When talk queen Oprah Winfrey selected "A Million Little Pieces" for her famed Book Club in fall 2005, the memoir became a bestseller overnight. But the fame surrounding James Frey's harrowing tale of addiction and recovery went down in infamy when public-interest site Smokinggun.com discovered gaping holes in the author's story. Shocking revelations of literary fraud reached a climax a month later when the queen of talk confronted the "Pieces" author live on daytime television and issued an apology to viewers.

While the "Pieces" scandal rocked Oprah fans and brought disgrace to Frey, it also exposed truth-in-advertising troubles within the publishing industry. During an interview on Larry King Live, Frey stated that, prior to signing with publisher Doubleday, his book had been offered to other publishers as a fictional novel but was rejected. By the time the manuscript went to the presses, however, it had morphed into a personal memoir at the publisher's behest. "When Nan Talese purchased the book, I'm not sure if they knew what they were going to publish it as," Frey recalled. "They thought the best thing to do was publish it as a memoir." That decision was a costly one.

Whatever damage Oprah may have suffered over her glowing endorsement of "Pieces," it pales in comparison to the legal and financial troubles facing Frey and his publishers. At least four lawsuits have been brought against Doubleday for fraudulent marketing, and Frey was stripped of lucrative movie and book contracts. It's not all bad for Frey, however: the disgraced author earned over $4.3 million in book royalties in 2005 and gained another $1.5 million since admitting his fabrication. To disappointed "Pieces" readers, that's a lot of dirty money.