The revisions for online agitator Milo Yiannopoulos’ book Dangerous include calls for him to tone down his ego and to “stick to the facts.”
Publisher Simon & Schuster cancelled a book deal they had offered far-right self-proclaimed “troll” Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart News contributor, after video of him appearing to endorse sexual relationships between “younger boys and older men” emerged in February.
Yiannopoulos later announced a $10-million lawsuit against S&S, saying the firm breached their contract and that the book (which was later self-published in June) would have sold more copies if published by them.
Court filings from that lawsuit shows edits made to the original manuscript, along with major “issues that must be addressed” before the book was to be published.
The book contained chapters titled “Why feminists hate me” and “Why Muslims hate me.”
The edits were made by Mitchell Ivers, whose editing firm Threshold has published books written by other right-wing personalities, including U.S. President Donald Trump and talk-show host Glenn Beck.
In the edits, Ivers notes multiple times that Yiannopoulos’ words are “unclear” or “unfunny.”
He also lambastes Yiannopoulos for the amount of insults he uses.
“Let’s leave ‘fecal waste’ analogies out of this chapter,” Ivers wrote.
Other examples of Ivers’ notes include: “These points are strong without gratuitous insult;” “too important a point to end in a crude quip;” and “not worth the weak joke.”
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He also said much of the content about rape culture was an “inappropriate place for humour.”
Ivers also called out Yianoppoulos for racist jokes, writing, “This feels gratuitously racist, like you’re just denigrating African countries,” and “Let’s not call South Africa ‘white.’”
He suggested many sections of the book be cut entirely, one such comment reading simply: “DELETE UGH.”
He also called for Yianoppoulos to fact-check many parts of the book, sometimes even going as far to say, “It seems made up.”
While Yianoppoulos is known for his outsized ego, Ivers cautioned him to tone it down.
“Ego gets in the way in this paragraph. Delete,” he wrote in one comment.
Referencing a chapter on feminism, he wrote: “This will be a highly scrutinized chapter. Try to remove all bombast and name-calling.”
S&S first announced the book deal in January, and paid Yiannopoulos a $250,000 advance, despite protests from other authors who insisted he was “a voice of hate that stirs its followers to emotional, verbal, and physical violence directed at anyone who disagrees or speaks to the contrary.”
The edits were part of court records filed on Dec. 21, but gained traction online on Thursday after being made public.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Yiannopoulos disputed claims from the publisher, saying S&S officials were initially excited about publishing the book.
“Don’t quote me, but ‘You done good’ is what Simon & Schuster told me about my manuscript just days days before dumping my book in February in breach of contract,” he wrote.
The lawsuit is still before the court, with another motion scheduled for Jan. 19.
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