The Day's Catch
News stories that have caught my interest today:
The bibliosphere has been all atwitter for the last few days about the 19-yr-old college student who got a half-million-dollar advance for her first novel, courtesy of a so-called "book packager", and then apparently plagiarized large chunks of another novel. Whether she or the "packager" is responsible for the mess seems to be an open question, since copyright to the book is reportedly shared between them. John Barlow discusses his experience with a "book-packaging" company which proudly boasts of perpetrating the Sweet Valley High series.
Perhaps I should be farming out my name to such book-packaging companies. At a half-million a shot, it's pretty good money for, apparently, not much work.
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1 comment:
Pablo @ 5:51PM | 2006-04-28| permalink
I find her explanation believable. Unlikely, but believable.
I wrote a poem once, and LATER discovered that I had basically just lifted verses from the third chapter of Jonah. I think that that's what they call "cryptomnesia."
Combine that phenomenon with a very good memory (whether or not it's technically "photographic") and the result would indeed be just what this woman is claiming.
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Felix @ 6:57PM | 2006-04-29| permalink
It seems to have been more pervasive than one would expect from such accidental & unconscious echoing of another writer's prose. But I'll grant that it's possible. Fortunately I don't have to make that decision.
You were writing about Ninevah?
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Pablo @ 2:00PM | 2006-05-02| permalink
Oops, I was unconciously plagarizing Job, not Jonah. Needless to say, I was pretty depressed at the time....
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