That Plagiarism Scandal

[mabfan]

I haven't been following the Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarism scandal too closely because I've had friends doing it for me. However, I do want to note one speculative point that I made yesterday that appears to be correct.

Yesterday, writer Stephen Leigh (sleigh) noted in this post that the book was put together by a book packager. I suggested in one of my replies that it was entirely possible that the packager was the one who really committed the plagiarism. (Still, Viswanathan would have to take full responsibility, since it is her name on the book.)

Well, there are two articles I found today that would appear to substantiate my theory.

First, today's New York Times article "A Second Ripple in Plagiarism Scandal" points out that some passages in the Viswanathan novel were lifted from yet another book, implying that the plagiarism was deliberate.

Secondly, the Harvard Independent article "Kaavya Case Not First Plagiarism Controversy for Opal Mehta Packager" points out that the packager had been found guilty of committing plagiarism before.

Methinks the packager is mostly at fault, but as I said before, Viswanathan has to take responsibility as well.

Comments

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

At this point, through the murkiness of the writer/packager relationship, I think it's impossible to tell who initiated the plagiarism. But the author allowed her name to be put on the book, so she's responsible; the packager either was complicit in the plagiarism or didn't catch it, so they also share the blame.

No matter what way things really happened (and we may never know), it's ugly, ugly, ugly.

[delkytlar.livejournal.com]

How is a publisher or packager supposed to catch plagiarism if they are not familiar with the original work? Obviously, they can't compare every word of every book they publish against every word of every other book ever published. The only time a publisher or packager tends to do a legal review of books is when the author puts them on notice that something might need to be checked, or when real world people are used. It is extraordinarily rare for a work of fiction to be reviewed before pub, and even then, not for plagiarism, but for mainly for libel.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Hey, Sean! You're absolutely right that no editor can know every work in the genre, and I didn't mean to give the impression that such was my thought. Heck, I know as a teacher that catching plagiarism is a hit-and-miss thing: I either have to suspect plagiarism (usually because the paper's better-written than I'd expect for that student), in which case I search for a few key phrases on the internet, or I have to have read the source work recently enough that the similarities jar me.

But one might reasonably expect an editor to have read the 'canonical' and most popular works in their genre, if for no other reason than to stay abreast of the competition and the state of the field. I don't read the type of work in question here, but my understanding is that Megan McCafferty's books are highly-popular. I don't read the genre, so anything I say has to be taken with a large box of salt, but the cited similarities were enough that readers reading Ms. Viswanathan's novel who were familiar with Ms. McCafferty's work twigged quickly to the plagiarism. I'm not entirely unsurpised that the editor at Little, Brown didn't catch it... but it does make me wonder if someone at the packager wasn't aware of it -- after all, it seems from all I've read on this that this genre is their speciality...

And from the most recent article I've read (http://www.harvardindependent.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=9941), it seems the packager was involved in previous plagiarism situations...

I don't think it's the role of the editor to catch plagiarism. It can't be. The editor, in the end, has to trust the writer's assertion that the work is original. And that's why the contract language is the way it is, right?

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

And gee, considering the repetition of "I don't read this genre..." statements, I could use a good editor myself! Where's Sheila when you need her?

[delkytlar.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, it's my experience that many editors are so overworked that they have little time for reading outside of their own authors. I've worked on YA fantasy novels where the editor has only read the first book of Harry Potter, and epic fantasies where the editor hasn't read any of Martin or Jordan (I can't even swear they ever finished LOTR). So, it's natural to me to assume that editors are not up on the canon in their field.

In the YA field, there is so much product out there that I doubt very much that any particular editor would be up on even the top five sellers at any given time. In practice, unless a publishing house gets lucky, plagiarism only gets caught when the plagiarized author finds it and brings a claim.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

I will bow to your more extensive knowledge of the editorial side of the publishing field -- I can well believe that editors have little time for 'extra' reading. I know that's the case for me as a writer.