A Million Little Fact Checkers

In addition to this lawsuit, yesterday’s Wall Street Journal mentions yet another lawsuitover James Frey’s sham exaggerated memoir A Million Little Pieces. The lawsuits raise the issue of what precautions publishers should take in publishing memoirs.  Should publishers undertakeextensive fact investigations?  Should they include warranty clauses in contracts withauthors? The Wall Street Journal article reported:

Some publishers say the “Million Little Pieces”incident may well result in some changes in how books are vetted. “Theentire process will have to be rethought,” says James Atlas, president ofAtlas Books LLC and the author of “My Life in the Middle Ages: ASurvivor’s Tale” a memoir published last year by News Corp.’sHarperCollins imprint. “Publishers will scrutinize far more closely whatthey publish, especially in the realm of memoirs. But short of having some kindof honor code I don’t see what can really be done except to exercise fargreater vigilance.”

Some do. Jeff Kleinman, an agent with Folio Literary Management,said publishers could add a clause to the author’s warranty section in theircontracts, stating that to the best of the writer’s knowledge the facts in thebook are true. “The point being, if the author’s found to egregiouslymisrepresent the facts, the author could be sued for breach of contract,”said Mr. Kleinman via email. “Wouldn’t that be a lot simpler than askingan agent, or even a publisher, to verify and fact-check every book?”

The article points out that having a million littlefact-checkers is expensive. However,would a warranty clause really deter an author from telling lies exaggerating the truth?

Even if deterrence could potentially be costly for publishers, it seemsthat Oprah exacted her own dose of retribution by humiliating questioning Frey in a recentinterview. Themost interesting question here seems to be: has demand for thebook increased since the “controversy” broke?

[Meredith R. Miller]