this entire story. And I think when you read this book, it’s a very definitive yes.
GWK: Which decision or which person if they'd done something differently would most change the current reality either by closing the door entirely on LIV's future or putting the PGA Tour in dire future straits altogether?
AS: Well, if Rory [McIlroy] went to LIV – I don’t see that happening. I think if Koepka went back to the PGA Tour, that would be a big blow to LIV. He’s obviously returned to his previous status as like the ultimate alpha of the sport, and it gives LIV Golf so much credibility. If he came home, that would be, I think, a death knell for LIV Golf because even Cam Smith may win the Masters this year and that would be huge, as well, but he’s not American, and he doesn’t have the cache of Brooks and not the resume, but also Brooks is a needle mover and he’s a player that commands a lot of respect. If Jordan Spieth went to LIV, that would be a huge deal because, again, people just are obsessed with Jordan Spieth, but he’s won two tournaments in the last six years. He’s just not a dominant force in golf anymore, unfortunately.
Yeah, I think Rory and Brooks is the answer.
GWK: Which people during this book-making process did your opinion of them change most positively and why?
AS: It could be Keith Pelley because when you understand what dire straits the European Tour was and he somehow maneuvered them into this framework agreement and their schedule could be elevated and they’ve secured all this funding from the PGA Tour, the Tour was in a very tough spot, and they still don’t have the star power, but the financial underpinnings of the Tour, that’s a significant change and upgrade.
I would say Jon Rahm to some degree. He’s been such a thoughtful voice, and he’s just been the voice of reason throughout this whole thing, and I think he’s handled himself with great dignity and class. We had one really good conversation at the Tour Championship, but most of that’s just been observing him in the public eye.
Even Bryson DeChambeau. Everyone just says he sold out and took the money. Yes, that’s true, but it’s way more nuanced and interesting than that. Bryson told me for six years in a row he tried to be elected to the Player Advisory Council on the PGA Tour, which is really a nothing organization that has no power; you just make recommendations. And six years in a row, his peers refused to vote him in. He said, “I guess they just don’t like my ideas.” There was like a sadness in his voice. He’d been completely rejected by his peers.
Going to LIV, he’s had a voice, he has a leadership role, he’s extremely invested in everything that goes on. He’s probably closer to Yasir than any other player from everything I’ve been told and observed.
I mean, was the money an inducement? Obviously. But there’s other things at play for a lot of these guys. I wouldn’t say my opinion of Bryson was necessarily elevated, but I had more empathy for the guy because he just felt completely rejected and isolated on the PGA Tour. Now, a lot of it’s his own making, but hearing him say, “the only thing I ever wanted was to be on the Player Advisory Council,” he had to go to a whole new league just so someone will listen to him. It’s kind of poignant in a sort of funny way.
GWK: On the flip side, which person did your opinion of change most negatively?
AS: I mean, people think I’m anti-Phil Mickelson. That’s just not true. I’ve always enjoyed writing about Phil. I think he’s a fascinating character. But in getting deeper into this story, I’m just amazed at how slippery Phil is. I didn’t know that he was the biggest advocate for the Premier Golf League and he was recruiting players and he was trying to make moves happen. As soon as that was no longer viable, he switches allegiances to the Saudis. Even as all that was happening he also on his own went to Silver Lake, this big private equity company, and found this sports betting billionaire and sold them on his own breakaway league. Meanwhile, he was also negotiating with Jay Monahan and Andy Pazder and all those guys trying to advocate in case he stayed on the PGA Tour to make his lot better on the PGA Tour. He was working four sides of the street simultaneously. It is just so quintessential Phil.
You just have to laugh because the guy is in the middle of everything, and he’s such a muckraker and such a pot stirrer and such a troublemaker. It’s hilarious, honestly.
GWK: While drafting this book, did your thoughts and aspirations for the book's impact change or lead you to think maybe this book could become historically relevant and revered amongst all golf literature?
AS: I tried not to have grandiose thoughts like that. I was just obsessed with telling the story completely and thoroughly from both sides and just trying to piece it all together because this whole thing happened in the shadows. Every negotiation, conversation, handshake deal, every time the money moved around, every time there was some kind of betrayal – like there was never a press release. There was never a press conference. This was all secret. So just to tease it all out and construct this narrative and try and make it fun and engaging for readers so it doesn’t just read like a tome. But it’s a story, and there’s a momentum to it. That was really what I wanted to do.
I think it is historically important just in that someone else may write a LIV Golf book, another book about this period, but it’s not going to happen for a while. We’re still living in this moment.
