This message is in response to Joan Cooney’s: Joan Ganz Cooney The American public seems to have a small appetite for this kind of thing but, of course, the publishers are at fault. The publishers are young, upper middle class people who went to Amherst and Princeton and Northwestern and they are sort of voyeurs about what street life for the poor and the mentally ill is like and they assume everyone else is just as riveted. It’s kind of pathetic because they keep falling for the same faux memoirs over and over again. I’m very surprised that such a close-minded answer came from you. The fact that anyone points a finger and lays the entire “fault” on one person or industry in the problem. It is not entirely the publisher’s fault nor is it entireley the writer’s fault. It is a little bit of both with a touch of society and cultural standards (among many, many other things). But in defense of all those upper middle class voyeurs that apparently make up the entire publishing industry…here is what you and I both know. A publishing house has hundreds to thousands of books being produced each year. If publishers were to fact check every book to the acute degree that may be needed to reveal some of these faux memoris - the book would be stopped in it’s tracks. It would simply just be too expensive either for the publisher or the consumer. I’m not saying books should have carte blanche, but I think people need to realize how time consuming and costly fact checking really is. And as someone who is part of this publishing industry (as I’m sure you’ve already guessed) I can tell you that I’m part of this industry because I belive in what we do. I belive that there are fabulous stories out there about all walks of life and that people connect to them in all different ways. Books are the mirrors of this experience called life (in whatever shape or form) and I believe in that - in the ups and the downs.

Interesting discussions on this post that touch on so many varying topics, but I want to go back to the initial question — “Why are publishers such easy marks for fake memoirs?” The real answer is very simple — the publishing industry, like many businesses, answers to two masters — content and profitability. Most publishers keep the lights on with profits on only about 15% of their titles. That means, that the majority of their books basically lose money. However, if publishers only published books that were profitable, the wealth of talented authors, content that is diverse, interesting, challenging, informational, and entertaining, would simply not be available to us. So … in an economy that is in a Recession (yes I used the “R” word, but I won’t vear off the path on that topic) publishers have very little options to stay barely in the black. To offset the cost of publishing, they must decide how to “contain” costs and yet at the same time, search for titles that are intelligent, informational, spiritual, topical, etc. How to do this? Well ….. reduction is one way. Reduction of sales force, fewer imprints, and yes, reducing the amount of editors. If a publisher had to “vette” every single word in every single book, they would either go out of business or have to charge so much for a book that books would become a rarity, only available to the rich. When Western Printing Company in Racine, Wisconsin early in the 1900s received an imprint from Simon & Schuster as payment for an overdue printing bill — Little Golden Books was born. And Western’s goal was to bring books to everyone at an affordable price. At $ .19 a book, they were able to put books in the hands of every child. From that point in time to today, publishers have worked diligently to offer content, putting books of all kinds in our hands — whether that is a romance, psychology textbook, Western novel or autobiography on Winston Churchill, books bring the world into our every day lives. Before the internet, television, even radio … we had books. Books enriched our lives, informed, educated, entertained; they brought history and culture into our every day existence. Reading is a fundamental skill that allows any one person the capability to dream, to reach, to accomplish whatever they want to be — this could be a poor boy from Hope, Arkansas who became President or a young girl from Chicago following that same dream, challenged by a young man from Kansas who wants the job — it’s an amazing world made better by books. So we, as the reading public also have a choice, we can demean publishers like Oprah did on her show, for the occasional lapse of not having a book 100% accurate or do we stop and remember what touched Oprah’s soul — the message and that remains. I don’t applaude an author who doesn’t tell the truth, and I know that publishers continue to strive to make good books accurately, but I also don’t want to demonize an industry who has gotten it right so many times and made such a difference in people’s lives. Take a moment and realize that in the United States alone we publish almost 50,000 new books each year. So, I think we put this situation in perspective and take a moment and thank publishers for their content, for using their limited resources to choose to offer all of us a diverse range of titles and topics, from Poky Little Puppy to Dr. Phil’s self help books to content driven books on Down Syndrome and Bi-Polar, books that teach us how to speak French, how to knit or change a faucet, or entertain us with Danielle Steel and Steven King and books on anything and everything. I think we should thank publishers for bringing color into our lives, enhancing our lives in ways we cannot even imagine …

People, in general, LOVE a good story. Facts need to be substantiated so that fiction can remain just that, fiction. My mom always said, “Don’t believe everything you read. Just because you see it in print does not make it 100% real.”

