How Important Is The Truth?
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 27th, 2006 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Finally, a respected member of the media has stepped up to express outrage over the fabrications in the book A MILLION LITTLE PIECES by James Frey. Published as a Memoir by a division of Random House, the largest publisher in the world, the author has admitted lying about the facts in the book. Oprah’s guests on her show Wednesday included the author, publisher, and columnists who had been critical of the talk show host for defending the book.
At the beginning of the show Ms. Winfrey apologized for her remarks during a call to the Larry King Show where the author was being grilled for embellishing parts of his bestselling book. During that call the television host stood behind the author and his book. It turns out Ms. Winfrey was wrong, and she admitted that, she said her comments at that time made it appear as though truth didn’t matter and in her words, “it does!”
What is most astonishing to me is that the publisher made the statement, that during their vetting of the book; they decided there was “no liability” on their part. This means they weren’t looking for the truth, only covering their behinds in case of a lawsuit. Not once did the publisher denounce the fact that the author lied to his readers. In fact, the publisher defended the book saying “the facts as written were the author’s recollection of events” surrounding his recovery from drugs and alcohol.
From someone who spent most of his entire adult life in publishing: shame on the publisher Doubleday and their parent Random House, and shame on the author James Frey. As usual, the publisher made their money on the publication of lies, the author got rich, and all those readers who bought the book thinking they were buying a TRUE story were actually buying a novel. It’s a sad day when publishers will go to this length to sell books. Writers beware!
Tags: Book Marketing, Book Publishing, Book Sales, Booksellers, writing
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