Oprah may think James Frey is scum (though apparently they reconciled) but the man knows how to work the system. After being crowned with the albatross of discrediting worthy memoirs everywhere, he managed to rally with a seven figure deal with Harper for Bright Shiny Morning.

Last week, the New York Times outed Frey as the co-writer of four YA books that his agent, Eric Siminoff, was originally pitching to large US publishing houses as a collaboration between two unnamed writers, one of them happening to be a NYT best-selling author.

The first book titled I Am Number Four is to be part of a six part series. The premise seems to revolve around a group of teen aliens, a nice break from sexy vampires and faeries I do think.

It’s now been announced that Harper has bought the first four books in the series for under seven figures total.

The genius here lies in the fact that Frey has employed the help of recent Columbia writing program grad and complete unknown Jobie Hughes who will be responsible for doing the majority of the writing. It gets even better – Dreamworks has already bought the film rights to the series with Michael Bay set to produce/direct. James Frey is now laughing at you from his bathtub of money, calling poor Hughes to harass him about plot devices. “I said more outrageous surgery without painkillers, Jobie! Give the people what they want!”

The original NYT piece also deserves to be read as it could easily be a hall of famer from the staff at The Onion.