'Survivor' Book Deal Canned

N E W  Y O R K, Sept. 13 -- Millionaire Survivor Richard Hatch has been voted off the book list. Hatch’s lucrative deal with St. Martin’s Press has collapsed.

“We are not doing the book,” St. Martin’s spokesman JohnMurphy said in today’s edition of the New York Post.

CBS Releases Own Volume

Under terms of its exclusive deals with Hatch and his 15 fellowSurvivor castaways, CBS has veto power over how they can tradeon their participation in the hit adventure-game series.

And the network already had a book in the works. The officialaccount, Survivor, written by the series’ executive producerMark Burnett with Martin Dugard, arrived in book stores this week.

CBS spokesman Chris Ender said, “Rich was very clear to us fromthe very beginning: He wanted to write about his life, not theSurvivor experience.” He got CBS’ go-ahead.

But the Web site Inside.com reported today that a differentproposal for Survival Skills for Life: An Owner’s Manual wassubmitted to publishers than the one CBS approved. According toInside.com, St. Martin’s agreed to pay nearly $500,000 for aSurvivor tell-all — which Hatch wasn’t authorized to write.

A St. Martin’s spokesman wasn’t immediately available forcomment.