Every week, The Thread from MPR News tackles your book questions, big and small. Ask a question now.

This week's question: What will happen with Prince's memoir?

Prince delighted fans last month when he asked the crowd at a New York nightclub: "You still read books, right?"

That was his way of breaking the news that he had a memoir in the works, tentatively titled "The Beautiful Ones." It was scheduled to be released in the fall of 2017 through Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House.

"We're starting from the beginning from my first memory, and hopefully we can go all the way up to the Super Bowl," he said, referring to his epic performance at the 2007 Super Bowl halftime show.

Rolling Stone instantly proclaimed the book "one of the most anticipated memoirs in music history." Critics' hopes were high: Prince's editor at Spiegel & Grau was Chris Jackson, who had previously worked with Ta-Nehisi Coates on the award-winning "Between the World and Me."

After Prince's death last week, however, the future of the book is uncertain. His publisher had no comment.

Whether enough of a draft exists to move forward remains to be seen.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story originally published by MPR News on Tuesday, April 26.