{"id":252414,"date":"2025-07-10T03:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T03:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/252414\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T03:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T03:11:10","slug":"two-books-on-the-mushroom-trial-are-already-cooking-what-are-the-risks-and-rewards-of-fast-books-on-big-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/252414\/","title":{"rendered":"Two books on the mushroom trial are already cooking. What are the risks and rewards of fast books on big news?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few criminal trials in recent history have piqued the public interest like Erin Patterson\u2019s conviction for poisoning three extended family members<\/a> with a beef wellington spiked with death-cap mushrooms. Two books about the trial have already been announced, the second within 24 hours of her guilty verdict<\/a> for murder and attempted murder. <\/p>\n

Other noted Australian authors, including Helen Garner<\/a> and Guy Rundle<\/a>, have been spotted in the courtroom. Chloe Hooper has written about<\/a> the case for the Saturday Paper. Could there be more books on the way?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Publisher Hachette issued a press release with a cover for Recipe for Murder<\/a> by journalist Duncan McNab, and a publication date of October 14. Greg Haddrick\u2019s book, The Mushroom Murders<\/a> will be published by Allen & Unwin just one month later on November 11. <\/p>\n

McNab is a journalist, and a former police detective and private investigator. Haddrick a screenwriter and true crime writer. <\/p>\n

According to Hachette, McNab draws on \u201chis extensive investigative experience\u201d, with an in-depth look into the nine-week trial that combines \u201cfirst-hand access, courtroom experience\u201d and \u201crigorous research\u201d. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the Allen & Unwin press release, Haddrick says,<\/p>\n

\n

there are so many details omitted from the media\u2019s daily summaries of the proceedings that make this a much bigger story than people realise. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Both publishers are keen to emphasise the books will have new information \u2013 even for those fixated on the media coverage. In book form, there is greater scope for description and more room for detail, which can afford greater nuance and complexity. <\/p>\n

McNabb and Haddrick would be accustomed to pumping out pages faster than your average literary fiction author. Even so, a few months from the conclusion of the trial to a copy on shelves is an impressive timeframe for releasing a book. <\/p>\n

In a competitive attention economy, big media events like the mushroom trial have already grabbed nationwide (even global) interest \u2013 and offer the possibility of accessing those bigger audiences. How does a publisher race a book to shelves \u2013 and what are the risks along the route?<\/p>\n

Making a book \u2013 fast<\/p>\n

The media saturation of the case has generated multiple podcasts. Now, documentaries and an ABC TV series<\/a> are in the works. How does a famously slow-moving industry get a book onto shelves at a fraction of the usual schedule? <\/p>\n

Ordinarily, publishing production schedules run to the months and years \u2013 even after an editor has received a full manuscript. The editorial process usually involves a structural edit, which looks at the big picture (things such as tone, setting and plotting), then copyediting, which is more fine-grained and should involve fact-checking. <\/p>\n

Then, the manuscript is typeset and proofread. Printing will take around three weeks to a month. The finished books sit in the warehouse for a month before publication date, as the distributor gradually ships them out to stores. <\/p>\n

For topical books like these, the schedule looks very different. A manuscript may be delivered in sections and edited in segments. Steps such as legalling \u2013 having an external lawyer check the work for defamation and other risks \u2013 still take time, though, and explain part of the reason why the books will not be available immediately. <\/p>\n

Grabbing attention where it is<\/p>\n

Reading rates are declining<\/a> \u2013 in Australia and elsewhere \u2013 thanks to escalating competition from other forms of media, from podcasts and streaming to social media. With so many demands on our attention, deciding to consume a book instead of a podcast or social media post means a much greater time commitment.<\/p>\n

Publishers are keen to tap into content that will appeal to as broad a readership as possible. The regular audience of the more successful podcasts is around 200,000<\/a>. By comparison, for a book to sell 200,000 copies, it would generally be one of the top three titles<\/a> for the year. <\/p>\n

Potential for errors<\/p>\n

Tighter timeframes can bring greater potential for errors, though. The finished book might involve material seen as defamatory, sparking a lawsuit. Events could be overtaken by an appeal \u2013 and (possibly) even an overturned conviction. <\/p>\n

While legal expert Rick Sarre has judged the case<\/a> \u201cvirtually appeal-proof\u201d, it has been reported that Patterson will appeal her conviction. If it were successfully appealed, that would be grounds for recalling and pulping the title<\/a>. <\/p>\n

If a title must be recalled, the publisher needs to get the copies back from the booksellers and dispose of them. Dealing with a recall for a commercial book could easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

However, simply having more time in the production schedule does not make books bulletproof. Federal Court documents<\/a> showed a senior editor of Belle Gibson\u2019s cookbook The Whole Pantry<\/a>, in which Gibson claimed her diet had cured her of cancer, had expressed \u201cconcerns\u201d about the book\u2019s content. It also identified \u201cgaps\u201d a journalist might probe. But this didn\u2019t result in a fact check. After Gibson\u2019s fabrications were exposed, The Whole Pantry was pulled from shelves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Courtroom classics not made by speed<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of the most successful courtroom coverage in literature has not been based on speed. <\/p>\n

John Bryson\u2019s 1985 book Evil Angels<\/a>, on Lindy and Michael Chamberlain\u2019s trial for the murder of her baby daughter Azaria, is an enduring Australian classic, as a book and film. It was published following the Chamberlains\u2019 1982 trial<\/a> and after their High Court appeal against their guilty verdict was lost in 1984. Later versions of the book include the Chamberlains\u2019 1988 exoneration.<\/p>\n

Helen Garner\u2019s courtroom reportage bestsellers, such as This House of Grief<\/a> about divorced father Robert Farquharson\u2019s trials for drowning his three sons on Father\u2019s Day, come to mind. He was convicted by juries<\/a> in 2007 and 2010; Garner attended both trials. Her book was published in August 2014 \u2013 she famously took her time to write it in the considered way it deserved. What made it so compelling was not how quickly it came to market, but its analysis of the human condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few criminal trials in recent history have piqued the public interest like Erin Patterson\u2019s conviction for poisoning three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-252414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114826751852969329","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}