A Million Little Dollars

Those who criticize HarperCollins for picking up James Frey's novel do not understand that the publishing house is a business, not a purveyor of fine literature. Publishing has never been about producing great works, unless those great works happen to turn a profit.

Literary agent Eric Simonoff gave me an excellent critique of one of my manuscripts, advice that I am using to rewrite sections of the novel. He knows the business, knows what will sell and his guidance was a reflection of that. He's a literary agent, that's his job, and a job is designed to bring in a salary to support the wife and kids. Agents may, from time to time, take on some great writing because they can afford to accept a minute royalty on a picayune advance, but the literary agent's raison d'etre is to make a living.

Publishers like authors with a history of sales. No one can argue that James Frey had some hefty sales and proved that he could move paper. HarperCollins is taking a chance that those who bought the fraudulent memoir are so taken by Mr. Frey's style of writing that they'll buy up the novel. They believe so strongly that he will bring along a stable of loyal readers that they paid a couple of million dollars for the right to publish the manuscript.

Mr. Frey has demonstrated a tremendous ability to write fiction, given that he fooled a lot of people into believing his story. There's the argument right there, that the man can compose fiction and his books will sell.

Or they won't sell. There will be a part of the original Frey-fans who thought they were sharing a moment and will never forgive the author for tricking them. There will be those who resent his lies and won't buy anything that he writes, ever. There will be those who bought the memoir because everyone else did and they didn't like the style and they never finished it and they won't waste their money on another James Frey work again. There are no guarantees that the million readers of one book will become the million readers of the second. And if the author doesn't sell through, earn a good part of his advance, his third book won't garner such a hefty advance. And if the third doesn't sell, there may not be a fourth.

It's not personal. It's only business.