Some people have said, oh, it’s too soon to put the story out because we don’t know how it ends, but we really do. There’s only three options: The framework agreement gets consummated as is, it blows up entirely, or there’s middle ground, which it’s looking more likely, where some private equity or some other American money comes in, dilutes the Saudi stake a little bit, makes it easier to sell to Congress, makes it more palatable for fans and the players, and I touch on all three scenarios in the last chapter and lay it all out what it means. I think I’m covered come what may.
But to understand this moment and this incredibly sprawling cast of characters with all these complexities and all these different storylines playing out simultaneously, I just think it’s helpful for fans. No one could follow all this. I took a year of my life to get my arms around all this. I think it’s helpful for fans just to have the background and the context of what’s really, really happening here.
If people enjoy the read and they learn something, then that’s enough for me.
GWK: Do you have a favorite detail? Because there's some really good little nuggets wrapped in there. Is there one where you were like, I love this one, I can't wait to put this in the book?
AS: There’s so many things that make me laugh. Like James Hahn, he was the only player director to vote against the PIP. He felt strongly that that money should go into the prize fund and all the players should play for it and it shouldn’t just be dispensed as a popularity contest. Of course, he’s totally right. But he was not happy either in that the first iteration, one of the key criteria was this shadowy algorithm invented by Jordan Spieth’s dad, and of course Jordan Spieth has been showered with PIP money, and I don’t have it in front of me, but his quote about let’s just have a contest about who cooks the best Korean barbecue and have my mom be the judge. Like what the fuck. That makes me laugh so hard every single time.
It’s funny and it seems like a throwaway line, but it’s not. It gets to how the Tour kind of lost control of its own governance and the compromises that were made to appease the top players and the lack of oversight and the shifting ethics, like it is revealing in its own way.
But I don’t know, that makes me laugh every single time.
GWK: Was making this book a history course refresher for you?
AS: Yeah, this is a golf book without a lot of golf in it. I think it has a chance to reach a larger audience. Like one of my focus groups is my sister. She has an MBA and she’s in this big corporate world, but most of her friends don’t care about golf, don’t play golf, they have zero interest in my job, but they’ve been tuned in to this story because it crossed out of the sports section and made it to the business page and the front page.
It has so many big things, whether it’s betrayal, it’s legacy, it’s obviously greed and vengeance. These are human stories. Then you’ve got this super complex geopolitical question. The Saudi money is really like a moral question for our time. I did feel like I needed to explain some things along the way, like. … you get the history of the PGA Tour breaking away from the PGA of America, you get all this stuff about Greg Norman’s world tour and you get Mark McCormack and the rise of the super agent. It was fun to tell those things. Of course, I go really deep on just the history of Saudi Arabia, the road of 9/11, the rise of MBS, the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, which might be too much for some readers, and I’m sorry, but it’s all so important and so germane.
Why is Saudi Arabia trying to cleanse its reputation? Why is it trying to sportswash an entire regime? Well, it goes back to 9/11, 15 of the 19 hijackers being from Saudi. More and more evidence emerges that there were government agents who were materially supporting them, the complicated nexus between Donald Trump and MBS and how he helped keep him in power and Donald Trump now hosting all these LIV events. The killing of Khashoggi is so fundamental to how MBS is viewed in the western world and how he’s trying to cover that up. It’s just you can’t get away from these chunks of the story. Yeah, I learned a lot about a lot in the reporting of this book, and that was part of the fun.
GWK: Before starting the book, what was your stance on LIV versus PGA Tour?
AS: I think like a lot of people, my knee jerk reaction was I don’t like the idea of LIV. It seemed kind of cheesy with the format and the teams and it was just a knee-jerk reaction that a lot of people had and a lot of people in the golf media had. But I tried to quickly put that aside and go into it with an open mind and there was only a handful of reporters who were really covering both tours. When I got out there, I began to understand the players’ motivations that transcended money and got to speak with some of the very smart people behind it and got a better sense of their larger vision.
As I educated myself about the history of the Premier Golf League and how that influenced LIV, it made me realize, in some ways my book is like a biography of an idea that’s been around for a long time and how it evolved and how it changed all these lives.
People on social media and in the golf press were so dismissive of LIV, I felt like it was my duty to try and take it seriously and try to understand it and give them credit when they got things right, which was some of the time, but also be critical when they didn’t. I just tried to bring some balance to the reporting, and I didn’t want to impose my views and my beliefs on the reader. I felt like I was a tour guide through some really complex issues and amidst a huge cast of very contradictory humans.
