A Bright Shiny Morning it must have been for James Frey, this past Sept. 13. It was the morning he sold his aptly-titled book to HarperCollins, for an undisclosed amount. For Frey, it marks more than the sale of his first novel --a milestone for any writer - but also signals a possible, Ali-like return to the ring, after the shining star of the book world became the embarrassment of the publishing industry.
Frey was a Los Angeles screenwriter when he published his first book A Million Little Pieces in 2003. The book was his personal memoir and was initially greeted with a great deal of skepticism. In the memoir, Frey recounted his battle with drugs, alcohol, life of crime and, eventually, his journey for rehabilitation.
A Million Little Pieces didn't receive national spotlight, (and millions in sales) however, until Oprah Winfrey made it her book club pick in October 2005. With Oprah's sponsorship, he quickly became the poster-boy for the publishing industry. That is, until January 2006, when the Web site, thesmokinggun.com, exposed numerous discrepancies and outright fabrications in his work and exposed him as a fraud.
After that, it was a game of hot-potato to see who would be left holding the pariah-turned Frey. Oprah cleaned her hands of the whole affair by bringing him back onto her show to scold him on national television. His agent dropped him shortly after, followed by Doubleday (the publishing house that published A Million Little Pieces.) and Pearson PLC's Riverhead Books followed suit, but only after they already published his sophomore memoir, My Friend Leonard.
Riverhead also chose to walk away from the Bright Shiny Morning deal. This eventually opened the door for HarperCollins publicist Jonathan Burnham. Burnam befriended Frey about a year ago, and Frey's agent Eric Simonoff offered him an exclusive look at the new manuscript. Burnam seized the opportunity.
"Whatever view one might hold of what happened with [A Million Little Pieces,] Burnham said, "I was deeply struck by the writing."
"The same muscular prose and compulsively readable style in his earlier books are on abundant display in this novel," Simonoff said. "When word began trickling out that I had a novel from Frey, every publisher in town contacted me," he said later. "There would have been a bidding war."
But will readers forgive Frey's betrayal and dishonesty, and actually buy his new book?
According to the numbers, they already have: Even after the scandal broke, the book was still selling at least 1,000 copies a week, and at the time of this writing, sold more than 3 million copies.
The September issue of Library Journal also ranked it No. 11 on its list of nonfiction books most borrowed in U.S. libraries.
Bright Shiny Morning is slated for publication in summer 2008.
Be the first to comment on this article!