Jericho’s first book, “A Lion’s Tale,†was the subject of a Huffington Post story on how difficult it is to get books published. Jason Pinter wrote about the book being offered to Grand Central Publishing several years back. He said even though Jericho had an obviously high media profile, the mostly female higher-ups at the book company at the time were negative toward taking the book. He wrote that the only reason the company took the book is that the 15-year-old nephew of one of the company’s senior editors was a Jericho fan. Jericho noted in an interview with Salon.com that he wasn’t aware of any of this until the story broke, noting that Pinter never told him any of those stories. The book briefly cracked the New York Times best seller list and I believe was, with Hogan’s second book and Bret Hart’s book, the most successful non- WWE wrestler book. The next book, called “Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps,†is scheduled for release in February. The article noted Jericho has done most of his writing on airplanes, saying he’s a big fan of watching movies and DVDs on planes but hasn’t watched anything of the past few months because he’s writing his book every chance he gets. He said all of his spare time, even at home, is spent writing, rewriting and editing. He said the book is both about wrestling and performing in a rock band, saying it’s as much a rock and roll book as a wrestling book, saying it’s right now half-and-half, and there is also a decent amount on his experiences in Los Angeles trying to make it as an actor. He said when it comes to wrestling, he doesn’t have anything to be angry about but there are disagreements with Vince McMahon in the book, but “at the end of the day, everyone I write about I have the utmost respect for. You have to watch what you say in certain points but I watched what I said in the first book, too, because I wasn’t coming up to settle any scores or be bitter.†The article also noted the term “ass clown†that Jericho made up years ago was used in the movie “Iron Man 2.†Jericho said he came up with the term while feuding with Angle, and saying, “You’re an ass....clown,†and the next week at TV he saw signs in the crowd calling Angle as “ass clown†so he went with it .
