I’ve not watched or followed Oprah Winfrey that much but can’t help feeling sympathy toward her being duped by these bogus non-fiction authors who she has believed in and promoted. Winfrey, like most reasonable people, assume book publishers will vet their non-fiction titles to make sure they are, well, true. Heck, at least mostly true. Winfrey may have the scratch to be able to hire private investigators to check out the veracity of a non-fiction title but should she be forced to do so? I say no.

And how about these pieces of work like Herman Rosenblat, a holocaust survivor turned wolf fiction writer in sheep non-fiction clothing. Oprah deemed Pinocchio-Blat’s story about a girl throwing apples over the concentration wall to help keep him alive leading to a later coincidental blind date the “single greatest love story.” The only part Herman forgot to tell Oprah, her audience, and readers: it was all made up!

Rosenblat’s bogus autobiography is one of one of several memoirs that have been lauded by Winfrey and then later revealed to be frauds — including James Frey’s best-selling "A Million Little Pieces" and Margaret Seltzer’s "Love and Consequences" — consequently calling into question how much weight Winfrey’s future book endorsements will carry.

Writing a book is a lot of work. Figuring out the difference between the truth and a lie isn’t.

If one wants to write fiction then go right out and do it, but don’t be lame and claim some fantastic story as non-fiction. Fiction gives writers all the tools they need to spin tall tales legitimately. 

Some amount – a very small amount - of embellishment is reasonable for non-fiction book because memories aren’t perfect and not all historical events can be recalled in exact detail, but people like the ones blatantly duping Oprah and their readers are damaging the industry as a whole. I don’t respect or consider these writers to be anything more than scam artists. They are going the bathroom where others sleep, eat and drink. Not, not, not cool.

Rosenblat released a statement through his literary agent saying he only wanted to bring people happiness and that his tale was “only a dream.” He along with other writers pulling similar dreamworld confusion acts would bring writers happiness by categorizing their work correctly and honorably.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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