Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 13:47:12 -0500 From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu> To: <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> Subject: [WSFA] Re: How to sell books..... Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> More on Frey via Publishers Lunch: Talese Contradicts Frey's Account of Sale Nan Talese talks to the Observer about the publication of James Frey's A MILLION LITTLE PIECES and her essential truth is different than the author's. She tells the Observer she "almost collapsed" after hearing Frey tell Larry King, "When Nan Talese purchased the book, I=E2=80*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." Her statement: "When the manuscript of A Million Little Pieces was received by us at Doubleday, it was received as nonfiction, as a memoir. 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." Talese also indicates "that if Mr. Frey had confessed prior to publication to the fabrications revealed by the Smoking Gun last week, she would have excised them from the book. A transgression had been committed, Ms. Talese acknowledged, but the person responsible was Mr. Frey. "I don=E2=80*t think it is ever a good idea to purposely distort the truth," she said." Observer http://click.email-publisher.com/maaepg0abnCCpa4fqn8baeQxXH/=20