But OUP is not always so obliging, especially when it comes to granting permission for using excerpts from authors in their stable. Countless publishers have scrambled under the table for crumbs of Jim Corbett's tiger books. But to no avail. OUP was just not willing to share their No. 1 bestselling author with anyone, dead or alive. There was a tussle more recently between Penguin and OUP for extract rights, this time over Nissim Ezekiel's poems. With the late poet's estate still in some confusion, Penguin had to apply to his publisher OUP for including one or two of his poems in their anthology of love poems. But OUP apparently played spoilsport.
Authors with high advances usually strike a high-minded, must-you-be-so-vulgar-and-talk-of-money-instead-of-literature pose when asked how much they got for their new book. They should blame their publishers instead for creating a buzz at the wrong end of the book. A recent press release from Penguin announcing their capture of Vikram Chandra's forthcoming novel on Bombay doesn't spare the hype as far as advance payments go: "a high six-figure sum" in the UK, a "seven-figure deal in the US" and so on.
