Random House Offers Readers Refund
Given Dan Brown's obvious and proven errors in his purported "facts" and his refusal to confirm that he did any research at all as warranted, and given the millions of people who bought the book based on Brown's representations of accuracy, it looks logical that RH should refund money to those who bought Da Vinci Code.
Or perhaps a class action lawsuit on behalf of those people really is in the works as some emails I have received suggest?
Of course, RH and Brown can't admit the "facts" were actually "fiction" because they're fiction I made up first ... so they have to keep insisting fiction is fact and the judges have to keep taking random House's word for it, otherwise ...
... otherwise, we must have a trial -- Dan and RH's worst nightmare.
Anyway, here's the refund story from today.
Readers offered refund for controversial memoir
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Random House will offer a refund to readers who bought James Frey's drug and alcohol memoir "A Million Little Pieces" directly from the publisher, a move believed to be unprecedented, after the author was accused of exaggerating his story.
The entire story is here.
Or perhaps a class action lawsuit on behalf of those people really is in the works as some emails I have received suggest?
Of course, RH and Brown can't admit the "facts" were actually "fiction" because they're fiction I made up first ... so they have to keep insisting fiction is fact and the judges have to keep taking random House's word for it, otherwise ...
... otherwise, we must have a trial -- Dan and RH's worst nightmare.
Anyway, here's the refund story from today.
Readers offered refund for controversial memoir
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Random House will offer a refund to readers who bought James Frey's drug and alcohol memoir "A Million Little Pieces" directly from the publisher, a move believed to be unprecedented, after the author was accused of exaggerating his story.
The entire story is here.
posted by Lewis Perdue at 11:56 AM
10 Comments:
I was just going to post this here. Great minds think alike, to slip and use a cliche. Lies sell. Nonfiction ones just don't have the protection of fiction. Even others' fiction to bail them out. I don't know why anyone bought this book in the first place. If you write an unconventional memoir involving wierd people and places combined with doing good work in conservation they reject it. Write about being hammered for a decade and it's number one. We really have fallen far. It's like a liars convention around here these days.
edited to correct posting misfires.
Did yuo see the paperback dea for DVC in March? It's huge.
Yes, huge paperback run ... wonder if they'll have to strip off a lot of covers?
I believe lies will eventually catch up with the liar.
Of course, I'm willing to help that process a bit now and then!
I think of yet another Random House author when reading this from Lev Grossman at Time.com:
"... If it's not factual, why didn't Frey publish A Million Little Pieces as fiction? By claiming this his story was literally true, Frey endowed it with a heightened immediacy and an emotional force that it lacked as a novel - in effect, he borrowed a litttle extra emotional oomph from his trusting readers, who treated his narrative as 100% lived experience, real dues paid by a real person. That's not trivial. If Frey wasn't entitled to that immediacy and that force - if he stole that oomph rather than borrowed it - well, that's cheating. And he should come clean and give it back."
Of course, A Million Little Pieces is chump change compared with Da Vinci Code and thus follows that Random House would feed one author to the wolves (refunds etc) and not the other.
Fiction -- from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to "On the Beach" and more recent works -- have often succeeded in raising important and real issues to a higher level of recognition among the general public.
So, if fiction can serve important real-life issues, does the author have a responsibility to make sure that fact is fact?
I think they do offer refunds on all of their books. This isn't Publishamerica we're talking about here. frey did try to publish it a fiction but 17 agents and publishers turned it down. Doubleday said it could go as a memoir do Frey said "Sure!" And changed nothing. That's deception.
I was disappointed in William Patry's response to your claim.
As for mine, my historian took a line on my family history without quoting or attribution. There is no remedy legally I'm told but I wrote St. Martin's about it.
Mark: Did Patry comment on the appeal?
No he didn't. That was what I was hoping for, but he only reverted to his last commentary. I'll try again. I'm still incensed by the Frey debacle. A known Hollywood player pawning this fictional drivel off as truth by someone who is innocent is total BS.
There may be no _legal_ remedy for you, but you can hound a plagiarist on the web, in blogs and in the media -- even show up at book signings -- for the rest of his or her life.
Believe me, I have thought long and hard about what the future looks like if Random House's legal technicality schemes deny me a fair trial on the DVCode issue.
There are many, many creative things which can be done as long as you are a pit bull and never let go.
I never let go. You seem likewise disposed.
But you have to get over the anger. Anger and determination are not the same things.
Anger only blocks the creative process. Once you're past the anger, then creativity flows again... both in how to create your own justice and into getting back to writing the next book.
That's good advice, and while I have two completed nonfiction books in the pipeline including that one, I'm even less enthused by prospects of a novel which is nearing 100 pages. I've made my concerns about that project public from the beginning. Perhaps prematurely, but it boiled down to that one line.
On the other hand another noted historical author has cited me and quoted my research in an upcoming book from a major publisher. it may be the break I've been campaigning for.
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