Author Admits Acclaimed Memoir ('Love and Consequences') Is Fantasy

[Newsjock]

Source: New York Times

In “Love and Consequences,” a critically acclaimed memoir published last week, Margaret B. Jones wrote about her life as a half-white, half-Native American girl growing up in South-Central Los Angeles as a foster child among gang-bangers, running drugs for the Bloods.

The problem is that none of it is true.

Margaret B. Jones is a pseudonym for Margaret Seltzer, who is all white and grew up in the well-to-do Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley, with her biological family. She graduated from the Campbell Hall School, a private Episcopal day school in the North Hollywood neighborhood. She has never lived with a foster family, nor did she run drugs for any gang members. Nor did she graduate from the University of Oregon, as she had claimed.

Riverhead Books, the unit of Penguin Group USA that published “Love and Consequences,” is recalling all copies of the book and has canceled Ms. Seltzer’s book tour, which was scheduled to start on Monday in Eugene, Ore., where she currently lives.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/books/04fake.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Meanwhile those of us who are honest

cannot get things past editors.

OF course this is not the first case of this in the last five years.. and it is Bush White House Ethics seeping down all across the land.

[EFerrari]

10. If you think about it, fictional memoirs are a funny minor genre.

Sort of like portraits of royals and John Donne's brazilion affairs.

[Book Lover]

2. "There was a way to do this book honestly and have it be just as compelling."

But now Penguin is screwed to the tune of several tens of thousands and the publishing industry as a whole suffers another blow to our credibility. And another thing: this editor took three years to develop this manuscript with this author, but never uncovered the lies until after the book shipped from the warehouse? I know we editors are supposed to kiss our authors' butts, but hello! Are things this desperate in trade that editors are supposed to completely quell that nagging voice that says, "Check it out. Don't leave it for the copyeditor. Spend the five thousand bucks and get a fact-checker in here."?

[aquart]

3. Three years and never met in person?

[Book Lover]

4. Actually, that's the one thing doesn't surprise me

I work very closely via phone, email, and IM with authors I have never met in person, though we have worked together for years.

[Mythsaje]

5. I've never met a single one of my editors

and I've had four different ones with two different publishers.

That's no surprise.

What's a surprise is that no one bothered to check into anything about a book that was supposedly non-fiction. I'm willing to bet an hour of actually checking into the story would have revealed how bogus it was.

[aquart]

14. Hmmm.

So one could send in a picture of pretty much anyone for the book wrapper thing?

[Book Lover]

15. Sadly, probably yes (nm)

[Mythsaje]

20. Well, yeah, you probably could.

Not that any of my books include my picture, but... :shrug:

[pnwmom]

6. Do you think she submitted it as a memoir because it wouldn't

have sold as a novel?

Or because memoirs sell for a lot more money?

[Book Lover]

16. After reading the NYT article, here's my armchair analysis

She clearly knew/knows very little about the publishing industry. This story could easily be successfully packaged and sold as a novel. She probably lied because she thought no one would buy a fictional story from a privileged white girl about poor people of color.

[Missy Vixen]

12. There was quite a scandal in the romance industry a month ago

with an author who allegedly plagiarized with impunity, and the alleged plagiarism (I don't need to get sued,) spread over multiple books with three different publishers.

I might also add that the alleged plagiarist's books are evidently celebrating quite a resurgence. They've been all over displays wherever I've been for the last couple of weeks. In other words, alleged crime must pay.

Julie

[Book Lover]

17. That is sad (nm)

[Mythsaje]

21. Oh, yeah. My wife told me about this one.

And as for the rest, well, you know what they say. There's no such thing as bad publicity.

[Xipe Totec]

7. Truth and Consequences - A Real Life Story

In "Truth and Consequences," a critically acclaimed memoir to be published next year, Margaret Seltzer writes about her life as a white woman growing up in the well-to-do Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley with her biological family.

Margaret's life takes an interesting turn after she graduates from the Campbell Hall School, a private Episcopal day school in the North Hollywood neighborhood, and realizes her biography is too boring to publish. Margaret concocts a plan to reinvent herself as Margaret B. Jones, a half-white, half-Native American girl growing up in South-Central Los Angeles and living as a foster child among gang-bangers, running drugs for the Bloods. Seltzer writes the fictional biography of Jones and dupes Riverhead Books, the unit of Penguin Group USA, into publishing it as a real life story titled “Love and Consequences.”

Hilarity ensues when Margaret is exposed as a phony and Riverhead recalls all copies of the book and cancels Ms. Seltzer’s book tour, shortly before its scheduled start in Eugene, Ore., where she currently lives.

How will our heroine escape from her predicament?

"Truth and Consequences" is a well written yarn about how not to go about publishing your biography.

- Margaret B. Jones

It is vital that America understand the importance of truth, and the consequences of lying.

- Margaret Seltzer

Verily, I envy Ms Seltzer's wit

- William Shakespeare

[enough]

8. A strange detail -- she was certainly courting exposure.

snip from the article>

Ms. Seltzer’s story started unraveling last Thursday after she was profiled in the House & Home section of The New York Times. The article appeared alongside a photograph of Ms. Seltzer and her 8-year-old daughter, Rya. Ms. Seltzer’s older sister, Cyndi Hoffman, saw the article and called Riverhead to tell editors that Ms. Seltzer’s story was untrue.

snip>

[depakid]

13. So her "real life" sister ratted her out?

truth is sometimes stranger than fiction....

[robcon]

9. Amazing story... she thought she'd get away with it?

Hard to believe.

[skypilot]

11. Damn!!!

I should have written my memoir years ago. People who've listened to me talk about my upbringing were always telling me that I should write a book about it, but I fear that the whole memoir genre is in danger of going belly-up thanks to this kind of nonsense.

[JPZenger]

18. I Hear Mitt Romney Tried to Do the Same Thing

I hear Mitt Romney tried to do the same thing. However, he overused "who let the dogs out" and "bling bling" and eventually his editors saw through it.

[RainDog]

19. If you're a book collector

go grab a copy of this book before it's pulled.

[fshrink]

22. There was a time when one would guess

the "real life" behind the fiction. Now we're left with guessing the fiction behind the "real life". This makes complete sense however, given the absolute dictatorship of the spectacle; to completely take over reality the image must deny that it can exist in itself.