Monday, June 29, 2009

A Million Little Impressionable Minds

After Oprah gave him what for, you'd think that James Frey would have gone away to wallow in his shame.

His memoir was a complete sham, after all, and how many people wept tears over him and ended up feeling the fool.

But no. James Frey is back.

With uber-agent Eric Simonoff behind him, the disgraced author is now going to write fiction for your youngster. At least, that's the rumor. Mr. Simonoff is shopping a manuscript that is penned by a famous NYT best-selling author who remains unnamed.

If you're cynical, you're thinking that the literary agent won't speak the man's name because what parent, after getting burned on the memoir, would go out and buy anything Mr. Frey wrote. Especially something for their child with an impressionable mind. What if there's long passages in there to promote dishonesty on a massive scale?

If you're more business minded, you're chuckling at the secrecy because Mr. Frey's second book, post-rumbling, didn't sell through and it's hard for an agent to get a publisher to bite after that kind of bad news.

The manuscript on submission is planned as the first in a six book series, and it's said that the film rights have already been sold. No surprise there. Hollywood's all about make-believe and isn't that James Frey's memoir in few words?

Now that Mr. Frey's involvement has come out in the open, it will be interesting to see if a major publisher makes an offer, and in what amount. Considering the weak sales of the last book and the author's damaged reputation, it's quite a risk, and risk translates into a small advance.

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