I just wanted to explain it, and I really wanted the readers to make up their minds.
My own feelings about LIV are irrelevant, and they’re not a big part of the book. I want people to make up their own minds. Hopefully they can come to it with an open mind because symptomatic of modern life, everyone dug in and you had to pick a side and you’re pro LIV or you’re pro Tour and that was it. It would be great if leaders could look at this story with a little more openness and maybe come to it from a different perspective and see if their feelings evolve once they’ve heard the whole story.
GWK: What do you attribute most for your change in perspective?
AS: Well, this project. I didn’t decide to do it until after the U.S. Open, or the week of the U.S. Open at the Country Club. That was when I realized I had to check my preconceived notions at the door and go into this whole story with an open mind if I was going to tell it completely, thoroughly and fairly. It was getting closer to the story kind of nudged me in that direction.
GWK: There was this sense that after the Phil book and the way things shook out with Phil saying you guys didn't have an interview and all that, that you would have trouble getting the critical access needed to Tour players to do another book like this. Why has that not been the case?
AS: There was that concern. But I think the Phil book had the opposite effect. I think it increased my credibility with the players because they had known for a long time that there was a very big divide between the public and the private Phil, and a lot of them resented the adoring covers that Phil had always gotten in his career despite being such a rascal. I had players and caddies and agents and wives come up to me and say, “Thank you for writing that book; someone had to tell the world who Phil really is.”
Again, I tried to be very fair to Phil. I celebrate all of his virtues and all the great things he’s done in his life and his career, but there’s another side to it, and I tried to tell both sides. It’s kind of always been how I do it, but I just tell it like it is. I’m not here to sugarcoat things and to pull any punches. The relationship that’s more important to me than with the players is with the readers. That’s a very sacred relationship.
I’m fine if the players are mad at me, as long as the fans feel like they’re getting the real story.
I think on some level, the players respect that. It’s like, I’m there to do a job. I don’t go to tournaments to hang out and to take selfies and to just make the scene. I’m there to grind and to try and learn new information and to disseminate it. Some players may not want to talk to me. That’s their prerogative. But I haven’t really had any trouble getting interviews I’ve needed.
GWK: Based on your reporting, which top players were closest to jumping to LIV but didn't?
S: Yeah, I don’t know I could say that definitively. There’s some stuff in the book about Justin Rose. He’s an interesting case because he’s been one of Mark Steinberg’s oldest clients and he completely fits the profile of the guys who went to LIV, veteran, in his 40s, a major champion, someone who’s not having a lot of success week to week on Tour. All his buddies and contemporaries went over.
You know, Adam Scott, his best friends are on LIV. He told me he misses them. He’s sad he doesn’t have Cam Smith and Marc Leishman and Matt Jones to play practice rounds with and eat dinners with. He misses those guys and he’s honest about it. I don’t know how tempted they were, but I think they were the most likely targets.
Before LIV launched Greg Norman was telling people Hideki Matsuyama was its No. 1 target. He felt like if you get Hideki, you get the whole Asian market, and they made a huge full-court press, and it would have been the biggest signing dollar-wise of anybody on LIV Golf. People around Hideki thought he was gone. There was some mourning at the British Open because it seemed like Hideki was going to make the jump just like Cam Smith. He had a change of heart. Some people have said it was due to Tiger’s advocacy. That may or may not be true. But I think he’s on that short list of guys who were tempted and kicked the tires and thought about it, but ultimately said no.
GWK: Do you think LIV will exist in a few years from now?
AS: That’s totally up to Yasir. I mean, Jay Monahan is not going to decide that. Neither is Jimmy Dunne or Tiger Woods or anyone else on the PGA Tour board. It’s Yasir’s creation. Even if the framework agreement is consummated and this whole new entity is created, Yasir and the PIF can keep LIV going in a parallel fashion as long as they want. It’s his baby. He’s super invested in it. That the players bought into his vision and made this leap of faith has meant a lot to him personally and politically.
I think he’s going to keep it going until he decides maybe it’s just become too much of an albatross financially. But the longer it goes, the better chance they have of getting a return on their investment. It’s always been about selling the franchises, and if they can keep picking off players, if their players can keep winning majors, if they can keep colonizing the international market, and now that LIV has the official stamp of approval from Jay Monahan, not LIV, but the Saudi money has the official stamp of approval from Jay Monahan and the powers that be, if they can make some inroads with corporate America, then I think it has a chance to stick around. But, of course, we’ve got to see how the framework agreement gets consummated, and then we’ll have a better idea.
GWK: Who do you think will ultimately have more power in the golf world — PIF or the PGA Tour?
