James Frey Publishing Deal Falls to Pieces

People Magazine

James Frey Publishing Deal Falls to Pieces
Friday Feb 24, 2006 8:00am EST
By Stephen M. Silverman



James Frey, who fell from Oprah Winfrey's grace and admitted last month that he made up much of his best-selling memoir A Million Little Pieces, has been dropped by his publisher, the author's representative has confirmed.

After writing A Million Little Pieces for Random House, Frey jumped with his editor Sean McDonald to Penguin imprint Riverhead Books, which published his second book, My Friend Leonard, last June. Riverhead then contracted Frey to write two more books, one of them a novel, for an undisclosed sum.

"All I can say is he no longer has a deal with them," Frey's rep, Lisa Kussell, tells Reuters, declining to provide further details.

Penguin spokesman David Zimmer declined comment.

The uproar over Frey's book – which still remains on best-seller lists and has sold more than 1.77 million copies since being anointed to Oprah's book club last year – started when the Smoking Gun Web site reported it could find no public records supporting the author's claim he had spent three months in jail after trying to run over a police officer with his car.

Facing Winfrey, who labeled the author a liar, last month, Frey admitted that much of his book was fiction. He spent two hours in jail, not 87 days, and an account of his breaking up with a woman who later committed suicide was condensed in time and was changed, he said.

The Los Angeles Times has also reported that Warner Bros. was reconsidering plans to make a movie version of A Million Little Pieces.