Lesbian Fiction ForumYou know, if a book is so difficult to write that the writer must steal from others to complete it, then perhaps that book shouldn't be written nor the writer writing.
I stole got borrowed this from Georgeanna Hancock over at Writer's Edge.
Writers' Ethics
Did you ever wonder what a "book packager" does? In the latest plagiarism brouhaha over Kaavya Viswanathan's How Opal Mehta etc., now pulled from shelves, the NY Times provides some interesting insights in First, Plot and Character. Then, Find an Author.
But on the copyright page–and the contracts–there's an additional name: Alloy Entertainment. … In many cases, editors at Alloy–known as a "book packager"–craft proposals for publishers and create plotlines and characters before handing them over to a writer (or a string of writers). … Alloy owns or shares the copyright with the authors and then divides the advances and any royalties with them.
And did I hear correctly, that the advance was half a mil? According to the author in a Today Show interview earlier this week, she received this offer when she was 19 for a book she'd started writing when she was 17, which must have been right after her last of several readings of the two books from which she is accused of lifting copy. Sounds like K-12 education needs to add ethics training to the curriculum.
If you'd like to test your judgmentment in a variety of situations, take the quiz in next month's Writer's Digest's Are You an Ethical Writer? Come up lacking or questioning? Poynter Online has an entire division of its website devoted to ethics and two free online courses in its News University.
I am sure that as teen or pre-teen, I plagiarized along the way. But once I learned what that word meant and what classifies as plagiarized, I never did it again. Example: I hated gym class. Hated. Whenever I could, I chose to go to the library and write a report on some sport related thing. I copied it word for word out of the books. The teacher knew of course. We weren't graded on the report and I doubt the teacher even read it. The idea was it was a form of punishment, not a learning experience. Snort. I'd rather copy an entire book by hand than take gym class.
I took several journalism classes in high school and learned how to include bits from other sources without breaking the rhythm of the article. "According to…." is a great way. Or "[Insert source] says that…"
But that's all nonfiction. The lines and rules for nonfiction are widely understood. But what about fiction?
I don't understand the need to plagiarize fiction. Fiction is made up, not real, a fantasy in a person's head so they put it down on paper. So why go steal someone else's words? In fiction, to stop and say "According to Nora Roberts, the hero leans forward and…." or "According to Megan McCafferty, the characters turn to each other and say…."
The idea that fiction plagiarism is so widespread just doesn't fit with what I understand to be ethical writing. I don't get it. It is a waste of energy and resources. In the time it took to flip through the other writer's book, find the passage you need, copy it down, change the bits that you need to…..couldn't you have just written your own??
Is it the publisher's fault? Little, Brown is a huge corporation. They could have an intern or two or dozen that reads the summary of the new book and see if any other books meets two or more of the points. Then compare the two further. You know, like, some girl in high school is fighting to get into a big Ivy League school. Hey, didn't someone else write something like this?
No, it's not the publisher's fault. Anyone have any idea how many Young Adult novels there are out there and how many are published each year? I don't either but I betcha the possibility of such a team of interns would just not be feasible.
Is it the "book packager's" fault? They do this for a living; come up with a plot and concept and find the author to write it. Surely they check to see if it has already been done. And if it has, wouldn't they tell the author? "Oh, and someone's already done this plot line. You need to make it your own, use your own imagination and uniqueness to create something different and better."
Nope, it's not their fault. Well, maybe. But not totally and not entirely and definitely just a tiny bit.
The fault lies with the writer. The writer is who puts the words down. At some point the writer knows if this plot is going to make it or not. Does the age of the writer matter? Some. A twelve year old wouldn't be allowed to make such big business decisions on their own. Would a 19 yr old be pressured to the point that to say 'hey, I plagiarized would be like, total death? That's not the point.
The point goes back to that day, that moment, when the writer makes the decision to copy. It is that moment that all other factors are removed. "Copy the text or come up with my own?"
Does a looming deadline count? Does pressure from parents, agents, friends, family pet count?
No. It is still that moment. Stealing is stealing whether it is a candy bar from the corner store or a dollar from your mom's purse. At some point, the decision to take that candy bar had to be made. What if guilt lay heavy and the thief wished time could be reversed? The eaten candy can't be put back but the money for it could be dropped into the penny cup. The dollar could be returned to the purse. There are always ways to undo damage, even if it can only be confessing to it and facing the punishment.
At some point, the decision to plagiarize had to be made. And at some later point, the writer was faced with the reality of that decision. How many edits does a book go through before it is sent to a publisher? How many more edits is done between writer and publisher? At some point, the writer had a chance (or two or dozen) to change the stolen sections.
Kaavya Viswanathan chose not to. She plagiarized. The good she could have done for her ethnic group, for other young girls, for other "different" kids who wanted to make it to Harvard…all that good is trash now. Perhaps some good did come of it. When plagiarism is caught, it can get nasty all across the globe.
There are better ways to get famous.
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Keywords: Ethics, Other Writers
last modified: 05/06/06 01:32
