Due to the ongoing row of the Indian Harvard girl plagiarizing the works of Megan McCafferty, a lot of spotlight has been placed on them both, but I have heard of neither of these authors before this. How did it come about that people had read both authors' works to notice the copying?

Baloo55th

Some people will read anything, basically, and some of them will have the intelligence to remember things. The passages quoted on http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002384667 do show a suspicious similarity, but this could be due to unconscious remembering by Viswanathan of the McCafferty book, which she could have read when it came out. I'd never heard of either author, or of the row, but then again it doesn't sound like the sort of stuff I'd be likely to be reading anyway. Apr 27 06, 2:12 AM

lanfranco

These are both books directed to girls in their mid to late teens. Given that the subjects are so similar, it stands to reason that a reader attracted to one might also end up reading the other. There is an entire genre of "young adult" literature and a substantial group of authors who, like Megan McCafferty, specialize in it. Like the fans of romance novels, the readers of this genre are well-informed about the books, and word-of-mouth gets around quickly. Apr 27 06, 5:45 AM

Baloo55th

This has just come up on 'Night Waves' on BBC Radio 3. Apparently a firm of 'book packagers' is involved. These people take a story and repackage it (sounds like this equals rewrite it) if the author is a good prospect for marketing. This isn't ghost writing, where the 'author' only writes their name on the thing, but rather a remaking of the product. And the book is regarded as a product. At 17, Viswanathan would be a good marketing prospect for a book aimed at teen girls. The dubious passages might have 'crept in' during the remaking. For a re-run of the programme, go to bbc.co.uk and look for Radio 3 and the on demand facility. It'll be up there for a week from tonight. (No good putting a link in here - in a week it'll be gone!) Apr 27 06, 3:09 PM

lanfranco

Well, here's a detailed site on the subject. "Packagers" like this do work frequently on series that are targeting a specific readership, but I'm a little surprised that a single novel might have been tinkered with in this fashion. I'm even more surprised that Little, Brown would have allowed this happen without careful checking. Evidently, they're not what they used to be. http://harvardindependent.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=9906 Apr 27 06, 4:09 PM