The Truth? We Can't Afford The Truth

The next time you scurry off to pick up the latest gripping memoir recommended by The Dear One (her cult of personality following is rather Kim Jong-Il like), you might want to keep the following in mind. Today's WSJ (subscription required) reports that Publishers Say Fact-Checking Is Too Costly:

Indeed, many members of the publishing industry have rallied around Ms. Talese and Random House, saying that they would have published "A Million Little Pieces" as well and could have been duped just as easily. Unlike journalists, publishers have never seen it as their purview to verify that the information in nonfiction books is true. Editors and publishers say the profit-margins in publishing don't allow for hiring fact-checkers. Instead, they rely on authors to be honest, and on their legal staffs to avoid libels suits. "An author brings a manuscript saying it represents the truth, and that relationship is one of trust," says Ms. Talese.

What was Reagan's line on such relationships? Trust but verify.

There are two things that I find striking here. The first is that the publishing industry would use profit margins as an excuse for not delivering what they promised to customers (in this case a non-fiction book). Boo frickin' hoo. Every company must deal with profit margins. Can you imagine how this would explanation would fly in other industries?

How about Halliburton? Sorry about sending rat milk instead of real milk to the troops in Iraq, but you know we have profit margins to consider.

Or Northwest Airlines? We deeply regret having that engine fall off our airplane, but with the slim profit margins in the airline industry we just can't afford to maintain our aircraft.

The other thing that is surprising is the apparently almost complete lack of fact-checking by publishers. While I would probably not expect a publisher to check every fact in a book, especially a memoir where I understand that some latitude is given, I would have thought that they at least check SOME of the facts. How much time and cost would it take to randomly fact-check? If an author was told before submitting their final manuscript that someone would be performing a random fact-check and that there was an expectation that what the author had written was true (a crazy concept for non-fiction), I have a hunch that most writers would keep it real. In high school, the mere possibility that teachers will check out the references that you cite in term papers is usually enough to ensure compliance.

But now there is a growing chorus both inside and outside the industry calling for publishers to take more steps to validate the authenticity of works that are marketed as nonfiction. "This is a breach of ethics, and who addresses that, whether it's the editor, the agent, or the publisher's legal counsel, is yet to be determined," says Lorraine Shanley, a principal in the industry consulting firm Market Partners International Inc.

Nice to someone addressing the ethics of the situation. Others think that the power and influence of television, especially forces like The Dear One, bear part of the blame:

Other nonfiction authors say the James Frey incident illustrates that publishers in general are devoting far more resources to marketing books than editing them. "There's less editorial process now, dramatically, compared to 25 years ago," says David Halberstam, author of "The Best and the Brightest" and numerous other titles. "All the money goes into marketing to get books onto television." He says that publishers' desire to get authors onto broadcasts like Ms. Winfrey's has even changed the type of book that publishers want. "A fiction writer can't do that, but a memoirist can," he says.

Now that Random House knows that "A Million Little Pieces" is in large part fiction rather than fact, surely they will step up and do the right thing by having nothing to do with further propagating Frey's fabrications, right? Surely you jest:

Last week, the publisher issued a statement saying, "We bear a responsibility for what we publish, and apologize to the reading public for any unintentional confusion surrounding the publication of 'A Million Little Pieces.'" In an interview, Ms. Talese said, "We will continue to print the book as long as there is public demand for it."

Never let the truth get in the way of incremental sales.