# The book the publisher sat on

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The book the publisher sat on," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-book-the-publisher-sat-on/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The manuscript John Kiriakou says he delivered to his publisher three years before August 2025 and had still not seen printed, and the email he finally sent telling them it was time to fish or cut bait.*

- **Draft delivered:** April, three years before August 2025
- **Status at the time of telling:** Still unpublished
- **The email Kiriakou sent:** "Threatening", telling the publisher it was time to fish or cut bait
- **His stated position:** "I've had enough of waiting"; "I'm tired of this"
- **Occasion:** A viewer question on the DeProgram programme

**The book the publisher sat on** is an unpublished manuscript John Kiriakou described on the DeProgram programme in August 2025, when a viewer asked what had become of his book.[1]

## The delay

Kiriakou's first answer was that he did not know: *"I don't know, man."*[1]

He then gave the chronology. *"This book was supposed to be out. I sent them the draft of this book three years ago"* — and he fixed the month after a false start, settling on April.[1]

That places delivery in April 2022, and the conversation in August 2025, more than three years later, with nothing to show for it.

## The email

Kiriakou says he had by then abandoned patience and put it in writing: *"I sent a threatening email to my publisher saying it's time to fish or cut bait."*[1]

He does not say what the threat consisted of, and does not name the publisher or the book.

## His position

The rest is short. *"So I've had enough of waiting. I'll let you know as soon as I hear. I'm tired of this."*[1]

Kiriakou has published several books, including the prison memoir [Doing Time Like a Spy](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/doing-time-like-a-spy), and refers on the same programme to *"my second book"* as containing a chapter about a fellow prisoner — so the manuscript in question is a later work whose subject he does not disclose here.[2]

## See also

- [Doing Time Like a Spy](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/doing-time-like-a-spy)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 1:14:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=4476s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-07-25), at 58:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypVxybJzHo&t=3495s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-25-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-book-the-publisher-sat-on/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt