Controversy In Publishing
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 14th, 2006 | 3 Comments » (Click to add yours!)
There has been some recent media coverage about a book entitled, A MILLION LITTLE PIECES by James Frey, most notable an Oprah Book Club pick. A well-known web site, has questioned “the veracity of key moments,” in the purported retelling of the author’s past drug abuse and rehabilitation.
During a Larry King interview with the author this week, Oprah called the show to defend Mr. Frey, who is accused of exaggeration. The popular talk show host said, “It is incumbent upon publishers to more accurately market their books.” The publisher, Doubleday, an imprint of the largest publisher in the world, Random House, has not commented.
Oprah is absolutely correct! However her statements did not go far enough! Anytime an author writes anything that is marketed as Non-fiction, Biography, or any other category that suggests the writing is Fact and not Fiction, it is the responsibility of the publisher to make certain that every fact is true and not “exaggerated.”
Publishers used to go to great lengths to make sure a book was totally “vetted” for accuracy. If any statement could not be independently verified then it was removed from the text. My former company published a book by the infamous Kitty Kelley and it took months of research to make certain the facts we published were true.
Obviously the publisher for this “book” felt they had done enough research to market as an autobiography, when in fact a small web site has clearly discovered they did not. The author has since admitted to the “embellishment” of certain incidents but claims the overall facts are true. That clearly pushes the truth to the limits of publishing integrity.
To my friends and former colleagues at Random House: Has the market become so competitive that you have to resort to these kinds of tactics to sell books? Shame on Random House, and shame on an industry whose leaders will not step forward to denounce this hypocrisy. Writers and authors, BEWARE!
Tags: Book Marketing, Book Publishing, Book Sales, writing
Leave a Reply
I say it! Just delightful! Your authorship manner is charming and the way you handled the topic with grace is applaudable. I am intrigued, I make bold you are an expert on this subject. I am subscribing to your incoming updates from now on.
I wish i could tell more than thanks to you for your article, it is very helpful to me for answering my problem now.
You have made your point and there is not much to argue about. It is like the following universal truth that you can not argue with: once a truthing always a truthing Thanks for the info.