Another reason to hate James Frey

I already disliked James Frey for screwing up books being a regular feature of Oprah show.  Now there’s a new reason to hate him:  he’s got a work-for-hire fiction factory to churn out YA books - and it has to be read about to be believed.

In a story in New York Magazine, a MFA graduate who was considered for one of the projects Frey was offering explains the terms:  “This is the essence of the terms being offered by Frey’s company Full Fathom Five: In exchange for delivering a finished book within a set number of months, the writer would receive $250 (some contracts allowed for another $250 upon completion), along with a percentage of all revenue generated by the project, including television, film, and merchandise rights—30 percent if the idea was originally Frey’s, 40 percent if it was originally the writer’s. The writer would be financially responsible for any legal action brought against the book but would not own its copyright. Full Fathom Five could use the writer’s name or a pseudonym without his or her permission, even if the writer was no longer involved with the series, and the company could substitute the writer’s full name for a pseudonym at any point in the future. The writer was forbidden from signing contracts that would “conflict” with the project; what that might be wasn’t specified. The writer would not have approval over his or her publicity, pictures, or biographical materials. There was a $50,000 penalty if the writer publicly admitted to working with Full Fathom Five without permission.”

This is a pretty raw deal.

Read more about Frey’s scheme here.

And YA author Maureen Johnson explains in more detail why this is so wrong.