Melville House Books

Prince in a rare public display of his hearing problem

A Los Angeles literary agency, Vigliano Associates, is suing rock star Rogers Nelson — that’s Prince to you and me — for, according to them, using them to negotiate a two-book deal, “then cutting the agency out when it came time to sign,” as a Radaronline article reports.

According to the report, “Papers filed in Los Angeles County court today say Vigliano helped conceive and shop “21 Nights,” a multimedia photo essay collection documenting Prince’s three week stint at London’s O2 Arena with Atria books, then a special edition with publishing house Kraken Opus,” for 15% of profits. At which point, they say, everyone — Prince, the publishers — mysteriously stopped taking their calls.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.