Latest literary hoax perpetrated on my old imprint

This is a large issue that deserves lengthier discussion, but as I am back at work for a half day (woot!) after being gone almost two weeks, a short post will have to suffice.

I heard about this newest publishing scandal on the nightly news a couple days ago.

False Memoir of Holocaust Is Canceled

I was working at Berkley when one of our editors acquired this book, I was privy to many discussions about it, and I met Herman Rosenblat and his wife in our office. They were a very nice, adorable old couple. Sweet as can be. I believe him that he didn’t mean any harm by inventing the first part of his story (that he met his wife while he was in an internment camp and she brought him apples at the fence). But good god, man! Did it never occur to him that you can’t just lie like that?

Now Berkley has cancelled the book and wants its advance back, and once again the morons in the media who have no understanding of the book publishing world are blaming Penguin, the agent, and editors for being “taken in” and not doing “fact checking.”

Dear New York Times: Book publishers are not fact checkers the same way that newspapers are. Nonfiction authors sign contracts stating that all the information they provide is true. Editors have no choice but to trust the veracity of the works they acquire. The agent should do some basic verifying of facts before they start shopping around a memoir, but the onus is on the author to be honest. If they are not, they have broken their contract.

I am so annoyed at the immediate and erroneous finger-pointing that happens in these cases. And I feel so bad for the editorial team at Berkley that now has to deal with this. Hang in there, guys! There will soon be another target of fraudulent nonfiction, and this will blow over.

Besides, Oprah was duped first. Where are her fact checkers?