I Wish Everyone Understood This

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by crich70

There was a well known romance author who 'borrowed' her story from another author some yrs back I believe. It caused a big stink when it came to light too.

Ah, Cassie Edwards. That was such entertaining reading.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There was one well-publicised case recently where a spy novel had entire scenes taken from James Bond books, I recall.

EDIT: Here we are, "Assassin of Secrets", by one "Q.R. Markham". A report about it in the UK's Guardian newspaper here.



There was another case a year or so ago where some teenage girl published a book that turned out to have been "lifted" from other sources.

EDIT: This case was one "Kaavya Viswanathan" back in 2006. Wiki article on the subject here.

I can understand something like that slipping through self published on Amazon or Smashwords, but how did they get past the agents and publishers? Especially the James Bond one, it's not as if those are particularly obscure books.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

I can understand something like that slipping through self published on Amazon or Smashwords, but how did they get past the agents and publishers? Especially the James Bond one, it's not as if those are particularly obscure books.

They're not considered "good literature" either... making it unlikely that literature-snobs have read them

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

They're not considered "good literature" either... making it unlikely that literature-snobs have read them

But surely someone involved in the production of a spy book would have read the most famous spy books ever published? You've got an agent and publisher both interested in a book about spies, you've got an editor who would need to have at least some knowledge of the subject, and a bunch of volunteer proof readers going through the advanced reader copies. It doesn't make sense that none of those would have read them.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

But surely someone involved in the production of a spy book would have read the most famous spy books ever published?

I didn't say it made sense. Only that it's very likely.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Is there any way that could happen subconsciously rather than deliberately?

It depends on quantity... a sentence? Sure. I can see that... definitely an idea... but a PAGE? No, I can not see that.

I have run my professional non-fiction work through online plagiarism checkers (required for submission) and you would be surprise at how many totally random phrases can match some one out there so I could see sentence or two... but not a extended passage. I could be wrong, but I just dont see it happening unless it was intentional.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

But surely someone involved in the production of a spy book would have read the most famous spy books ever published?

Note that the article said that the source was the "post-Fleming" James Bond books - ie, the ones written by someone else after Fleming's death. These are probably rather less well-known.

[dadioflex]

Cheers HarryT!

I found this article, via wikipedia (damn, I'm claiming all my sources in this thread in case I get accused of something):

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/20...ersy-beditors/

The "identical" phrasing in a couple of instances seems tenuous but I can understand how it was enough to get the book pulped. But, in olden times, writers aped each other's style and phrasing as part and parcel of the process, an ironic wink to the cognoscenti. You wouldn't get away with any of that these days. Which is a shame.

Here's an article on the QR Markham case - very different. Great swathes of cut and paste, but the plagiarist's confession makes for interesting reading.

http://www.thefix.com/content/confes...n9278?page=all

WAIT! How can we be sure it's HIS confession?

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by dadioflex

WAIT! How can we be sure it's HIS confession?

[dadioflex]

I stole that joke from the article's comment thread. I am so meta.

[Namekuseijin]

All "insert art X here" have already been created. Today, we just remix them. It's easy because we got magic buttons to do it for us and no idea how to do otherwise.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

All "insert art X here" have already been created. Today, we just remix them. It's easy because we got magic buttons to do it for us and no idea how to do otherwise.

That's quite an insult to every writer here on MR...!

Joking, joking! Please don't hurt me.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

(Aahhh, we've been insulted worse.)

[morriss003]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

Isn't this misplaced, though? It's scam artists who do this, not writers.

I think most writers have no problem writing their own stuff, they just can't get it published.

Cases like this happen when someone somehow gets a contract with a publishing company (good at self promotion, I guess) and can't fulfill it

That's probably right. Otherwise, I am completely at a loss as to why someone would do this when writing prose. It's still wrong, but I understand it for a term paper.

[Prestidigitweeze]

You'd be surprised how desperate certain writers get when they run out of ideas. It was common knowledge growing up that you had to be careful what you said around writer friends if you didn't want them to use it. Any time I've forgotten that, I learned it all over again.

Even here on Mobile Read, people have written to ask if they could use things I'd said. I appreciate the fact they were nice enough to ask, but notice they're not asking to quote my words and ideas. They're asking if they can lift my ideas and words, paste them into their own work and take full credit.

And they're doing this on Mobile Read, where I assume nearly everyone is writing or tries to write.

Next, people will be asking for my car keys.

I also know someone who's an established science fiction writer and had a story published in Omni when another acquaintance was the editor. Years later, a young woman sent my friend's story to that same editor as an unsolicited submission for an anthology, and she did so under her own name. The editor couldn't believe it and promptly told my friend about it. He uploaded a case study, I believe, which I'll try to find and link to after I get home from work.

Happens all the time, just like identity theft.