Nan Talese Takes the Fall

Posted on February 2, 2006

The New York Observer delves into the James Frey/Nan Talese ritual humiliation on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Apparently, Ms. Talese had no idea that she was being invited on the show to be taken to task for the entire book publishing industry.

....Ms. Talese truly had no idea what she was in for. "I was asked to go onto a program that was going to have James on it, and then I was going to be joined by Frank Rich and Richard Cohen to talk about 'Truth in America.' That was the program," Ms. Talese said by phone this past weekend. As she was walking onto the set of the special live broadcast, however, she was informed that the theme of the show had been changed to something called "The James Frey Controversy." Ms. Talese was surprised.

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Suddenly called upon to defend the troubled industry she�s worked in for decades, Ms. Talese faltered. "I hoped I would have the opportunity to explain that publishing is a business of trust--we trust our authors are telling the truth," said Ms. Talese later, outlining what she had wanted to say. "Fact checkers will no more protect people against those who do not honor truth any more than they protect the public against newspapers, television, bloggers�the Internet is rife with misinformation�or indeed from politicians and corporations. So in the end, it depends on honor, trust and character. And, indeed, forgiveness for mistakes."

Yet, like Ms. Talese, many�perhaps most�people in the book business claim they don�t think that anything is wrong with the old way of doing things, which explains the clash of civilizations apparent on Ms. Winfrey�s show. Thus far, it seems that no major changes will be made to ensure that future memoirs will be more truthful. "It worked until now. I�ve only been doing it for 30 years," said one veteran literary agent, who wouldn�t speak for attribution. "Most authors are law-abiding authors, but you get one in 1,000 who is a nutcase, and no magazine, no book publisher, can defend against that," said another, who also requested anonymity.

"It will change for a nanosecond because of the fear factor," said one publisher at a well-regarded house. "If you hope to book somebody on Larry King, you�ll ask harder questions of that writer so nothing explodes in your face. The biggest terror everyone has right now is that Oprah will suddenly say 'Oh, to hell with it and stop doing her book club."

To blame the James Frey mess on Nan Talese is just absurd -- the publisher at some point has to trust the author. If publishers are have to start running FBI security checks, treating writers like they are potential Supreme Court nominees, each book would have to retail for $1,000 or more to cover those costs.

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