Publisher’s foul on Bob Dylan and refunding customers

The publishing house Simon and Schuster will give money to those who bought a book written by Bob Dylan and was released in a limited number of copies after it turned out to contain a copy of the artist’s autograph and not the original, as the publisher had promised. The books had been selling for $599, while the non-autographed ones cost just $45.

The publishing house initially promised buyers that the copies were autographed by the legendary musician. Customers immediately began to complain that the books they bought did not bear Bob Dylan’s authentic signature.

“To those who purchased the limited edition of ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song’, we would like to apologize. As it turns out, the books contain Bob’s original signature, but in hard copy. We are addressing this immediately by providing each buyer with an immediate refund,” Simon and Schuster said in an apology post on Instagram.

“Shame. This post is not enough. Who allowed this to happen? This is an attempted fraud amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Someone needs to be held accountable,” commented a fan of the artist in his post publishing house.

The books hit the shelves on November 1 and were accompanied by a letter from the publishing house’s managing director, Jonathan Karp vouching for the authenticity of the signature.

“You are holding something very special, one of only 900 copies available in the US of ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song’ signed by Bob Dylan. This is Bob’s first book since the new ‘Chronicles, Volume One’ published in 2004 and since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. This letter is confirmation that the copy of the book you are holding has been hand-signed by Bob Dylan.” mentioned in the letter.