Friday, January 13, 2006

Writer James Frey to Add Author's Note to Contested Bestseller

By Edward Nawotka

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Author James Frey will add an author's note to future editions of his contested book, ``A Million Little Pieces,'' his publisher said today.

The news of the addendum was issued in an e-mailed statement by the Doubleday Books imprint of Random House, a unit of Bertelsmann AG. In an interview, Alison Rich, director of publicity for Doubleday, wouldn't comment on what the note will say.

The Web site thesmokinggun.com alleged that in the memoir the author exaggerated his run-ins with the police and the jail time he served. A story on the site said Frey fabricated his involvement in a 1986 train crash that killed two schoolmates in Michigan.

Doubleday has defended the book, which was initially submitted to publishers as a work of fiction, saying, ``The power of the overall reading experience is such that the book remains a deeply inspiring and redemptive story for millions of readers.''

Television talk show host Oprah Winfrey turned ``A Million Little Pieces'' into a publishing phenomenon when she made the memoir the selection for her book club late last year. The book subsequently sold some 1.7 million copies, according to Nielsen BookScan, and was the second-bestselling book last year in the U.S., bested only by J.K. Rowling's ``Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince.''

No comments: