Jason Arday claimed he was paid ‘1.4 million’ by publisher for memoir

Simon & Schuster still plans to publish book by Cambridge academic who resigned this week amid plagiarism claims

Jason Arday, the former Cambridge professor accused of plagiarism and embellishment, claimed he was paid “1.4 million” for his forthcoming memoir detailing his extraordinary backstory.

Arday was dogged by a growing series of questions over his academic work and credentials before he resigned on Wednesday night, saying the “relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love”.

His resignation came after Cambridge announced it would launch an investigation following “new information” about his qualifications and career.

Despite allegations against Arday, Simon & Schuster said earlier this week it was planning to go ahead with the publication of his memoir Great and Unfortunate Things on 11 August in the US, and 27 August in the UK.

In a previous interview with the Guardian, Arday said Simon & Schuster had offered 1.4m for the book in a “pre-empt”, a type of deal in which a publisher is so keen on a book they put in a high offer to take it off the table before it can go to auction. Arday did not specify whether the 1.4m figure was in pound sterling or US dollars. Simon & Schuster did not respond to a request to comment on the sum.

While it is a high figure, publishing sources said it would be plausible if Simon & Schuster US and UK teamed up to buy the book and sought worldwide rights – meaning they could sell the book into other regions as well as the UK and US. After the deal was signed, it was rumoured to be a seven-figure sum.

One senior publisher said it was an utterly mad number, but that “madness sometimes happens”, so it was conceivable. They said a book such as Arday’s would normally be expected to sell about 5,000 copies, so with £2 of royalty per copy, that equates to an advance of £10,000, not 1.4 million dollars or pounds.

The book recounts the story of Arday’s life, from being diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay aged three, to speaking his first words “months before starting secondary school”. In it he claims to have learned to read and write aged 18, before ultimately becoming the youngest ever Black professor at Cambridge at 37.

Arday has been at the centre of a media storm since late July, when the Telegraph reported that more than 100 passages of his PhD had similarities to a thesis published six years earlier.

Doubts have been raised about claims Arday has made about prodigious fundraising feats and a Guardian investigation raised questions about his claims to have been targeted by knife-wielding masked intruders and sent a pig’s head.

Cambridge initially came to Arday’s defence, describing the claims as part of a “vile smear campaign to undermine his credibility”. It said it had passed complaints on to Liverpool John Moores University, where Arday had completed his PhD. LJMU cleared him of plagiarism, but academics said legitimate concerns remained.

On Wednesday, it also emerged that Arday had appeared to have falsely claimed to have published a book titled Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the Dominant Discourse. While Palgrave Macmillan accepted the book’s proposal, it did not go ahead with publishing it, reported the Telegraph.

One publishing executive said Simon & Schuster’s decision to stand by its author thus far may simply be because “they had a contract, and they’re sticking with the contract”.

If there was a significant advance involved, there may be more motivation on the publisher’s side to “recoup” it, they added.

There have been suggestions that the publisher had to amend elements of Arday’s work. The journalist Benjamin Ryan shared a series of screenshots on social media of different versions of the memoir’s manuscript suggesting that edits had been made to dilute claims related to Arday’s fundraising efforts. Ryan has written pieces on Arday for the Washington Free Beacon, the conservative outlet behind the investigations that led to the Black academic Claudine Gay’s resignation from Harvard. Simon & Schuster did not respond when asked why these edits were made.

Pulling the book at this point would be a “pretty massive decision”, one publisher said, if only for logistical reasons: Simon & Schuster has “probably printed the book already, probably paid the author, and may have started shipping the book all over the world”, so “actively withdrawing the book now is both extremely difficult and quite expensive”.

In a statement before Arday’s resignation, Simon & Schuster said: “We have worked closely with Professor Jason Arday on Great and Unfortunate Things since acquiring it and can speak to the professionalism and integrity he has brought to every stage of the publication.

“Great and Unfortunate Things is Arday’s memoir of overcoming remarkable challenges and responding to adversity with resilience. It is told through his own recollections and those of the people closest to him.”

Arday “worked closely with his co-writer, as well as our editorial and legal teams, to carefully research, write and corroborate the narrative”, they added. The book is co-written by Eve Claxton.

In comments reported by the Bookseller in April, Kris Doyle, the nonfiction publisher at Simon & Schuster UK, said: “I can promise you’ve never read a story like this – even the viral news headlines don’t do it justice.”

Doyle acquired rights to publish the book in the UK and Commonwealth, while Dawn Davis, the publisher of Simon & Schuster’s 37 Ink imprint in the US, simultaneously acquired world rights. Neither Doyle nor Davis responded to questions over why Simon & Schuster had decided to pursue publication notwithstanding the controversy.

When asked to share information about the book’s fact-checking process, Simon & Schuster said: “We do not comment on our editorial processes.” In the acknowledgements section of the book, Arday credits Iman M’Fah-Traoré with checking the book. The publisher did not respond when asked whether it had contracted Traoré rather than Arday hiring her independently.

Arday is scheduled to speak in September at the Topping bookshop in Edinburgh and at Stroud book festival in November, neither of which responded when asked whether these events would go ahead.

Asked whether he would be speaking anywhere else, Simon & Schuster said they “have some additional events planned but these would all follow in the autumn so not listed as yet”. The US branch of the publisher said no official US tour was planned.

The problem facing Simon & Schuster has echoes of that faced by Penguin following the infamous Salt Path scandal, where Raynor and Moth Winn were accused of fabricating large chunks of their story.

In that case, the next book by Raynor Winn, the fourth in her bestselling series, seems to be indefinitely delayed (it’s currently scheduled for January 2028). There are clear differences between the cases – critics took issue with the accuracy of The Salt Path itself, which was marketed as an “unflinchingly honest” text, while Arday’s most-contested claims do not appear in his book.

Signing a contract for a memoir, writers promise that they have the “right to tell the story and that it’s true”, one British publisher said. Any publishing house was “relying on that warranty”.