STATUS: Piping Mad!
What’s playing on the iPod right now? OMG! Somebody is practicing their horn nearby and I can hear it through the vent (maybe a tuba?) And trust me, they need the practice.
Unbelievable! Yet again, an NYT story on how a hugely lauded memoir called LOVE & CONSEQUENCES is basically a fabrication.
Funny how all the memoirs that publishers have bought and have deemed “big enough” have been nothing but fiction disguised as a memoir. The publisher, Riverhead, is now recalling the 19,000 copies that released last week.I am steamed. Kim Reid and I worked very hard to find a home for her memoir NO PLACE SAFE. An amazing story. A beautifully written story. A completely truthful (and we can back it up with full documentation) story.
Do me a favor? Go to Amazon.com right now and buy a copy of NO PLACE SAFE that’s actually a true memoir. Buy it so these yahoos in publishing will quit paying six figures for what is essentially a work of fiction.
If I hear one more story in the news about a fabricated memoir, I’m going to spit.
Okay, rant over.
And even though John’s memoir LOOK ME IN THE EYE did extraordinarily well (and Kim and I are often in envy of his sales numbers), his story is also true.
So if you want to support truth in memoir by making a purchase, I guess you can buy a copy of his as well. (But only if you buy a copy of Kim’s—she says wickedly).
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Blog: Pub Rants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: client books, career suicide, publishers, client books, career suicide, Add a tag

Blog: Pub Rants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: client books, client books, Add a tag
STATUS: In a hurry…
What’s playing on the iPod right now? LOVE ME TWO TIMES by The Doors
Dashing out the door (pardon the pun) but I didn’t want to forget to mention a really cool giveaway that is going on over at Dear Author. Jane finagled 20 advanced final copies of PRIVATE ARRANGMENTS from Bantam (and it doesn’t release for another 5 weeks!). She’s giving them away on her blog and the giveaway ends Midnight tonight if you want to get your hands on one and see what all the buzz is about.

Blog: Pub Rants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: submission, submission, client books, client books, Add a tag
STATUS: Had my first real appts. at HarperCollins this afternoon. Funny enough, the editors and I spent more time talking about my new Kindle than upcoming projects. The associate publisher even popped in to play with it.
What’s playing on the iPod right now? MAMBO No. 5 by Lou Bega
Here’s another spin on the second time around. Last year I took on a new client from whom I had seen a previous novel but I had passed on (but remembered that I liked the writing). She hooked up with a different agent, but the project didn’t sell. The agent wasn’t interested in her next novel so she decided to try me again for her new stuff since it was so different from her previous novel.
Loved it. Took it on. Sent it out and it’s going to auction.
The love was definitely better the second time around.
Happens all the time by the way.

Blog: Pub Rants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: submission, client books, submission, client books, Add a tag
STATUS: The only problem with doing a lot of deals is doing all the time-consuming contracts. Small price to pay really.
What’s playing on the iPod right now? HAPPY TOGETHER by The Turtles
I know I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. No matter how good a manuscript, no matter how many editors attend the auction, no matter how much the project went for in the end, there will always be at least one editor who passed on the novel.
Always.
For fun, I went back into Ally Carter’s submission folder. In case you’ve been living under a rock, one or both of Ally’s Gallagher Girl books have been on the New York Times Bestseller list for many many weeks.
She received no less than 5 rejections. Now the actual content of those letters isn’t mine to share but I can give you a general idea of why those houses passed. Two said that they thought the spy school idea had been done and it wasn’t fresh enough. Two other houses passed because they were afraid it was too similar to other books on their list (certainly a valid concern but when I look at those titles, they have never appeared on the NYT list). Okay, I probably shouldn’t have rubbed it in there.
The last house thought it should be grittier and was disappointed that it wasn’t more so.
In the end, two houses made pre-empts. One of which we accepted.
So I know there is one very sad editor out there who couldn’t convince her publisher to go higher in that pre-emptive offer and then there is Ally’s editor at Hyperion who is very glad she came in strong and now has the sales figures to validate her gamble.
Keep that in mind if you are currently on submission. I imagine that JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer also have a letter or two that might make them chuckle now.

Blog: Pub Rants (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: queries, client books, Add a tag
STATUS: I’m hearing some interesting rumors through the romance grapevine. Nothing I can share quite yet but when I hear a confirm, I’ll fill you guys in. What are Mondays for except to set up a crisis for later in the week…
What’s playing on the iPod right now? DO-RE-ME by Julie Andrews
Because I really needed to, I stayed up late last night reading about 100 queries (yes, I was a little behind). Newsflash I know. But I had an interesting thought while I was reading those queries and since that doesn’t happen often…
Okay, that was a lame joke but it is a Monday after all. I do think this is important if you are in the middle of the query process. Many times in query letters, writers will mention that they read one of my clients books and that was partly why they decided to query me.
