Later in 1972, McCabe's book Apple to the Core: The Unmaking of the Beatles, with co-writer Robert D. Schonfeld, was published by Pocket Books. The book focuses on the Business problems that led to the group's break-up and again presented Klein in an unfavourable light. It was subsequently translated into Japanese as ビートルズの不思議な旅 / Bītoruzu no fushigina tabi, and into Dutch as "Apple" tot op het klokhuis; Wat er met de Beatles gebeurde.
In 1984, he and Schonfeld co-authored a work containing interviews with John Lennon, titled John Lennon: For the Record. McCabe also wrote the 1975 book Honkytonk Heroes: A photo album of country music. His most widely known work, with 600 copies in US libraries, is Bad News at Black Rock: The Sell-out of CBS News (1987). He has also written several novels, including Cities of Lies (1993) and Wasteland (1994).
