Fiction In Disguise

We've been through the Franzen fiasco, and JT Leroy has been exposed. In the end, it would appear that some authors have resorted to tricks to get published. Such is the state of the publishing world, with good writers being ignored and weak markets being chased and run down to exhaustion.

It's not over just yet. Rohan Kriwaczek has authored a new book, which covers the history of the funerary violin. Complete with illustrations, this non-fiction tome, and the pages are covered with scads of research material. Ha, ha, gotcha! He made it all up.

Doesn't Peter Mayer of Overlook Press look the idiot. Mr. Mayer fell for the hoax and has picked up the rights to publish this "...authentic historical work of nonfiction." So beautifully written, with adequate research and references to some of the key players in a once-banned musical genre...except, of course, that the entire book, cover to cover, is fiction.

The whole thing was exposed by Paul Ingram, a buyer for an independent book shop in Iowa (home of the most prestigious MFA in the known world). He thought something was amiss, for reasons unexplained, and got in touch with an expert on the history of the violin. David Schoenbaum confirmed Mr. Ingram's suspicions. The book seemed to be completely fabricated. The folks at the New York Times did a bit of simple research, and came up blank. No such thing as the funerary violinist guild that was referenced in Mr. Kriwaczek's work, no Wikipedia reference, no nothing.

Now, Mr. Mayer claims that he had his doubts after he read the manuscript. Not enough doubts, it would appear, to not buy the book and publish it as non-fiction, but hindsight is 20/20 as they say. Pity that Mr. Kriwaczek was not hooked up to a lie detector, or his answers to Mr. Mayer's probing questions might not have been quite so credible. Needless to say, the author was able to pull a bit of musical wool over the publisher's eyes.

The author did try to get some publishing credits before submitting his manuscript, but the violin authorities who edit The Strad, a magazine of all things stringed, could smell the scam from far away. They rejected the short piece, which was in essence a set-up for the book, complete with faked letters and antique newspaper stories. Ariane Todes, the journal's editor, says that Mr. Kriwaczek confessed that it was all a hoax after the magazine went to press without his article in it.

Overlook Press paid only $1800 for the rights, which is small change. So, now that they know it's fiction, will it be sold as fiction? If they play it right, they could start a whole new genre -- hoax fiction. The folks in marketing are no doubt putting a campaign together, ready to more than recoup costs.

To all you writers of historical fiction, this is the niche for you. Write something that reads like narrative non-fiction, create a bunch of documents that purport to shore up your claims, and you too can be a published author. You could even craft an entirely artificial persona to go along with it, pretend to be who you are not while touting a history book that is not. Whatever it takes to get your foot in the door of a publishing house...looks like anything is fair game.