It makes good reading and its all about making money. Money is always the bottom line. It should always be amde clear if its fiction or real.

I did love James Frey’s book. I would have enjoyed it just as much even knowing it was not completely true. I think that publishers are so hungry for a great story they don’t check the facts as closely as they should. I agree with Peggy Noonan. The publishers have a responsiblity to there customers. I think we will see so much more of this in the future. We do love our junk food!! A. Hobbs

MONEY!!!!! It has to sell, and sell big. Just look at what is promoted on the networks. Reality programing sells. It has nothiing to do with what is good, or honest, but only with what sells. The authors get into trouble when they present the work as non-fiction, instead of a fictional biography.

Well folks, he was outed. How many people would be found guilty of using ghost writers, or perhaps fabricating their tales? Most likely, many, many, many. The publishers do have an obligation to verify sources of info when factual content is at stake. A story, is a story, is a story!

They do not want to spend the money to Check people out and clarify, what they write is true. it is sad, even a Presidential hopeful has a book published with Facts that are not right. Society lets people make up excuses. Which enables them to do so in every aspect of their lives. Right and wrong, Put you name on something to be proud of. Are concepts from the past. Now it is, Make a easy Buck.

Many, many years ago I read a book written by the actress Anne Baxter called Intermission. Under the title were the words “A True Story”. I was not a huge fan of Miss Baxter’s but after reading the book, I became one. She was, after all, a “real” person. Part of the book was about how she tackled the neglected sheep station in Australia, to which her new husband brought her, determined to make it into a real home. The account includes describing how she managed to take up the old linoleum using whatever tools were available, which included, at times, her own fingernails. She also described finally having to color her own hair from a bottle of henna. It was a great book; I still have it because I’m one of those readers who reads favorite books more than once. After reading the book, I never watched Anne Baxter on film without feeling great admiration for her as a “real” woman as well as an actress. If someone today told me that Anne Baxter needed money at that time or was bored with her life and decided to try some other creative outlet and so wrote a book, making up big chunks of it as she went along…..well, I’d probably still wake up tomorrow morning, but I would be seriously hurt, demoralized, angry, and feel like an absolute fool. When people are duped, it is kind of like being bullied. One either must become so wary of the written word (etc.) as presented, or just not truly believe in anything one didn’t see, hear, experience, etc. for oneself. So, if everyone is “embellishing” and it’s okey with someone like Liz Smith, I need to know the rules….at what percentage does embellishing become a pack of lies? And then what?

If it’s a good story and it can sell in today’s market of reality t.v. and fasination with all things Hollywood…need I say more. It would be intersting to see who gets fooled more often (i.e. men or women) or makes a decision to sell, knowing that it is fake but will turn a coin.

I worked in book publishing for a decade, then wrote 13 novels. Now my first nonfiction book is coming out - a memoir about my passion for the NY Yankees. I’ve been on all sides of this question. I stick up for publishers because, as has already been pointed out, they don’t have the time or the man/woman power to fact check every single book and author. It’s simply not practical. The vast majority of memoirs are true (or true enough). It’s the fakes that make news. What’s more, there has always been a level of trust between author and editor and I don’t find that custom quaint or antiquated; I find it heartening. It’s important to note that there’s always a literary agent who figures into the process of getting a memoir published. It is he or she who makes the submission of the manuscript to the publisher. If there is any vetting or fact checking to be done, it should start with the agent.

Because standards have fallen. Editors are no longer respected talented professionals, but hacks who can barely do a grammar check. If they spent a minute on some fact-checking or some deep thought, they would see the fraud.

SHORT ANSWER: Greed. LONGER ANSWER: More greed.

Thank you Judith Martin for my laugh out loud moment of the day.