I have to say I like that. It tells me you didn’t just do a quick research on the internet and then shoot me a query. It means that you took the time to read (or skim) a client book so as to target your query. How could an agent not be flattered?
But then I noticed something. The book mentions didn’t really hold any weight for me except when writers deliberately had cited a specific scene or something that had happened to a main character in the query letter itself. Because then I knew that they had, indeed, actually read the novel. (And even if you didn’t read the whole thing and only read let’s say the first 50 pages, well heck, I won’t call you on it. You at least made more than an effort then the general querier.) I can’t say I then ask for sample pages 100% of the time but it’s probably close.
Here’s the other thought that struck me. The read-the-client mention also only worked for me when the connection was obvious to the query project being proposed. In other words, if writers had read a client novel that didn’t really have much to do with their type of work, I have to say it confused me more than helped. I couldn’t help but think that gee, it’s interesting that the author had read Marianne Mancusi’s STAKE THAT! (for example) but I’m not sure how that YA title has anything to do with this adult horror novel (or whatever) the writer is presenting in the query.
Do you see what I mean?
Now I do give extra points to writers who creatively make the connection or just outright say that STAKE THAT! doesn’t really mesh with their proposed project but since they had read it and liked it, they thought I would be open to XYZ. That works—just as long as there is a clear enough reference to an actual scene or character in the book that demonstrates that it was read.
And speaking of… GIRLS THAT GROWL hits shelves this week as well.
Third in Mancusi's hip, sassy vampire series, featuring the heroine of Stake That!
She's a vampire. She's also a vampire slayer. (It's a long story, don't ask.) And now Rayne McDonald, Goth girl, has to carry out her most deviant mission yet: trying out for the cheerleading squad.
Rayne already has enough on her plate: her twin keeps whining about whether or not to go all the way; her mom's boyfriend is moving in; and her man, Jareth, who's now allowed out in the sun, has turned from a dark, brooding hottie vamp into a surfer dude.
But this vampire slayer is still on the clock, and she has a new assignment. A member of the football team has disappeared-and her bosses at Slayer Inc. think the cheerleaders had something to do with it. Now they want her to infiltrate the squad and get the dirt. But first, she'll need an extreme prep makeover. If only they'd let her wear fishnets under that revolting uniform...
A few other agents-who-blog are ranting on this same subject. I feel sorry for Kim, but it's hard for a reader not to be skeptical at this point. So many memoirs are complete fiction.
And although the story is broken the punishment hasn't been public enough to keep people from trying this avenue to publishing.
I adored Kim's memoir - it was great. But you might want to change the picture... when I opened your blog today and say "And Yet Another Memoir That Is Fiction" and a picture of "No Place Safe" I though no!!!!! how could it be???
Of course hopefully people are reading your blog and not just looking at the pictures! ;)
And as an author of published fiction, I'm pretty disgusted, too. It hurts all of us.
I wanted to strongly second what the other comment said about being very clear that your blog headline and the book image do not go together. I knew Love & Consequences was a recent scandal, but thought you might have uncovered yet another!
I too have read both John & Kim's. I also have no idea why this wasn't written as fiction. No offense meant to any of the agents or editors out there, but don't they have some responsibility to verify a potential client's claims?
I've always thought it was rather simple: If your story is made up, you write fiction. If your story is true, you write non-fiction. If your story is true AND it happened to you, then and only then is it a memoir.
I'm am throughly dissapointed in any author who would mess things up for other people in the writing buisness for what I imagine can be only personal gains.
OooOooo, No Safe Place! I heard about this book. Kinda what life was like for families during the Atlanta Child murders. I've heard this is a definate have-to-read book!
I'll buy!
Regarding memoirs; How does an agent know if its the truth or not? Aren't they mostly memories?
I'm not surprised you're mad. I would be, too, if I hadn't given up on the entire memoir field several scandals back.
But if you vouch for your client, that's good enough for me :).
Kim's book is fantastic. But Kristin, I also think you should separate the book cover from the heading! I, too, glanced at it and though, "oh no, it can't be!"
And John's book is beyond fantastic... he's amazing. He's also super nice.
