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Reader comment on:
Why Publishers Don't Fact-Check Memoirs
in response to reader comment: re: cost of publishing & paranoia

Submitted by Kit Prate, Mar 9, 2008 18:29

Thanks for the enlightenment. However, the foreign publishing thing? It happened to me; twice. The first time the issue was resolved amicably, but only after I had found a copy of the book at my local library and contacted the publisher (large print outfit). The second time: not so easy, since tracking the publisher involved on-going internet digging, leading back to a very large British firm who has yet to respond. How much staff was required to do the reprints? as far as my research has turned up, first incident turned out to be a case of one publisher being at odds with another over money; a kind of convoluted "he said, he said; they owed, we collected" situation I still don't understand. In the second circumstance, the title turned up on Amazon UK, two years after the original was published in the US. Go figure.

Anyway, thank you for allowing me to vent.


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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... [MORE]

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...

Kit Prate 

Mar 9, 2008 18:29

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