Author John Grogan is steamed. The reason? Someone besides him is trying to cash in on the success of his sleeper bestseller Marley and Me, and that someone is his former employer the Philadelphia Inquirer. Publishers Marketplace reports that John's agent Laurie Abkemeier has sent a letter to sales reps complaining that Grogan wasn't given an appropriate amount of editorial control over the soon to be published collection of his P. I. columns, which the paper owns.

Saying that what the paper has done is tantamount to selling the collection "out from under him," she says that "John is deeply distressed by the actions of [the paper and the publisher, Vanguard], and so am I. Already there is a title and jacket that egregiously exploits John's success with Marley & Me, and we are outraged at this misleading representation of a collection that has nearly no content that relates to Marley or even to dogs. While we cannot stop them from publishing these columns, John Grogan will not be promoting or endorsing the collection in any way."

Though we've mocked John's lazy-seeming brand overextension in the past, we're tempted to side with him on this one, if only because if there's ever a compilation entitled Emily Gould's Most Bizarre and Overly Self-Revelatory Gawker Posts, the undoubtedly whopping advance will go straight into Gawker Media's bulging coffers. However, Vanguard's publisher maintains that he has "made numerous attempts to reach out to the author asking for a meeting or conversation to have a dialogue about his thoughts and to get his input into the project," all of which Grogan has rebuffed. So it's possible that John is just being a drama queen.

Or maybe, despite his agent's avowals to the contrary, he never wanted those columns to see republication. An article in Philadelphia Magazine once characterized their typical subject matter like so: "Murderers = Bad, especially men who murder women and children (12/20/05). Overpriced hamburgers = Outrageous (1/17/06). Puppies = Man's best friend, but it's sad when they die (1/6/04, ongoing). It's a style that has prompted some colleagues to refer to him as 'Captain Obvious.'" John may be Captain Obvious, but the various motives and agendas at play here remain unclear for now. Book scandal!