washington

The day after the cancer research story appeared in the New York Times, the reporter responsible for it was negotiating with publishers about a book deal that an influential agent had promised would bring her a $2 million advance.

News of the deal, first reported in the Los Angeles Times of 6 May, fuelled suspicion that the two events may have been jointly planned, although this is vigorously denied by both the reporter, Gina Kolata, and her agent, John Brockman.

Kolata quickly withdrew from the deal once issues about a possible conflict of interest had arisen. But the episode had already made its mark. “That someone might have written a story with the idea that this could lead to an enormously lucrative book deal is very unsettling,” says Allen Lichter, president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Brockman says the deal was his idea, and that he suggested it to Kolata the Sunday her story appeared. Kolata confirmed his account through a New York Times spokeswoman.

Brockman — who represents 175 scientists and science writers including Sir John Maddox, former editor of Nature, and Richard Dawkins — says that, on reading the story, he telephoned Kolata from his Connecticut farmhouse and told her: “I can get you two million dollars”.

He says she at first resisted because of another book commitment, but by late Sunday had written the proposal and forwarded it to him by e-mail. Brockman sent the proposal to publishers at midnight, and by 9.30 on Monday morning had the first offer from a major New York publishing houses, he says.

On Tuesday, after several reporters had phoned Brockman enquiring about the book proposal, he says that he phoned Kolata, who “was very upset”, and told him: “I don't like this; I can see what's coming; I just don't think I can do this.” She phoned Brockman later that day and asked him to withdraw the proposal.

Kolata referred calls to New York Times spokeswoman, Nancy Nielsen, who says that “after [Kolata] had some discussions with her editors, she decided to withdraw her book proposal”, though the decision was entirely hers. The New York Times says it asks reporters not to write books on developing stories that they are still covering.

Brockman says that it would have been proper for Kolata to write a book on an issue that is newsworthy, because the “hypothetical” questions raised about conflict of interest disappear in the case of Kolata, who is “totally ethical”.

Instead, he says, because of a misplaced outcry, “the ace reporter on biomedical issues is not going to write a book. Is that good?”