Frey Dumped; LeRoy Backed
by Judith Rosen, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 2/24/2006
The fates of two authors accused of various embellishments, James Frey and JT LeRoy, are headed in different directions.
In a move that doesn't come as much of a surprise, Penguin's Riverhead imprint has withdrawn its two-book offer to Frey, the author's representative confirmed. Despite widespread media coverage of the change of heart by Penguin, company executives continued to decline to comment on the status of the two-book deal. It is also unclear if the agreement between Frey and Penguin was ever actually signed.
The situation is completely different for LeRoy as the author's San Francisco-based publisher, Last Gasp, said is moving ahead with the publication of LeRoy's next work. Labour, a novella illustrated by Australian artist Cherry Hood, centers on a young boy who lives with his mother and her boyfriend in a trailer and who must care for a new baby as best he can. Labour is the second in a series begun last year with the publication of LeRoy's Harold's End, also illustrated by Hood.
"We stand behind the work as fiction and that it's good," Last Gasp publisher Ron Turner said. The controversy surrounding LeRoy's identity has resulted in a slight bump in sales for Harold's End, which is now up to about 8,000 copies sold. But the media hoopla is causing LeRoy to run behind in the editing process for Labour and the book's originally announced July pub date may slip. First printing is tentatively set at 10,000.|
|
