Question

Zeus is the author of "Gertrude Laponte, A Women of Substance", an historical account of the Laponte family in America's social, political and economic affairs. Prentice-Hall Inc., signed Zeus to a contract to publish the book exclusively. The contract left the promotion of the book to the discretion of the publisher. Prentice-Hall had originally planned a first printing of 15,000 copies and an advertising budget of $15,000 for the book. Later, having had second thoughts about the sales potential of the book, (if you don't know who Gertrude Laponte is, chances are no one else does either!), Prentice-Hall decided to do only a first printing of 10,000 books and reduce the amount of money it had allocated to advertising. In all, Prentice-Hall published a total of 13,000 volumes of the book, authorized an advertising budget of $5,500, distributed over 600 copies to reviewers, and purchased ads in major newspapers. Zeus later claimed that the reductions in the numbers of volumes printed and in the advertising budget were evidence that Prentice-Hall had not made a "best effort" to fully promote the book. Prentice-Hall claimed that its reduction came after careful review and was based on sound and valid business decisions. Based on these facts only, discuss whether Prentice-Hall has fulfilled its contractual duty to Zeus.

Answer 1

In the given case scenario, it is mentioned that the ultimate decision of promotion of the book was in the hands of the publisher. In such a case, it was in their hands to advertise the book in the best way possible. But since they had signed a contract of exclusively promoting the book in the best way possible, they should have made use of the best way possible. Since it was ultimately the publisher's decision to publish the number of books and also decide the advertisement cost, they fulfilled their duty, since they took the decision of reducing the number of books published and the advertisement cost only after careful review and in order to take valid business decision. So, in this case, Prentice-Hall has fulfilled the contractual duty to Zeus as they did not do anything illegal or took an action against the contract. They did what was right for the business and gave a valid reason to Zeus for not spending as much money as it had initially thought of spending on the book promotion.