The Year in Publishing: March 2008

Margaret B. Jones, or Peggy Seltzer as her real name turned out to be, became the latest in a string of phony memoirists, but it wasn’t until a glowing review from Michiko Kakutani and a lengthy profile from a NY Times style reporter that the paper’s publishing correspondent, Motoko Rich, uncovered the truth about Love and Consequences. While pundits were quick to blame the book’s editor, Seltzer’s early supporters denied responsibility, reviewers excused themselves for not spotting the fake, and hand-wringing liberals argued that society was to blame for her actions.
All this attention to Seltzer must have pleased Misha Defonseca no end, since it distracted people from talking about what a big phony she was, and all that stuff in her memoir about hiding from the Nazis in the woods with a wolf pack never really happened.
British memoirist Sebastian Horsley tried to do an American book tour, but was turned away by homeland security. Everybody still came to his party and drank in his defense, though.
Stuff White People Like got a book deal, which blew people’s minds.