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Personally, I’d take the respect of fellow writers over the money. Then again, I’ve never been that driven by acquiring money–obviously–and what’s money going to do for you when your writing community thinks you stink?

Okay, so he tried to sell it as fiction but the publisher said, Well, you say this is a memoir with a bit of embellishing? Let’s make it a memoir, then–it’ll sell better, so he does, he takes their advice, which is not always the best, admittedly, he gets sucked in, and then lookit.

At some point, you just have to stand your ground. Just say no, right?

But he’s sold more books as a result of this fiasco, which I find repugnant. It figures. Our culture is currently so very celebrity-driven. Designer cars, designer clothes, designer books.

Eek!

“…which makes him a dealer in the literary equivalent of laetrile.” You’re right, Amy …. ouch…!

Click here to read “Desire for fact lies in a million pieces” by Tim Rutten.

Some anonymous someone wrote and said that he/her (said person didn’t want to reveal who they were) found it interesting that I’ve spent the week writing about people I don’t care about.

I found that really interesting–and odd.

Aren’t all writers interested in matters of ethics in publishing? Aren’t you interested in whether what Frey did was considered unethical by the folks in publishing? By readers and other writers? And aren’t you interested and curious at the power that Oprah wields?

I am.

And so I write about it. I care about ethics in publishing and I care about how all this will shake down.

The other day I asked a friend–a well-published author, in fact–if she’d been following the Frey fiasco. She said she really hadn’t been but from what she ascertained, The Smoking Gun was just trying to start trouble. This was her opinion after reading headlines.

Headlines. We read headlines and we skim.

I suppose I’ll hear from that anonymous someone who will tell me again how curious they are that I’m still writing about this topic I care nothing about. I just hope he/her/it says who they are this time, so we can have a dialogue. This is part of the problem, you know–so many of us are afraid to say who we are, express our opinions.

It’s easier to remain silent, to not make waves.

Okay, now I must retrieve the L.A. Times from the sidewalk. SFAmylou emailed and said there’s an article about Frey. Talk to you later…

I have never ever read a book because Oprah recommended it. Of course all authors want to be on Oprah, but do authors read what she recommends? I doubt it. Matter of fact, I was attracted to Franzen’s The Corrections when he declined being an Oprah pick. That intrigued me, and I loved the book.

But what is that, reading a book because Oprah picked it for her book club? What happened to wandering the bookstore looking for a book, or reading reviews, or listening to your friends talking about their books? Now, if you have no friends that read, then you’re going to need Oprah. Or if you don’t read reviews or you don’t wander the bookstore.

She says if a book resonates, that makes it true? Oh Dear. Now we have to define the word “true.”

Here’s what Publishers Weekly and others have to say about Frey. (On Maud Newton’s blog, scan down a bit. She has lots of links.

And please, somebody, tell me: Why does everyone care so very much what Oprah thinks and why does she have such influence over what people read? I mean, I know why authors love her, but the reading public, why???