Apparently, author, James Frey, is still selling well after he publicly admitted that his memoir, “A Million Little Pieces” was actually in part, fabricated.
According to this article, Frey and his collaborator, Jobie Hughes, new YA series was being pimped anonymously until their covers were blown by the media last week. Frey is looking to sell books to young adults now. Also, the film rights for the first book, “I Am Number Four” has already been sold to Dreamworks. Talk about fast.
This is suppose to be a six book series, too. Plot sounds completely unoriginal to me. It’s about some alien kids hiding out on Earth after their home planet gets invaded. This book must be super special. HarperCollins stated that they paid “less than seven figures for the four books.” Is it me or does that figure sound like too much?
Also read author, Alafair Burke’s take on Mr. Frey’s foray into the lucrative YA market. She is annoyed which is understandable. I mean Frey was allegedly outed as a fraud yet he is forgiven and rewarded with a nice advance for his second book, Bright Shiny Morning, that landed on the NYT bestseller’s list. Ah, such is life.
It doesn’t bother me that Frey wants to write YA fiction. I just won’t be buying it. I remember being thisclose to buying his memoir when it was sitting pretty on the bestsellers lists. Reading the first page decided me against buying it, however. I thought it was too graphic but what do I know?
YA market must be a lucrative business. So many bestselling authors are writing fiction in this area. All I need is to see Nora Roberts writing under a different pen name and then I will have seen it all. Who’s writing YA fiction these days? Kim Harrison, Robert S. Parker, James Patterson and Kelley Armstrong naming right off the top. And now you can add James Frey to the list.
I love YA fiction. I just read Trisha’s review of Kim Wilkins new YA novel, Unclaimed Heart, that I have put on my calendar to remind me to check for an ebook version of the book when the paperback is released. I sincerely hope to see a digital version on release day. I see a Kindle version is already available for pre-order. But I typically ignore the Kindle format. It’s not even an option. Getting back to Wilkins, I’ve enjoyed her fantasy work and so I am looking forward to her historical romance.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
This bothers me. Maybe he’s learned from his mistake and has moved on. But YA? Whether or not a YA author or teen actor wants to be a role model, when they venture into the teen market, that’s exactly what they are. What sort of message does James Frey send kids today? Lie, then lie some more, and you’ll earn lots of money?
That’s one reason I feel sorry for Miley Cyrus. She’s a 16-year-old girl but she’s supposed to be a role model for kids her age. Crazy.
The premise is definitely a rip off. a few years back we had the Roswell series about 4 alien teens whose planet was taken over and were sent to earth to hide among the humans..
Argh! That just irks me. Even when I saw the title of this post, I was like, I’m not going to come over and read about that liar, but look! Fascination for the abomination, I guess. Hope the book flops.
Yikes.
*sigh*shakehead*tsk*tsk*
I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own two eyes. You won’t be the only one not buying into it. I didn’t get his original “memoir” either and was glad I hadn’t when the s*** hit the fan.
Frankly, I believe he’s just trying to capitalize on his previous 15 minutes, because let’s face it–he can and because the YA market is growing exponentially. Like women once were, teens have been overlooked and unfortunately (or fortunately) publishers are now starting to see that.
Granted, it does mean there’s going to be loads more c*** to sort through to find the good stuff.