This is the second memoir scandal in the last week I've heard about. The first was the woman who said she lived with wolves for 4 years. The woman is now 71. Who is supposed to do the fact checking?
sadly, if selzer (or frey) had tried publishing their fiction as fiction, it would have never sold. it's the reality tv effect, the oprah effect -- we all want uplifting stories of renewal and hope from the depths, and if they're true, well, all the better.
i wondered about who was supposed to do the fact-checking as well.
Wow! Kim's book looks amazing--it's on my list! And what a fabulous write-up from PW, too! I hate that these faux-memoirs get so much power behind them. Thanks for sharing a couple of good, truly powerful books.
If publishers really want to publish memoirs, then they need to invest in fact checkers. And the worse part is that there aren't long-term consequences for this- James Frey has a novel coming out this year.
Okay, I ordered Kim's book. I've been planning to do it for a while. Just sorry it took so long.
I am really curious, where are the fact checkers?? A post on how agents/publishers/editors go about confirming the truth of a memoir would be helpful.
Surely an author has to provide some evidence that their story is true. Am I wrong?
Kim's book was so moving and honest that I found it hard to put down. I didn't read this latest scandal- but when I read Frey's book my internal "no f-ing way" meter went off. It didn't read true- it read much too larger than life.
I sincerely hope that great memoirs such as Kim's, and great fiction that admits it is fiction- gets the attention it deserves.
I wonder if editors would reject the exact same mss if it's presented as fiction instead of memoir. Or do writers just fear that?
Thanks all for supporting my book! It's sad that memoirs will be even more difficult for writers and agents to sell. Worse, the fallout will turn some memoir readers into skeptics.
Kim
Good luck to Kim and her book. This whole hoax thing burns me up too. It feel very exploitive of a real problem in this country.
I also think it's awful that perfectly good fiction has trouble being places because everyone is looking for "the hook" with marketing.
And that's why unpublished authors who are writing memoirs, try to submit them as fiction! Because agents are afraid to represent them. In my case, I'm writing a memoir, all facts true, happened to me! I have documents to support the book, but... Maybe I should submit it as fiction!
I say it's high time someone fact checked "Marley and Me." Sure, he said the dog was unruly, a slobberpuss, and overexuberant - but how do we it's the truth? Maybe he made the whole thing up! But of course the dog has since passed on. How convenient. How utterly convenient...
I really worried about a backlash when my agent was submitting my memoir to editors last year. I just turned in the last pass to my publisher. Since I wasn't asked for any fact check stuff, I wrote in the acknowledgements:
"With all the controversy surrounding memoir these days, if doubt ever arises about the veracity of what is contained in these pages, rest assured I can provide appropriate documentation, including but not limited to: emergency room charts, police records and AAA bills."
I hope that reassures readers. But, it really does make you wonder if book buyers now routinely look at memoir (if they even do as much) with a very skeptical eye.
For me, if something is well written, I don't care if it's called memoir or fiction - I'll read it anyway. But if it is a memoir, it better be true.
Thank you for saying something. You raised a point that has been overlooked. There are many authentic voices trying to get their stories told, but they can't --for whatever reason.
What Margaret Peggy Seltzer did was treat South Central LA and those who have suffered real and long lasting effects of poverty, gangs, drugs and lack of opportunity as nothing more than a reality tv show. She set herself up as a defacto "go to" expert based on experiences that weren't hers and were made up. This is repugnant and it was her choice, no one else's.
One can never justify this by saying if it had been published as a novel, it wouldn't have gotten published. Judging from Michiko Kukatani's initial review, there never was an issue with Seltzer's writing. Instead, she decided to fib until she became the personification of the lie itself. A person who submits a piece of fiction as the truth is a liar.
Though she may be talented, she is morally compromised.
I have written a satirical piece over on blogcritics.com. It makes her look like an opportunistic twit.
And yes, I will gladly by No Safe Place.
Publishers ACTIVELY SEEK "fake" memoirs that were originally written as fiction, because memoirs supposedly are more marketable than first novels. I know this from experience. The first novel I wrote, TEMPLAND, (which is not autobiographical in any way, but had a first-person narrator), ran into this phenomenon. First, I was out-and-out told by several top agents that I had to "rework" this piece of total fiction into a "memoir" in order for them to rep the book. (I refused those offers of representation). Then, when I finally found an agent willing to rep the book as fiction (which, of course, it was), he kept getting told by acquiring editors that the book would only work as a memoir. Since neither my agent nor I was comfortable with that, the book never sold.
Publishing is entirely behind the fake-memoir phenomenon, and is only sorry when the industry gets caught.
(Note: I also have written a TRUE memoir).