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Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 715
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 06:25 am: | 
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A love story about Holocaust survivors that Oprah called "the single greatest love story in 22 years of doing this show" is a big fat lie. The publisher canceled the book, they're demanding their advance back, and filming has halted on an adaptation that was scheduled to begin shooting.
Publishers/Editors are complaining that with so many books being published each year, it's difficult, time-consuming, and too costly to fact-check each and every autobiography or memoir.
You all know that I'm usually first to defend the publishing industry, but I can't get with them on this. I mean, hey, it's your phukin job! If I, as a reader, can't rely on a non-fiction book to be factual and accurate, then the publisher has no business publishing non-fiction genres; just publish novels or poetry or anything where readers aren't lead to believe that what they're reading is true. I started out in the industry as a fact-checker, then worked my way up, and from someone who's "been there, done that" I feel there's no excuse for not fact-checking works that require fact-checking. And I'm going back quite a few years when I worked a fact-checker. Back then, we didn't have many of the resources that are available to publishing companies today. There's just no excuse for this.
Anyhowway, you can read the full story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081228/ap_en_ot/books_holocaust_memoir |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7640
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 10:50 am: |
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But what do you do? somebody comes to you and says " I am a Holocaust survivor?" and you put them through the third degree?
It would be the same thing as if somebody came up and said I got terminal cancer or I'm HIV positive. You wouldn't ask.
The Holocaust has been, unfortunately, a big bucks bonanza for writers and movie makers for years.
Maybe now that the real survivors are dying off, these scams will end---or
I am the son or daughter of a Holocaust survivor--- |
Hen81
Veteran Poster
Username: Hen81
Post Number: 161
Registered: 09-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 11:22 am: |
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The problem with this story is that historians warned the publisher that some of the facts did not add up based upon history. The publisher ignored the warnings and did not dig deeper. I found this article that talks about the last big Oprah book dustup and it was written in 2006. It sounds like history just repeated itself.
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2006/01/22/memoir_as_fiction_not_so_fast /
The motivation for this kind of thing happening is the issue.
www.DTPollard.com |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7641
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 11:53 am: |
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I knew a Holocaust survivor once--leastwise everybody said he was--never asked him about it.
Wonder if I can write a book about it? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 13224
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 12:51 pm: |
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All Jewish prisoners supposedly had a serial number tatooed on their arm area and this would include those who survived the holocaust. |
A_womon
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 2474
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 05:32 pm: |
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I still don't get why these people are so desperate to pen their stories and stamp "true life" on them. Do they get a bigger advance for writing non-fiction or what? If they can make up a good story, why not just call it fiction, sell it as a novel and save themselves, Oprah and all others involved a lot of unnecessary grief? |
Hen81
Veteran Poster
Username: Hen81
Post Number: 162
Registered: 09-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 08:48 pm: |
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I think the problem is that it is rare to find truly dramatic true stories of real people. The person becomes a walking marketing campaign. When it is a true account, people can imagine how they would react in a similar situation.
www.DTPollard.com |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7645
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 05, 2009 - 10:31 am: |
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If they can make up a good story, why not just call it fiction, sell it as a novel and save themselves, Oprah and all others involved a lot of unnecessary grief?
(It would probably not sell as well as a so-called true life Holocaust story.
Face it folks. The Litbiz is just another branch of showbiz now. Hoaxes and publicity stunts will go along with the territory) |
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