James Bond-like spy novel pulled for plagiarism

[MrsJoseph]

From here.

Little, Brown Pulls Novel, Citing Plagiarism


| Updated Little, Brown & Company has pulled a mystery novel from the shelves after passages in the book were found to have been plagiarized from “a variety of classic and contemporary spy novels,” the publisher said on Tuesday. The book, “Assassin of Secrets,” a debut novel by Q. R. Markham, was released last week by Mulholland Books, an imprint of Little, Brown.

“We take great pride in the writers and books we publish and tremendous care in every aspect of our publishing process, so it is with deep regret that we have published a book that we can no longer stand behind,” Michael Pietsch, the publisher of Little, Brown, said in a statement. “Our goal is to never have this happen, but when it does, it is important to us to communicate with and compensate readers and retailers as quickly as possible.”

Nicole Dewey, a spokeswoman for the publisher, said 6,500 copies of the book were printed. The book was ranked 49,200 on Amazon.com on Tuesday afternoon. Ms. Dewey said some of the passages in question were taken from James Bond novels and books by Robert Ludlum and Charles McCarry.

Q.R. Markham is a pen name for Quentin Rowan, an owner of Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers, a store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that specializes in art and design books. Mr. Markham did not immediately return a message left for him at the bookstore.

Bookstores were instructed to return the books to the publisher, and customers asked to return books to retailers for refunds.

Side by Side comparison: http://www.edrants.com/q-r-markham-plagiarist/


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Wow! I don't know how he thought he'd get away with it.

[covfam]

Some people are just idiots and think that they are a special little snowflake that it wont happen too. just like the thousands of people each year falling for the same ol nigerian scam

I hope this theif not only gets a harsh punishment i wish upon this writer great humiliation as well.

[Phogg]

I will point out that Ward Churchill recently had a teaching gig down in San Antinio.

No act of Plagiarism ever has permenant consequences - regardless of how well known it is.

Even Jason Blair was able to get a job teaching journalistic ethics.

[Grimm]

Originally Posted by covfam

Some people are just idiots and think that they are a special little snowflake that it wont happen too. just like the thousands of people each year falling for the same ol nigerian scam

I hope this theif not only gets a harsh punishment i wish upon this writer great humiliation as well.

Good thing the Nigerian I have been doing business with is an ex-pat prince! He assures me that any day now I'll be getting that huge sum of money in my account!

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by Grimm

Good thing the Nigerian I have been doing business with is an ex-pat prince! He assures me that any day now I'll be getting that huge sum of money in my account!

Haha. I love that...ahem...scam. I tried to correspond with him/her asking all sorts of inane questions and such. Eventually the person (or persons) got tired of it and said that they made a mistake and that I wasn't the next of kin afterall.

I wish I still had that email account open, or had dumped them to a text document.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Phogg

I will point out that Ward Churchill recently had a teaching gig down in San Antinio.

No act of Plagiarism ever has permenant consequences - regardless of how well known it is.

Even Jason Blair was able to get a job teaching journalistic ethics.

True...but this guy was out of control. It seems he stole damn near every sentence from someone else.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by Grimm

Good thing the Nigerian I have been doing business with is an ex-pat prince! He assures me that any day now I'll be getting that huge sum of money in my account!

I guess you and I are related. Same family. Same inheritance.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

Haha. I love that...ahem...scam. I tried to correspond with him/her asking all sorts of inane questions and such. Eventually the person (or persons) got tired of it and said that they made a mistake and that I wasn't the next of kin afterall.

I wish I still had that email account open, or had dumped them to a text document.

You get a lot better results with his Swahili cousin who actually speaks English on the phone I get Christmas cards with family photos while they are working to clear up the accounts.

[Fbone]

Could he have done this as a practical joke? A test of some sort?

He even copied the foreword and blog posts.

[Hellmark]

What I find hilarious is the one quote that starts with "Quentin Rowan takes down, word by word...". He's copying it verbatim, so of course he's taking it down word by word!

[Steve_D]

This sort of thing never fails to astound me. Nowadays, with things like copyscape, it has never been so easy to detect plagiarism, and yet it seems to be so rife, given the number of recent high-profile cases.

As a writer myself, I find it particularly grating that there are so many people out there stealing other people's hard work to make a quick buck.

[Soldim]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

True...but this guy was out of control. It seems he stole damn near every sentence from someone else.

Hmm, that almost makes it an accomplishment in itself

[covfam]

too me it seams like it would be more effort and time consuming to cherry pick passaged of various authers and piece them together into a coherent story than it would to write your own <shrugs>

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Soldim

Hmm, that almost makes it an accomplishment in itself

Sort of like creating his own literary version of Frankenstein's Monster.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Sort of like creating his own literary version of Frankenstein's Monster.

"Siri, write me a spy novel."