In Posnanski's "Paterno," a Biography With Bad Timing On Thursday afternoon, the Free Library of Philadelphia was ready to go with a Sept. 6 event for Joe Posnanski, the author of "Paterno," a forthcoming biography of the famed and vilified football coach. On Friday morning, the book's publisher told the library to cross it off the calendar. "They're holding off on the tour," Andy Kahan, the director of author events for the Free Library, said on Friday, adding that the publisher, Simon & Schuster, had said Mr. Posnanski's work obligations prevented his appearance. Simon & Schuster is backpedaling quickly in the final weeks before the publication of "Paterno," which has emerged as perhaps one of the most unfortunately timed books of 2012. Announced in March 2011 as "a biography of America's winningest college football coach, who changed the country one football player at a time," the book will enter the marketplace at a moment when the name of Joe Paterno, the late Penn State coach, has gone from revered to radioactive. That, in turn, has made Simon & Schuster, which is owned by the CBS Corporation, the latest example of a publisher that is trying to recover when the story behind a planned book changes before publication. The handful of books about the Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin that publishers hurriedly commissioned in the midst of "Linsanity" this year seem to have dubious value now that Lin has left the team for the Houston Rockets. Simon & Schuster moved up the release date of the Paterno book from Father's Day 2013 to August 2012. The title was changed from "The Grand Experiment: The Life and Meaning of Joe Paterno," to the more neutral "Paterno." A report released on July 12 by Louis J. Freeh, a former director of the F.B.I., revealed that Mr. Paterno, who had failed to report accusations of child sexual abuse by his longtime assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, to the police, renegotiated his contract in 2011 as the scandal was playing out, winning himself and his family more money and perks. Within days, Brown University, Mr. Paterno's alma mater, removed his name from an annual award and a coaching position. On Sunday, Penn State's president, Rodney Erickson, ordered the removal of a statue of Mr. Paterno from outside the university's football stadium. Now Simon & Schuster is limiting interviews with Mr. Posnanski and scaling back a planned book tour. Anne Tate, a spokeswoman for the publisher, said in an e-mail, "We're sensitive about putting our author in forums where he might be viewed as a stand-in for his subject." Jonathan Karp, the publisher of Simon & Schuster, said in an interview that the release of the Freeh report had complicated matters for the book. "It's made people angrier at Joe Paterno," he said. And that has made it a more difficult environment to publish a biography about Joe Paterno. Simon & Schuster acquired the book for a reported $750,000, and Mr. Karp said he expected the company would print close to 75,000 copies. Printing and related costs can run from $1.50 to slightly more than $2 a book, not including possible extra costs like advertising and paid promotions in bookstores. If Simon & Schuster were to lose close to $1 million on the book, it would be an unpleasant but not particularly significant sum for an imprint of its size. Mr. Karp heatedly defended his author, pointing out that the book had been under a strict embargo and that review copies had not been distributed. Few people, he said, have read it. "I will say this - I think there has been a lot online about this book," Mr. Karp said. And I'm amazed by some of the vitriol with regard to Joe Posnanski, who is a truly gifted writer. People can pass all the judgment they want about Joe Paterno, but Joe Posnanski deserves a chance to be read. In some bookstores, he will not have a chance. Michael Fox, the owner of Joseph Fox Bookshop in Philadelphia, has not read "Paterno," but he knows he does not want to order a single copy. "I just don't want it on my shelf," Mr. Fox said last week. It's distasteful and it's not up to date. I'm sure there's a lot of college football fans who want to read about the greatest coach of all time. But it's not something I want to have in my store. Much of the negative opinion aimed at Mr. Posnanski has stemmed from a column he wrote in Sports Illustrated in January that was seen as overly sympathetic to Mr. Paterno, who was the head coach at Penn State for 46 years and died of lung cancer in January at age 85. In the column, Mr. Posnanski contrasted Mr. Paterno's "full life" with "a single, hazy event involving an alleged child molester." Mr. Posnanski, who was a sportswriter for The Kansas City Star and Sports Illustrated, declined to be interviewed. While he has written on his blog in recent weeks about Kansas City, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game (which was in Kansas City, Mo., on July 10), fireworks and Andy Griffith, he has not posted about his Paterno biography. One of his only recent mentions of the book came on July 12, when he wrote on Twitter: "I dedicated myself to write the most honest book I could about Joe Paterno. Everything I have to say about his life is in it. A description of the 416-page book on Amazon.com notes that it was "written with full cooperation of Joe Paterno and his family" and published "to coincide with Penn State football's first season without their legendary leader." "Paterno" will get its first airing in mid-August, when an excerpt is expected to run in the September issue of GQ. The issue will appear on newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on Aug. 14. The sports blog Deadspin reported that Sports Illustrated, given the first look at the book, had declined to run an excerpt. At least one bookstore said it believed its event with Mr. Posnanski was still on. Vivien Jennings, the owner of Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kan., says she has known Mr. Posnanski for years and still plans to host an event for him in September, where she will interview him on stage for an hour, then take questions from the audience. In town for the All-Star Game this month, Mr. Posnanski stopped at the bookstore to say hello, Ms. Jennings said. "I asked him, "We're good for your signing, right?" " she recalled. "And he said, "Absolutely. This is a balanced biography." "