Love & Consequences:  Not the First Example of a Hoaxter- Author

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 3/5/2008 9:27:00 AM

PW has learned that Riverhead editor Sarah McGrath, who acquired Margaret Seltzer’s Love & Consequences for Scribner but brought it with her to Riverhead, was involved in another book, in 2006, that was cancelled because of fabrications and plagiarism. The book, How to Wear Black: Adventures on Fashion’s Front-line, was purportedly a memoir of Emily Davies’s four years as a fashion writer for London’s Times, and according to Publishers Lunch, it lifted the lid on "a surreal, luxurious and terrifying world of lavish gifts, fashionably skeletal obsessives and couture warfare." According to Lunch, Sarah McGrath bought the book for Scribner; the announcement was posted in mid-December 2005.

In March 2006 Galley Cat reported that the deal, “rumored to be up to $900,000 for U.S. rights alone,” was struck down after a story in Women’s Wear Daily outlined Davies's fabrications and plagiarism. Scribner cancelled Davies’s contract and the NY Daily News quoted Scribner's Suzanne Balaban as saying "we've dropped" Davies’s book.

It is not uncommon for book deals to fall apart somewhere between verbal agreement and contract signing (or publication.) and McGrath is likely one of many editors who have had several brushes with potential hoaxters.  In the earlier case, the deception was found before the book entered the publication process.   With  Love and Consequences, Riverhead books acted quickly to admit the mistake and withdraw the books. 

Since joining Riverhead, McGrath has edited a mix of fiction and nonfiction, including Slummy Mummy by Fiona Neill and Flower Children by Maxine Swann. McGrath did not return calls for comment.