A Million Little Pieces
According to the New York Times, only 1,729 people asked for their money back after buying James Frey's, "A Million Little Pieces," a memoir that contained fabricated content.
A judge granted the 1,700 disgruntled customers their wish Friday in Federal Court in Manhattan after a lawyer, Larry D. Drury convinced a judge, Richard J. Holwell to offer a refund to anybody who bought the book before Frey's falsehoods were made public.
The book earned Frey over $4 million dollars.
In January 2006, the website www.thesmokinggun.com, accused Frey of including false information in his best-selling book.
Random House received $2.35 million to cover their costs, but the reimbursement to the customers only totaled $27,348.
Another $783,000 will be paid for legal fees, and another $432,000 will go towards publicizing and carrying out other parts of the settlement.
According to CNN, the book became a huge success after Oprah Winfrey included it in her famous book club.
Drury noted that 93,738 copies of the book were sold in the seven months after the controversy began.
He also said the proportion of people who made a claim and demanded reimbursement was significantly lower than in similar cases in the past. Only 7.2 percent took advantage of the settlement, while usually more than 20 percent do.
James Frey is currently working on another novel, "Bright Shiny Morning," scheduled to be released in the summer 2008.