In an article in the New York Observer, Nan Talese, James Frey’s publisher, disputes Frey’s claim on Larry King Live. Frey said:
We initially shopped the book as a novel, and it was turned down by a lot of publishers as a novel or as a nonfiction book. When Nan Talese purchased the book, I’m not sure if they knew what they were going to publish it as. We talked about what to publish it as. And they thought the best thing to do was publish it as a memoir.
Sheelah Kolhatkar writes in NYO, “When the manuscript of A Million Little Pieces was received by us at Doubleday, it was received as nonfiction, as a memoir,” said Ms. Talese by phone. “Throughout the whole process of publication, it had always been a memoir, and for the first year and a half it was on sale, it was always a memoir with no disputation. It was never once discussed as fiction by me or anyone in my office.”
Don’t know if I’d want to be either James Frey or his literary agent, Kassie Evashevski, should Nan Talese say she needed to talk with me in her office.
Grovelling might help.