Blind Editors?

As "Not Yet Published", it outrages me when I see articles like this pointing out the spate of bogus memoirs now littering the market.

The fake memoir wave continues. In Tuesday’s Times, Motoko Rich reports that contrary to the premise of her new memoir, “Love and Consequences,” Margaret B. Jones is not half-white, half-native American and was not raised as a foster child by a black family in South-Central L.A. Her real name’s Margaret Seltzer and she’s from Sherman Oaks. (Click here for Rich’s Wednesday follow-up, and here for today’s
story on how Seltzer apparently fabricated a charitable foundation.)

This follows on the case of Misha Defonseca, who fessed up last week not to have been raised by wolves in the forests of Europe during the Holocaust — a story Blake
Eskin untangled in Slate here and my colleague Greg Cowles blogged about below. Two years ago, it emerged that J.T. Leroy, the celebrated author of the gritty novels “Sarah” and “The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things,” was not in fact a gay, truck-stop prostitute from West Virginia, but rather the assumed identity of a San Francisco writer named Laura Albert.

Hellloooo? What part of 'raised by wolves' failed to raise a red flag during the editing process? Did the author present an affadivt from Professor Remus Lupin?

Hand me a rough draft and an internet connection, and I could have prevented these fiascos and more. What is wrong with this Make a Buck mentallity? I suspect the root lies in TV theory: If the other channel is doing it, we should be too! Memoirs selling? Buy more! Fiction not so much? Make them Memoirs!!

Yes, I think these authors are ill and seeking attention. Perhaps they are accomplished actors as well. But properly classifying literature is a burden that falls beneath the job of a professional publishing house. Sure, authors can be quirky, prima donnas, or mentally unstable. That doesn't mean their writing lacks merit. or their story needs to remain untold. Buying a book classified as non-fiction, however, implies basic fact-checking was performed on the manuscript.

I don't want an innacurate history book. I might love a fictious accounting of the Lincoln assination. I certainly don't care to confuse the two.

I think it is telling that after Frey was exposed, he claimed to have shopped his book as fiction at one point. The further lies of a man squirming beneath scrutiny? Or an actual anecdote about the sad state of publishing today?

The fact is, publishers edit most books and lawyer some — but they rarely ever fact-check. It’s seen as too time- and cost-consuming. The average magazine article is fact-checked far more rigorously than the average book.

As for me? I don't have a life. But I promise not make one up and try to pass it off as real.