Tuesday, February 07, 2006

No lawyers?

Lawyers are ubiquitous, right? Not so in Frey's case. (I know, I know, I'm still writing about this. Forgive me!) It seems everyone wants to place blame on Sean McDonald or Nan Talese or James Frey. And while all of them are somewhat to blame, I suppose, the publishing house's in-house lawyer should be the one focused on, don't you think?

What about the laywer?? Prior to Pen on Fire being published, I had a long talk with Harcourt's lawyer. My book was being vetted--a writing book!

Didn't Frey's book go through a thorough vetting? So easy to place blame after the fact, isn't it?

Frey's editor wouldn't have been the one to ask all those questions. This is what lawyer's do--they ask those legal questions. Or should.

Just my humble three cents.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent point. These are the kinds of details the consumer never gets exposure to under normal circumstances.

Anonymous said...

Barbara, you're right. I have first-hand experience with this. Lawyers usually hire private detectives to check certain facts. In Frey's case there were major ones: Jail time, a suicide, rehab time, etc.