AS: I mean, the PGA Tour is always going to be in charge of the day-to-day bureaucracy, the scheduling, the rules. They’re going to set the tone for what golf looks like week to week. I don’t think that’s going to change. If the framework agreement goes through as is and PIF winds up as the only investor, then they have a tremendous amount of power. If they get diluted with some other sources of funding, then I think it’s clear that the Tour has kind of won this battle. That’s part of why it’s been so hard to get the deal done. There’s a lot at stake for both sides. It’s hard to say. The reality is the PGA Tour is running out of money. Jay Monahan wrote a bunch of checks he can’t cash without this outside funding.
Whether it’s PIF money or it’s private equity money, the Tour without it is extremely vulnerable. The problem is if the whole thing blows up and LIV goes back to being a competitor, the number one thing that kept players loyal was the sense that they were fighting this larger fight and that the money was dirty, right. Now that Jay and Jimmy Dunne have said, no, it’s not a big deal, we like their money, it’s good for golf, if they start competing again, I think you can see a lot of players take the money. They missed out on it the first time around. So, the stakes are very high for the Tour to get this deal done with the PIF, but those guys drive a hard bargain. They’re used to getting their way.
I don’t know, it’s going to be fascinating to see how this plays out.
GWK: If you were commissioner for a day, what would you do?
AS: Well, I would drastically reshape the PGA Tour’s media regulations, give reporters more access, more latitude on social media. I would cater to the reporters because they’re the heroes of the story. Like they’re the ones who are connecting with the fans. They’re the surrogates for the fans. Don’t let them tell good stories, then you diminish interest in your entire product.
GWK: Do you think Jay Monahan is going to survive as commissioner?
AS: He’s given himself a promotion. He was merely the commissioner of the PGA Tour, and now he’s the COO of all of golf. He’s a very crafty boardroom warrior.
We have to see how the framework comes out. He led the Tour into two years of, more than that, two and a half years, going to be three years of strife and antagonism and controversy, but he may ultimately salvage the whole situation. He may end up still in charge of the day-to-day bureaucracy, but now he’s going to have unlimited sources of funding, whether it’s Saudis or it’s public or it’s private equity or some other kind of investment. In a very simple basic way, the commissioner has only one job. That’s to get his players paid. Monahan has done a spectacular job of that. Everyone on the Tour is making twice what they were a year ago. Purses were $8 million and now the elevated events are $20 million and the PIP is $100 million. You go on down the list.
Of course the players are mad about the secrecy and the way all the stuff played out behind the scenes, but they love the money. Jay Monahan may yet survive this despite some colossal mistakes. But again, we have to see what this last little push to the framework agreement looks like.
GWK: Is there anything that lawyers made you take out of the book that you really wanted in?
AS: No. I mean, Simon & Schuster, it’s very author friendly. They’re tough. The First Amendment is a very powerful tool that they are happy to flex those muscles. I mean, a few things had to be tweaked or massaged or, there’s always going to be a little give and take with the lawyers, but no, I was thrilled. They went to bat for me on a number of occasions. It’s pretty much all in there.
GWK: Why did you or your publisher decide to release the book now instead of waiting until things did wrap up?
AS: You know, it’s an old-fashioned industry. When you have a big book coming out, it has to get mobilized months in advance. They literally have to reserve space on bookstore shelves. They have to mobilize the sales force, they have to reserve their spot on the printing presses. We were locked into an October release back in like February.
GWK: Mid-October seems like an odd time. Usually golf books are launched in April around the Masters or May to capture Father’s Day sales, right?
AS: But I felt strongly the book had to come out this year because it felt like the story was peaking, and if you waited until ’24, some air might into out of the balloon. Selfishly, a tight deadline was good for my mental health because this book took over my life, and to have it bleed into another year – I could have worked on it every day for the next six months. But it was more about the story. Like the story just kept – it just kept going and going and it was getting juicier and more interesting.
The funny thing is I turned the manuscript on June 5. Then June 6 was when the framework agreement was announced. That was a tough day for me. But to Simon & Schuster’s everlasting credit, they let me take it down to the wire and really add in almost 15,000 words at the back of the book.
I’m happy the way it played out. The framework agreement had been announced when the book was already printed, I would have been devastated. This way we got to get the whole intrigue in, the earthquakes, all the revelations, the betrayals and really tell the whole complete story in one place.
It actually worked out great. You know how it is. There’s always a lag time from when you finish a book to when it comes out, but this was pretty much up to the minute as it possibly can be. I’m happy with it.
