Frey has moved on from faking facts and taking credit to faking entire novels and taking credit. In 2010, the author, who had lost millions in reader lawsuits, launched an alternative publishing agency called Fathom Force Five. Inspired by the tradition of art and movie studios, places famous for their respect and generosity towards writers, Frey scoured colleges to find bright-eyed, impressionable young writers to work collaboratively with. His deal is simple: he'll provide the idea for a Young Adult genre novel, they'll handle the fiddly work of actually writing the whole thing, and the accolades and profits go straight into his pocket.
Frey's acolytes quickly found out that they were getting the short end of the literary fame stick at Fathom Force Five, and there was no greater example than Frey's first protege, Jobie Hughes. Hughes was the author behind the now-famous novel turned movie, I Am Number Four. Not that you'd know it from the cover, which only features the name of the main character. That way, Frey claimed, the novel worked as a fictitious memoir.
And you know who loves taking credit for fictitious memoirs? James Frey. As per the draconian clauses in their contracts, FFF authors weren't allowed to claim public ownership of their work under the penalty of a $250,000 fine. And while any starting author will be grateful to not be paid in exposure, the money wasn't great either. A finished draft could get starting authors as little as $250 -- meaning they'd have to write a thousand novels before they could afford to talk about one.