James Frey’s Fiction Factory

[taming]

http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/69474/

It's a six page article, and I have no clue where exactly to begin or what best to quote, but here is a sample:

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.

[Worldwalker]

Sounds a bit like the Stratemeyer Syndicate. There is, it would appear, little new in the world.

[Kali Yuga]

Book packagers have been around for some time now. The only real difference here is that Frey and some big names are involved, and packagers are usually much lower key (e.g. genre fiction).

It appears that the author of the article is not a professional journalist, hasn't approached or worked with (or necessarily researched) other packagers, and almost certainly has a case of the sour persimmons.

E.g. book packagers normally pay a flat fee and no royalties to the nameless authors who work for them, whereas Full Fathom Five apparently offers little up front but 30-40% of everything. There isn't much discussion or comparison with the contracts offered by other book packagers.

That said, Frey has already demonstrated that he doesn't have much respect for his audience, colleagues or the concept of honesty. Anyone who signs on with him -- especially if FFF explicitly says they have no interest in negotiating the contract at all -- most likely gets what they deserve, both good and bad....

[Seanette]

Can we say "indentured servitude"? Full Fathom Five gets all the benefits, pays the writer a pittance, and the writer's on the hook for any problems, FFF refusing any responsibility or liability for the product. The writer can also lose credit for their work at any moment.

I'm sorry, other than the $250 (and maybe additional $250), what exactly does the writer get out of this besides being wide-open to lawsuits, etc., with no backing?

[Doug Huffman]

"Fiction factory" immediately brought to mind Grisham's artificial intelligence program that writes his books. Uggh. Thank GOoDness the old books are still free. Better get one of those Gutenberg 3000 e-book disks while you can.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by Seanette

Can we say "indentured servitude"?

No.

For better or for worse, Frey is very explicit that he's the QB and calling the plays. If you can't work within those confines, you should not even consider signing with him. If you don't consult a lawyer, or your lawyer advises against signing and you do so anyway, the results are your own fault.

Originally Posted by Seanette

Full Fathom Five gets all the benefits, pays the writer a pittance, and the writer's on the hook for any problems, FFF refusing any responsibility or liability for the product. The writer can also lose credit for their work at any moment.

You are correct that in these type of arrangements, the co-author hired by Frey gives up the right to claim credit. However this is standard with ghost-writers and book package firms.

It's slightly ridiculous to assume FFF can genuinely assign all legal responsibility to the co-author on a contractual basis. I assure you, if anyone sues, they will go after the people with the money -- and in that case, it's going to be FFF, not some no-name author who owes their grad school $50k.

Originally Posted by Seanette

I'm sorry, other than the $250 (and maybe additional $250), what exactly does the writer get out of this besides being wide-open to lawsuits, etc., with no backing?

30-40% of all proceeds, possibly more.

Again, compare this to a book packager or a ghost writer, who may get a decent payment up front but gets zero royalties, no matter how many copies sell.

I still think you'd have to be an idiot to sign, mostly because I'd barely believe Frey even if he told me that 2+2=4. But the arrangement itself isn't nearly as bad as the author

[simonroyle]

The 'Hardy Boys' books were all done through a 'book packager'. That said I think the amounts that he is paying are an insult to anyone who can write. How transparent are the "royalties". Note that they are net. There's a lot that can be thrown into "cost".

[Seanette]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

For better or for worse, Frey is very explicit that he's the QB and calling the plays. If you can't work within those confines, you should not even consider signing with him. If you don't consult a lawyer, or your lawyer advises against signing and you do so anyway, the results are your own fault.

I'm not a novelist myself, so to me this discussion is pretty theoretical anyway . I do know better than to sign anything I do not completely understand and find acceptable, and would make use of legal advice if needed (being the cautious type).

I second your low opinion of James "A Million Little Lies" Frey.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by simonroyle

The 'Hardy Boys' books were all done through a 'book packager'. That said I think the amounts that he is paying are an insult to anyone who can write. How transparent are the "royalties". Note that they are net. There's a lot that can be thrown into "cost".

The Hardy Boys books were only one of scores of series put out by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. They produced Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, the Bobbsey Twins, and countless others. They paid a flat fee to the actual author of any given book for all rights, and published those books under house names. There never was a Victor Appleton or a Carolyn Keene. Most of those authors were paid very little, which explains the quality of a lot of Stratemeyer's series; it's easy to see that the books were pumped out wholesale, to fit formulae, in a matter of weeks or at most months. The same author might be writing for numerous different series to pay the bills.

Boys' books of the first few decades of the 20th century are a hobby of mine (talk about obscure, eh?). I'm working on a comprehensive listing of such books, with authors, publishers, and so on, and even quite incomplete, it has reached over 1,000 titles. Not all Stratemeyer, of course; there were competitors. But no matter how you slice up the origins, that's a lot of books. A few of the books were published under their actual authors' names (most notably 'Hap' Arnold) but the overwhelming majority were produced, and owned, by packagers.

A lot of modern romance publishers do the same thing. An author submits a book that fits a strict set of guidelines (and I mean "strict" as in "lovers' quarrel between pages 75 and 80"), the publisher pays a flat fee for all rights, and it's published under a house name (there's a reason why you don't see romance novels by Joe Snodgrass).