As Jason Collins continues on a world tour with a mic in his hand, some of his attempts to cash out on his announcement have been leaked to the media.
Several publishers have said that Collins or someone in Collins’ camp have shopped his memoir, it is something that Collins has denied.
Officials at three publishing houses told The Associated Press on Monday that they had been contacted about a planned memoir by Collins, the first active player in any of four major U.S. professional sports leagues to come out as gay. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the proceedings.
Collins tweeted that it wasn’t so: “I have no current plans to write any books. Sorry to disappoint my literary loving fans,” he said, adding a hashtag “GoingToTheGym.”
Someone is lying, I don’t think three separate publishing houses would just make up a story like that. What probably happened was someone from Collins’ team floated the idea out there, to see how much money they could make off a book, if Collins decided to write one.
That would make the truth somewhat in the middle. The facts are Collins will at some point, if he isn’t already, maximize his earnings because of his announcement.
The Democratic National Committee has already announced Collins will headline its annual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender gala, on May 29.
Expect more things like that and the Oprah interview to come.