A Million Little Pieces, James Frey

For the month of February, I have selected the first edition of James Frey's, "A Million Little Pieces," as the collectible of the month. I selected this book based on a lot of the attention it has been receiving from not only Oprah, but also TheSmokingGun.com, Larry King Live, and news organizations around the world. Some people have told me that this fame is very limited and the attention will die down soon. If that’s the case, wait for the attention to die down, and try to find a copy. The problem then lies in actually locating a copy because as soon as the attention dies down, so will the sales.

After 12 rejections, the Nan A. Talese division of Random House first published “A Million Little Pieces” in April of 2003. For the first book by James Frey, Random House chose to run Frey's memoir at 50,000 first printings. The book was released to minimal attention, but was popular amongst those who actually read it. A few years later, Frey published the sequel to "Pieces" titled, "My Friend Leonard." Frey started to get more attention with his second book which brought more interest back into "Pieces."
In the winter of 2005, Oprah Winfrey selected "Pieces" as her selection of her book club. This was a break for Oprah who seemed to have only selected classics for her book club. The last time Oprah selected a book that was not a classic, was Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections." That book selection caused possibly the most backlash that Oprah could ever receive from a book club selection. Franzen said, and I am paraphrasing, "Get lost, Oprah."

So when Oprah selected a recent book for her selection, I was grateful to her because the attention that her book club receives is something that new authors couldn’t pay for. With her selection of classics, she is getting people to read great books - but books that have been appreciated for many years. With her selection of newer books, the public gets to read authors who are alive and get to appreciate the attention.

Who knows what the long term collectiblity of "Pieces" but for the most part, the attention has been sustained for a while. You can buy a signed copy for about $100 on eBay. Signed copies sell online for about $80-$300. Unsigned first printings sell for under $60.

Frey will publish a new book. I suspect it will be a few years for him not only to recover from this negative attention, but to also get back on track to write a novel. So I would suggest that now is the best time to buy the book if you are interested. I think that the book is still in the minds of many people, but starting to die down. What that means is that people are still selling, but buyers are dying down.

To add on top of this - its a great friggin book. It's a book about addiction and the value of a life. If you aren't interested in the book as a collectible, reading the book wouldn't hurt either.

Thanks.