Bad Dogs Have More Fun Book

Non-Fiction

Front Cover:

"Bad Dogs Have More Fun

Selected Writings on Family, Animals, and Life from The Philadelphia Inquirer

John Grogan, Author of the #1 New York Times Best-seller, Marley and Me"

Copyright Page:

"The articles in this book were originally written by John Grogan and published in a beloved column in The Philadelphia Inquirer, which owns the rights to them.

This book is being published through an arrangement with The Philadelphia Inquirer. Mr. Grogan has not participated in its publication and is not profiting from it. A percentage of profits from the sale of this book will go to The Good Dog Foundation."

So the publisher and newspaper publish a book with a cute dog on the cover (in a bathtub), title it Bad Dogs Have More Fun, prominently (sp?) show the author as "John Grogan, Author of the #1 NYT best-seller Marley and Me" ... and Grogan, according to the copyright page, does NOT profit from the book and has not participated in its publication.

Can you say "Greedy"?. How about "Cash in on someone else's work"? This alone left a very bad impression and ticked me off royally before I even began reading.

Sounds like though Grogan wrote the articles while previously employed by said newspaper, they own the rights to his work, and decided to cash in on the wild popularity of Marley and Me, about his life with his dog. I am very offended for the author's sake that this book features his name and the title of his book on the cover, when in fact he does not profit from the book or have anything to do with it.

This book is divided into sections (Families; Animals; Life) which feature short essasys of previously published material. Because the cover shows the picture of a dog, is titled "Bad Dogs Have More Fun", and Grogan is shown on the cover as the author ... I assumed this was a dog-related book.

I skimmed a few essays on Families, then went to the Animal section ... about half were about animals other than dogs, and most of those were reworkings of stories about Marley, that I read in John Grogan's Marley and Me.

Am I missing something here? I would NOT recommend this book.

ETA: John Grogan, author, comments on the newspaper and Vanguard Press cashing in on his work in his blog (5/5/09) -- see paragraph 4: