Frey's Editor, Sean McDonald's, Fall From Grace

As the Frey story winds down, there is one more key element that we have not covered yet. Frey's editor.

Surviving James Frey

Now, I still do not understand how an editor would not start to have doubts about a book's authenticity. Heck, I'm a book editor and above my desk is my mantra, "Editors don't know everything; editors doubt everything." So, if that's not Sean's mantra, why is he an editor?

This is pathetic. Yes, there is a place in editor-land to trust the writer, to be strictly behind the scenes supporting the writer, to uphold the integrity of what the writer has accomplished. Duh. I do that every day. I strive for this and I think I have a good handle on it. See the January 15, 2006 post about a client's recent huge success. This was because I did not heavy-hand her manuscript and I believed in her story, and I knew, in my gut, that it worked. Of course, it was fiction, just like A Million Little Pieces.

Editor-land is not a place to just let a writer do whatever because it will make you, the editor, very famous, and probably very rich from bonuses.

Sean McDonald embarrassed our industry, right along with his client. Go away, Sean. Just go away.

Frey's Royalty Money

So the discussion today is about Frey's Oprah-related royalties (about 3 million dollars) and his promise to donate 15% to his favorite charity.
Now, since his big check should be to him around March 31, we think he should be preparing to donate his 400,000 bucks anytime, right?

That ain't the word on the street.

Word is, no one is saying a thing about it, and if Oprah truly cared about "truth," don't you think she would be squawking about this? Several industry insiders think so.

But that's not all. They went and chatted with Frey's literary agent, Kassie Evashevski of Brillstein-Grey, who says that Frey's book "was never submitted as a novel" and that "she no longer represents Frey." So, these industry insiders ask, what happens to the agency's cut of 500,000 dollars? Is Brillstein-Grey going to give their cut to charity?

Can you hear me laughing?

Jon Stewart Making Fun of Frey: Now That's Good TV

I guess Jon Stewart was really funny. Damn, I missed it. Someone send me a tape, pretty please? So much still on Frey, I cannot believe this.

Isn't it time for us to move on from this? you may be asking.

Sure, as soon as I've made sure I find all the best juicy bits for us to chew on, okay?

Chill out, people.

First though, we've got another interesting case in book publishing. Some author copied a children's book word for word.

What? Yes.
Author claims she never read the original

I think the disease is spreading. Someone check our water supply!

Good grief. This is the sort of thing that we don't want to see more of. I mean, we've spent years of our collective lives on James Frey, can we just set a bunch of snakes on this lady and be done with it?

Which led me to think, what should be James Frey's punishment? Give up his royalties? Check himself back into Hazelden? What say you?

Ideas For the Future

And Advertising Age chimes in on the changing face of magazine advertising

Ad Age Media Guy column

Instead of Lucky magazine including a page of post-it ready tabs for readers to use to earmark future purchases, why not download the Lucky issue onto an iPod with internet access and let the readers purchase the items directly, sparing the using of those post-it tabs.

Genius, says I, who hates trying to remember what she tabbed to purchase in what issue.

Yes, I'm a fashion junkie. What are you laughing at?

Monday Morning With Frey

I was hoping the Frey controversy was long gone, especially when we have news stories about more important things. Thinking of Bob Woodruff and his videographer today.

But now, Frey's planned movie adaptations are on the chopping block.

LA Times story

Anyone surprised? If they do get made, I bet the movies won't attract A-list actors. It will be one of those straight to dvd projects. I can just see it.

But in a positive spin, I read the definitive wrap-up on this entire Frey issue in Patricia Holt's Holt Uncensored, an email newsletter covering the publishing industry.





Forget what I have talked about. Forget what everyone else has ever said about James Frey and read Holt Uncensored. Subscribe even. Anything Patricia Holt has to say should be engraved in stone. This lady knows her stuff.

Holt Uncensored and read the current issue. But while you are there, check out her other archived issues and Terry Ryan's columns, author of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids in 25 Words or Less, which was turned into a movie in 2005 starring Julianne Moore.

Thank You, Oprah!

I don't usually watch your show and I didn't watch yesterday's with the public shaming of Frey, because I can't stand the man, but thank you.

Even if you did it to save your franchise, to polish your tarnished image after your disastrous Larry King call-in, or simply to help Frey sell even more books, I still thank you.

Truth is not subjective. You cannot change it because it's not interesting. Truth has to stay rock-solid or this society will fail. Truth has to be what we all reach for, or we're striving in vain.

As a writer, communicator, and consumer, I am appalled at Frey's behavior, and I was appalled at your behavior, but you set yourself right. Now to see if Frey will.

I recommend AA.

"My name is James and I'm a liar."

Books Blogs

Wanna know book blogs that I read?



Book Nerd has compiled a great list.

I'm hoping to join the book blogging circle of greats. So . . . got a friend who loves books, send them to my blog and I promise to link them to every other excellent blog on books out there!

Sue Them All?

That was fast.


How to get your money back, and more, from Frey

I think this is dumb. If this were to win, I think I'm going to take movie and television studios to court for wasting half my lifetime with their offerings (Beauty and the Geek? Ashton Kutcher, I'm coming for YOU!).

This is when you realize that Frey, really, was just following the audience. Sara Nelson of Publisher's Weekly for January 16 made the same point. If we, as readers, watchers, and participants of media entertainment (of which Frey was a HUGE part) don't start getting pickier and demanding more of our entertainers, why expect so much?

That point can be construed as supporting this lawsuit. Absolutely not.

I took one glance inside Frey's book. It was badly written, even on the first page. It was way too emotional too. I knew, from that quick glance, I was not interested.

If those people bought and read the entire book, that's their fault. Not Frey's. Refunds yes, compensation for time spent reading, c'mon, grow up.

Oprah Backtracks To Save Face

James Frey will appear on Oprah today and I won't be watching. I am glad to see someone finally saying something. It's about time, Oprah.

Oprah backtracks on James Frey

C'mon, the guy lied, we all got duped. It's time for him to go away so we can get back to real literature, real issues (Hamas wins in Palestinian election), and real life.

With that in mind, you should know I'm writing quite determinedly on my novel. It is fiction, completely fiction.

This story started as a dream I had back almost ten years ago. I wrote a first draft that really wasn't good and my agent turned it down September 12, 2001. It has taken me this long to get back into it, to realize that my plot worked just fine, but that my writing, my thinking processes, need to be stronger.

The second draft is blowing me away. I see plot tricks in there that subconsciously appeared, tricks such as the likes of Michael Crichton would be so proud of. I have two so far, that may be all I can bring forth. But I'm so happy with the first 15k words. This is the story I want to tell.

I admit, I know people who can pour our novels at the speed of touch type. I cannot. It irks me. Maybe I'll get faster after my first novel is done. Maybe I'll figure out a better system for writing a novel. Charles Dickens churned out novel after novel after novel, but Jane Smiley insists that his best novel was one of his last, the one that took the longest and caused him the most angst.

So I'm okay for now. I like the plot, I like how it is coming down to the page, and I like the momentum. It's working.

My goal is to have a first draft by June 1. Think I can do it?

New York Times Still Talking About Frey

So now the truth in Frey's memoir is up for debate.
New York Times on Frey, yet again

But let's stop right now.

No one cares. (Well, except the New York Times and yours truly, it seems.)

I have said all there is to say. The guy lied, seems Doubleday may have played a part in it, seems Oprah continues to play right along, and booksellers display Frey's books next to Elie Wiesel's Night, which by the way, is 100% accurate.

Have we learned anything? I doubt it. This is not going away, that's for sure.

As Frey's book continues to climb the charts and curiousity continues to kill cats, I am reading, for the second time, vicariously through my husband, Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat. It has yet to bore us. How our world is changing in front of our eyes, literally, blows the mind. And yet things change again and again. Two or three months ago, if you missed LOST and did not TiVo it, too bad, catch a rerun. Now, download it from iTV. But that's just one obvious interpretation of how things are changing. Does anyone have any other examples?

2006 is going to be quite a year.

Book Clubs

The talk is book clubs today.

I never did understand the whole furor over Oprah's book club. So she recommends a book. I have yet to actually take her word for it. I started reading James Frey's book on my own, because I read memoirs (Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs and Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett), not because Oprah told me to. And during her first book club, every book she picked was about dysfunctional people. I don't mind that for every other book or every third book, but I do need a bit of happy to make my life worth living. I live with a glass that's partial full, not heading toward empty.

So I probably won't be too interested in Osama's book pick, Rogue State, by William Blum. I hear Mr. Blum's point though. I find myself nodding my head at his insistence that U.S. support for rogue leaders in third-world countries, heck, in any country, does not bode itself as supporting democracy. But hang on, Mr. Blum.

I voted for the GOP in the last two elections. I put these people into power. So it is not you who have the right to be furious as much as it is my right to be furious. There are certain people in power right now who lied, seduced, manipulated, and played with my vote so as to ensure their ability to cheat, embezzle, and coordinate the powers for their advancement. You know who you are Bill Frist and Tom DeLay and others in Congress who say you care about these things, but turn and do otherwise. Walk softly, gentlemen. You have a GOP party that now says "Cheat on us once, your fault, cheat on us twice, our fault."

We will no longer walk blindly behind your rogue policies. You cannot change the law because you "feel" like it.

But, Mr. Blum, walk softly yourself. Painting the United States as this threatener of the world is not the answer. We must answer the Bin Ladens with definitive military action, lest they come again with their suicide bombers and kill another 3,000 people. I do not think all of Iraq is a mistake. I do not think all of the Patriot act has been a failure. Mistakes in each of these things. Oh yes. But we don't throw the baby out because the bath water is dirty. Moderation now. Men fail because they crow too loudly.

If we are to figure this out, both extremes, Mr. Blum's extreme left and the blasphemous extreme right, must meet in the center and work together. There has to be give and take. There has to be truth. And there should be no more Osama's book club.

What do Oprah and Osama think? That we're stupid? I beg to differ.

UK Publishing Faces Death, Er, Suicide

So, the talk of the day is about UK publishing imploding.


Read this.
Quote:
"The unromantic truth is that British chain bookselling - with Waterstone's as its battered figurehead - now looks suspiciously like a murder victim who has decided to speed up his demise by committing suicide."

I'm not giving up though. When an industry gets pressed (unlike countries who frequently go to war; think Iran), it gets innovative. Methinks the UK needs Alex Mandossian, hm?

James Frey's Fall Into Darkness

We'll be discussing this for months.

I won't, I promise. I'm moving onto other things.

But the publishing world will be gazing at its navel for quite a long time, I predict.

New York Times

James Frey's Memory Is Really Bad

And I'm still finding more good gems about James Frey and his book of lies . . . er, memoir, A Million Little Pieces.
I think someone could collect all the articles written about the incident and have quite the encyclopedia. I will digress and save us all some boredom. While Frey may believe he's raking in the dough by staying in the public eye, he's not gaining any fans in the literary world. Nan Talese (his editor) scolded him publicly in this article:

Observer story

QUOTE: On Monday, Jan. 16, Nan Talese was on vacation in Bermuda with her husband, the nonfiction writer Gay Talese. It was Ms. Talese’s imprint at Doubleday that published James Frey’s memoir A Million Little Pieces in hardcover, and she had something to add to the still-evolving controversy.

“When the manuscript of A Million Little Pieces was received by us at Doubleday, it was received as nonfiction, as a memoir,” said Ms. Talese by phone. “Throughout the whole process of publication, it had always been a memoir, and for the first year and a half it was on sale, it was always a memoir with no disputation. It was never once discussed as fiction by me or anyone in my office.”

Ms. Talese’s statement appears to contradict Mr. Frey, who has said that it was his publisher’s decision to foist A Million Little Pieces onto the public as a memoir rather than a novel, as he had originally written it. Just a few days ago, during an unrepentant appearance on Larry King Live, Mr. Frey said: “We initially shopped the book as a novel, and it was turned down by a lot of publishers as a novel or as a nonfiction book. When Nan Talese purchased the book, I’m not sure if they knew what they were going to publish it as. We talked about what to publish it as. And they thought the best thing to do was publish it as a memoir.”
END QUOTE

So, the end result? See the next post.

J.K. Rowling Has Written the Last Chapter

In better news for book addicts, J.K. Rowling has been talking about her future plans, her past heartaches, and just all sorts of great stuff, such as the final chapter of the Harry Potter series is written! (She's one of those writers that just gets me so jealous that I must go write something!)

Telegraph on J.K. Rowling

QUOTE: This year, she will finish writing the Harry Potter series. The final chapter sits, already written, in her safe. A new children's book is also complete. It is about a monster and is what Rowling calls a "political fairy story". It is aimed at children younger than those who read Harry Potter. "I haven't even told my publisher about this." There are also some short stories already written.

She is disarmingly normal. Her favourite drink is gin and tonic, her least favourite food tripe. Her heroine is Jessica Mitford and her favourite author, Jane Austen. She gave up smoking five years ago and has spent most of the past three years pregnant or caring for a small baby. She is a Christian (Episcopalian) and "like Graham Greene, my faith is sometimes about if my faith will return. It's important to me".

AdAge Magazine Smacks at Oprah

Oprah gets smacked around a little by AdAge magazine (industry watch publication read by just about everyone in marketing/advertising) and I, for one, am glad to read it.
I mean, we've trusted Oprah for years to tell us the truth (I know, gullible me), especially during last year's launch of a campaign to nail child sex offenders. Why is she still defending James Frey? He lied. That is not helping addicts or victims. What about the people that he hurt?

AdAge editorial, worth reading.
QUOTE: Memo to those in the media who worship at the altar of Oprah: It is not OK for James Frey to have passed off his fictionalized life story as nonfiction just because a talk-show host says it is.

In all of the coverage of the controversy over the truthiness of “A Million Little Pieces,” perhaps the most disturbing element of all is how the media reacted to Oprah’s continued endorsement of the book -- treating it as somehow the last word, one that in effect excused the lies and ended the controversy. She was lauded for riding to the rescue of the publishing business, rather than called out for trying to minimize the damage to the businesses involved, including her huge and profitable empire -- one whose continued growth relies heavily on maintaining her power to move products as well as people.

What few have dared to suggest
Most of the coverage ignored the fact that Oprah has something at stake, as much actually as Frey and the book’s publisher: the credibility on which her brand is based. Few have dared to suggest her continued endorsement may have been driven by commercial considerations, not just altruistic motives.

The response by all interested parties to The Smoking Gun’s revelations about the book has been a carefully orchestrated marketing strategy that relies on an artful dodge. No one involved in this mess apologized or took accountability. Read the coverage and transcripts of the “Larry King Live” interview and Oprah’s statements; The core issues are never addressed head-on, just skirted. Yet it’s clear that many readers -- this one included -- feel betrayed."

Do People Even Care? This is Frustrating.

Most people just don't care that James Frey wrote lies and then published them as truth.

Most people just think "well, it's helping people right?"
It's fiction, folks. FICTION. Doubleday refused to publish it as a novel (original submission form) and told Frey to "make it true." His failure to do so only reflects his lack of ethics, and no one else's. (No matter what Oprah says.)

New York Times
QUOTE: James Frey's admission last week that he made up details of his life in his best-selling book "A Million Little Pieces" - after the Smoking Gun Web site stated that he "wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms and status as an outlaw 'wanted in three states' " - created a furor about the decision by the book's publishers, Doubleday, to sell the volume as a memoir instead of a novel."

Another Memoir Writer Unleashes Her Wrath At Frey

And the fallout over James Frey continues this week.
Heather King, who wrote her own memoir, Parched, talks about truth in memoir writing and what in heck Frey thinks he accomplished (besides the millions of dollars in book royalties) from writing his memoir.

Well worth a read, even if you don't care a snit about James Frey or his book, A Million Little Pieces.

Publisher's Weekly by Heather King, author of Parched. Excellent piece.
QUOTE: I first read about James Frey's A Million Little Pieces in a New Yorker review. I was working on my own memoir, Parched (Chamberlain Bros.), at the time, so I scanned the piece with interest. Frey and I had a couple of things in common: we'd both had major substance abuse problems; we'd both been to Hazelden (him for six weeks, circa 1992; me for four weeks, six years earlier). But there the similarities seemed to end. It wasn't so much that we were of different genders, that I was a teensy bit older than him, that we'd chosen different approaches to staying sober. No, it was that Frey was angry. The whole tenor of the review was that Frey was angry. The testosterone-fueled rage! The studly ire! In light of my own 20 years as a falling-down blackout drunk, it struck me as an odd stance. The people who really had cause to be angry, it seemed to me, were the ones I'd trampled, cheated on, stolen from and lied to on my way to the nearest bar.

What's the Weather Like in San Francisco?

I don't know!

I haven't been outside since January 12 since I ate very hot Indian food with friends. I'm at Dr. Harlan Kilstein's Six-Figure Copywriting Seminar. What a mind-blowing experience! Ever been in a hotel suite with 40 people and their laptops all working online at the same time? It's pretty cool. As Martha Stewart would say, "It's a good thing."

But, as they say, good things come in threes.

First off, what a banner week for our Novel Support Team (NST) at Freelance Success. Our star, Allison Winn Scotch, sold her novel to William Morrow (HarperCollins) at auction (publishers were fighting over this book!) and I have never been so happy in my life. I'm proud to have been part of the process as an editor and writing buddy extraordinaire. Allison is a magnificent writer. Watch for her novel, The Department of Lost and Found, in hardcover in spring 2007! As my husband keeps saying, "Are you done with your novel yet?" Ha! Stay tuned to this blog for my updates. I'll explain more about my novel this coming week.

My best friend, Jenny, landed a great job as a marketing director after six years and three kids (a set of twins!) and will soon be rocking central Ohio with her expertise and marketing prowess. You made that look so easy, Jen! What an inspiration to mothers everywhere!

And finally, I have seen Internet phase 3.0. Wow. Content IS still king. I miss Steve Brill's incredible print magazine right now (Brill's Content). He really would enjoy this tremendous flutter--Google AdSense, Google AdWords, and virtual book tours--over content as we begin 2006. The future is now!

I've learned a ton and have to much more to absorb in the next twelve months. We'll be back to San Francisco in January 2007 and I, for one, cannot wait to see what will happen!

Yes, I'm Pretty Mad

Damn James Frey.
It really ticks me off when writers who have the chance to really make a difference with their books fuck it all up instead.

Smoking Gun Article. The facts are all here.
Maybe I'm just grumpy tonight. I worked so hard all day long, answered all the email, turned in all the projects that were due, paid the bills, vacuumed the house, found every single dirty dish in the house and put it in the dishwasher, and I haven't written one damn thing (except this blog post) because I'm so mad at James Frey. As if he has anything to do with me.

I vow, right now, whatever I write, will be truth. I vow, right now, that whatever I report will be fact-checked within an inch of its life.

Damn.

Just when you had hopes that good writing could still be discovered. Hopefully I can believe that tomorrow morning.