How about an apology to the Indians??? - Reader comments at The New York Sun

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Why Publishers Don't Fact-Check Memoirs

Submitted by Kit Prate, Mar 5, 2008 13:18

Since the concept of "it takes a village to raise a child" has been the heart of tribal culture (and well publicized at that) why were no red flags raised when this woman claimed to have been taken from her family? With one parent (supposedly) being a full-blood, and the practice of taking Indian children from their families coming to a screeching halt in the 50's, how could two well-educated people -- the agent and the editor -- buy into this fantasy? (Especially when one of them, according to their bios, was an ex-reporter and a researcher.) Nobody asked what her tribal affiliation was?

As to the cost of checking the facts: the Agent would have had Ms. Jones/Seltzer's Social Security # for money to have changed hands: one check with a credit reporting bureau and BAM! all secrets would have been revealed. The publisher could have done the same. Which would have added what to the cost of the book? $100 for a credit report, divided by the 19000 books already printed: less than a penny per book.

Money was the primary motivator here, and not just for the author. The agent and the editor couldn't see past the $$$ signs, and to hell with how bad all of them sullied a culture that prides itself on caring for its children; all its children. Shame on them all.

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Other reader comments on this article

Comment	By	Date
More necessary than fact checkers are editors with some smarts. One has to ponder how this absurd story got past... [MORE]	Mona	Mar 6, 2008 11:43
The most unfortunate part of this situation, in my opinion, is that these recent incidents only further undermine the trust... [MORE]	mike	Mar 5, 2008 17:34
I fail to be astonished with stories like these anymore. Apparently it's easier to lie about things that never happened then... [MORE]	Adaora	Mar 5, 2008 14:12
Since the concept of "it takes a village to raise a child" has been the heart of tribal culture (and...	Kit Prate	Mar 5, 2008 13:18
You don't have to fact-check to the extent of The New Yorker to find out if a memoir is completely... [MORE]	Tim Jackson	Mar 5, 2008 10:36
Oh, come on! They pay factcheckers with graduate degrees ten dollars an hour. At that rate how long much would... [MORE]	Nancy Seitz	Mar 5, 2008 10:12
As a former fact checker, I can say that it's rare for a reputable publication to pay $10 an hour.... [MORE]	Mona	Mar 6, 2008 10:38
Every publisher's contract includes a 'liability clause' in which the author takes responsibility for what is on the page. And... [MORE]	Litwit	Mar 6, 2008 18:43
I found this quote very interesting: Most books are already commercial failures, failing to earn back what you pay to acquire,... [MORE]	Kit Prate	Mar 7, 2008 19:21
People have such weird ideas about how publishing works. The many books that don't work commercially, are supported by those... [MORE]	Litwit	Mar 8, 2008 09:29
Thanks for the enlightenment. However, the foreign publishing thing? It happened to me; twice. The first time the issue was... [MORE]	Kit Prate	Mar 9, 2008 18:29