From Blasting News:
Last week, HarperCollins announced that it would halt sales of Monica Crowley’s 2012 book, “What The (Bleep) Just Happened”, after CNN discovered the author had plagiarized material from numerous columnists and journalists. As a result of the controversy, Crowley announced on Monday that she will not be taking the position she had been offered by President-elect Donald Trump, as strategic communications director of the National Security Council.
. . . .
While Crowley did the right thing by turning down the job offer, she faced a week’s worth of media flagellation for her lapse of judgment. But one question nobody seems to be asking is this– how on earth did a major publishing house like HarperCollins miss not one, not two, but (according to CNN) fifty incidences of plagiarism in a single book?
Let me repeat that. Fifty. As in half of a hundred. As in a pretty darn substantial percentage of the book’s overall word count.
And let me repeat the name of the publisher once again– that’s the illustrious HarperCollins.
. . . .
Surely a company with operations in 18 countries and thousands of employees assigned Crowley an army of proofreaders, fact-checkers and editors. And yet we’re expected to believe that, somewhere along the line, 50 instances of plagiarism escaped everyone’s notice? There is something very, very wrong with that picture and strangest of all is the fact that HarperCollins offered no in-depth explanation– just a short statement that they’re yanking Monica Crowley’s book.
. . . .
Most people don’t realize the grueling labor that goes into writing a book. Actually, the writing itself is the easiest part. It’s what goes on after the publisher decides to accept your manuscript that makes you grind your teeth to powder. My last book took about three months to write, and about fifteen months to produce. It was published by a small publisher, yet I was assigned a proofreader, editor, marketing intern and even a cover designer. Ditto for my first book, put out by an even smaller publisher. If these companies, with one millionth of the resources as a Big Five publisher can spot one case of plagiarism, why can’t HarperCollins spot fifty?
It definitely makes you wonder about the state of the publishing industry.
Link to the rest at Blasting News and thanks to Dave for the tip.
What I find amusing is the amount of snobbery towards indie authors while this is going on at the major publishers.
But this is pretty sad. So much falseness being exposed these days.
——
KC Hunter is author and creator of The Brothers Locke, an 8 episode young adult fantasy series.
the writer of the piece is not experienced imo. Writer signs contract saying no libel, no slander, no plaguerism [sp], no illegal whatever in the book, and that if there is, and there is a law suit, author, not pub is fully respons for all expenses.
She’s lucky so far she hasnt been sued. The clock ticks for a long time on this. For decades publishers have taken on faith that X author is not an %#*(& and is an honest person. James Frey, the idiot also who claimed H. Hughes diaries or whatever. Cant recall name of guy who pretended to be a native american writing works suspiciously similar to Sherman Alexie’s. It’s amazing more scam artists dont make it through.
But checking for plaguerism [sp] isnt the pub’s job. It’s the author’s integrity that is the issue. There are billions of books in print in libraries vs millions more new ones. Software’s not going to find ‘copying’ in books that havent been digitized
The 1971 Clifford Irving/Howard Hughes case was a little different though in that Irving simply fabricated his “biography” of Hughes (which was never actually published) rather than plagiarizing the work of other authors. Irving and his wife ended up doing jail time for mail fraud.
Let me say this, I think it is great HC is pulling the book. Are they going to refund all the sales? No? Then you have your answer. Just like when Time prints a huge front page falsehood, then retracts it a week later on page 34. Do they refund the people who bought the paper on the false claim? Nope. Everyone from the author to the CEO knew there were problems with the book. No one cared because it is easier to say ‘sorry’ after you’ve sold a million copies than it is not print it.
I dont think editing and proof reading will necessarily detect plagiarism. That would depend on the people working on the book being familiar with the at least one of the works plagiarized.
But I know some people going to college now and have heard there is software that detects it for school papers. Maybe someone could tell publishers about it.
There are other ways. You don’t have to choose to make it difficult.
It only counts if you get caught.
Ah, the fun in having your past misdeeds come back to haunt you. No one would have bothered to take a closer look if she hadn’t been pick by Trump to help him play games.
“Most people don’t realize the grueling labor that goes into writing a book.”
Not if you do it her way!
“My last book took about three months to write, and about fifteen months to produce.”
Which is why indie/self publishing is quicker to market and often better — fewer cooks throwing things in the pot.
Ah, yes, the MSM. That still does not have a care in the world about an even more famous “author” committing an outright lie about where he was born… (Lied in the past, or lies in the present – nobody really knows anything except that there is a lie there somewhere…)
Fake news? More like fake publishing.
Nobody noticed the plagiarism until now? The book must not have been widely read. Purchased, maybe, but read?
But once they looked, it couldn’t be overlooked?
That’s the best reward for plagiarism I can think of, but it works best BEFORE the office is assumed.
Too caught up in curating? Or nurturing, perhaps?