And yet, if one idea continues to resonate, it's that the scandal could have happened to anyone in the book business. "I think the James Frey embarrassment could have occurred any time in the last 900 years of publishing, because the industry is built on trust for a writer's integrity," said Harold M. Evans, former publisher of Random House.

Publishers and editors can be deceived because they do not have the resources to verify every single fact in a book, he added. "But I only have 80% sympathy for them, because we should also be sensitive to things that ring false. If an author makes an outlandish claim, somebody has to take the time to find out if it's really true." The incentive to do that may be diminished with a writer like Frey, whose dramatic, redemption-themed memoir, suggests author David Halberstam, "is precisely the kind of book that many publishers are hungry for now."

"With the marketing pressures driving the book world today, it's much easier to get the author of a memoir on a television show than a serious novelist," Halberstam said.

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"He seemed like the nicest guy I ever met in my life," recalled David Glasser, the international distributor of "Crash," who said he distributed a small movie Frey co-produced 10 years ago, adding: "He's probably ruined in Hollywood. Everybody knows everybody."