The Art Of Plagiarism

Q.R. Markham -- aka Quentin Rowan (aka The Guy Who Plagiarized That Spy Book) -- has written a, well, essay(?) about the whole fiasco that occurred over the past few weeks. The piece, entitled "Confessions of a Plagiarist," is published at a website called The Fix. What is The Fix? Well, according to the website's subtitle, it addresses "addiction and recovery, straight up."

Because, you see, plagiarism is apparently an addiction.

Here are some favorite parts from the essay in question:

They call a person like me a Plagiarist. It’s one of the harsher words we have in our language. Perhaps not up there with Pedophile or Rapist, but not as far behind as you'd think either. For years, I’d been dreading being called that word, and marveled all the while that I'd somehow avoided being caught. I associated its three syllables strongly with public humiliation and shame. And though that’s exactly what I’ve received, the fact is I’m still here, still standing, and still sober for 15 straight years.

See what he did there? In not so many words, he says that yes, he may be a Plagiarist (that's plagiarist with a capital P!), but hey, he's been sober for 15 straight years, and that should be worth something, right?

Between the first piece of writing I stole in the library all those years ago and the debut of my fake spy thriller, I struggled with plagiarism in the same way others struggle with smoking, sex addiction, food addiction, and gambling. Especially gambling, where you're always chasing your last thrilling high, regardless of the awful consequences. I tried to practice the first step with my obsession many times, to admit I was powerless over it  and it was making my life unmanageable, but it never worked. I just couldn't let go of it. My whole identity had become that of an aspiring writer. I wanted to be famous.

Ironically, this whole thing has made him more famous than the simple publication of his "fake spy thriller."

It wasn't any fun: I would look at the books on my shelf and think, "Oh, that's a great book. Oh, Wait a minute, I stole from it." And then I’d have to hide the book somewhere so it didn’t remind me I’d stolen from it. If the books were people, it would be akin to domestic abuse: I was hurting the ones I loved.

And yet the book kept coming back out of hiding, looking for more abuse.

In all honesty, I don't want to make light of this situation. It sucks for pretty much everyone involved, and it's great that the guy managed to maintain his sobriety for all these years. Can plagiarism be an addiction? I don't see why not. Pretty much anything can become an addiction. But if you read the entire essay or article or, well, confession, you'll notice one important fact: not once does Rowan apologize for his actions.

So is Rowan addicted to plagiarizing?

Sure.

Is he sorry for doing it?

No so much.

But don't worry -- I'm sure this isn't the last we'll hear from Q.R. Markham, or Quentin Rowan, or The Guy Who Plagiarized That Spy Book. I wouldn't be surprised if a publisher somewhere down the road gives him a second chance. After all, everyone loves a good comeback story, especially when those comeback stories involve overcoming diseases.

Why I Self-Published

Joe Konrath let me ramble on his blog today on the real reason behind why I decided to start self-publishing (but regular readers of this blog already know most of the story). Also Kristine Kathryn Rusch has an excellent post about how traditional publishers are making money (hint: not paying the writers near enough). Here's an excerpt:

But the biggest place that the publishers are saving money in the e-book side of things is author costs. Ten years ago, e-book rights got treated like any other subsidiary right. The authors got 50% of whatever the publisher got for that book.

The assumption in subsidiary rights is that the publisher would outsource them. That was especially true ten and twenty years ago, when book publishers published books only. But those of you who went to the links I posted above should have noted that the parent companies were major conglomerates with other holdings. So now, a lot of what used to be outsourced, from audio books to e-books, get produced in some other part of the parent company.

The suits at the parent company put pressure on the book publishers to change the contracts to reflect the in-house nature of the production. Contracts bought rights directly instead of splitting them, particularly in houses that also have a sister company that’s, say, an audio company.

Writers, writers organizations, and agents fought a lot of those changes, arguing that they still required the 50% of whatever the publishing house “got” for those rights. This battle got quite heated, and everyone expected give on both sides.

The battle was fought five to ten years ago (depending on the company), and back then, no one thought e-books would ever make any money.

Not ever.

So the writers, writers organizations, and agents had to cave on something to show they were “giving back” in the negotiation. They agreed to 25% of net or 15% of gross on e-books around that point, because “everyone knew” that e-books would never account for more than one-tenth of one percent of a book’s sales.

Ooops.

In current contract negotiations, e-books are no longer considered a subsidiary right. They’re a major point of sale, along with hardcover, trade, and mass market rights. Traditional book publishers have made e-books rights a deal-breaker in contract negotiation.

Either writers give the traditional publisher 15% of gross or 25% of net, or there is no contract. Some publishers are getting even stingier: 15% of net, not gross, and if you don’t like it, writer person, walk away.

Funny how things turn out sometimes, huh?

Do What Feels Right For You

I took a little break from blogging this week. Not something I had planned to do so much as just I didn't feel like blogging. Sometimes it becomes exhausting trying to come up with new material to entertain you people. And truthfully, because of incoming links and whatnot, traffic to my blog stayed pretty consistent, so that's sort of interesting for those who think you must blog every day to get people to come to your website. Anyway, I did want to check in to give my two cents on the ever continuing debate about traditional publishing vs. self publishing. And my advice is simply what the title of his post says: Do what feels right for you.

If you want to self-publish, self-publish.

If you want to go through a traditional publisher, go through a traditional publisher.

If you want to go with a third option, go with a third option.

I swear, it always seems everyone keeps talking in circles, arguing their points into the ground that even the ground starts to get sick of hearing it.

Most importantly, though, don't make decisions based on what other people will think. You are, after all, the one that counts, and if you strongly believe in doing what you want to do, then do it.

Yes, I've started really getting into the self-publishing game and, so far, it's become a good bet. Not many other writers are so lucky, while others are even luckier. Have I turned my back completely on traditional publishing? No. The novels I've self-published have, after all, been novels that were previously shopped around and which were ultimately passed on (well, except for The Serial Killer's Wife, but that's another story). They were novels that I felt in my heart were still worth readers' attention, and so I decided instead of collecting virtual dust on my hard drive, I might as well set them free and see what happens. And so far, so good.

Yes, publishing is changing, and yes, everyone has opinions. It's important that, in the end, you don't parrot someone else and instead form your own opinion and stick by it no matter what.

Sleeping With The Enemy

From today's New York Times:

In 2010 Ms. Davenport signed with Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin, for “The Chinese Soldier’s Daughter,” a Civil War love story. She received a $20,000 advance for the book, which was supposed to come out next summer.

If writers have one message drilled into them these days, it is this: hustle yourself. So Ms. Davenport took off the shelf several award-winning short stories she had written 20 years ago and packaged them in an e-book, “Cannibal Nights,” available on Amazon.

When Penguin found out, it went “ballistic,” Ms. Davenport wrote on her blog, accusing her of breaking her contractual promise to avoid competing with it. It wanted “Cannibal Nights” removed from sale and all mentions of it deleted from the Internet.

Ms. Davenport refused, so Penguin canceled her novel and is suing her to recover the advance.

“They’re trying to set an example: If you self-publish and distribute with Amazon, you do so at your own risk,” said Jan Constantine, a lawyer with the Authors Guild who has represented Ms. Davenport.

The writer knows her crime: “Sleeping with the enemy.”

Some Recent Events Worth Noting

Last week HarperCollins announced that they were making over 5,000 of their backlist books available only as print on demand. According to the corporate press release from Brian Murray, the President and CEO:

As a publisher, it is our vision to make every HarperCollins book available to consumers in stores for immediate purchase – either from stock or through the Espresso Book Machine. We are initiating this program with nearly 5,000 black and white trade paperback books that comprise our active backlist. Hardcovers, mass-markets and illustrated books will not be available in this initial phase.

We see this as an opportunity to eliminate situations where our backlist titles are “temporarily out of stock.” The Espresso Book Machine, combined with high quality HarperCollins backlist titles, allows independent bookstore to sell HarperCollins books that they were previously unable to carry in their store due to space limitations. Now, it just takes the push of a button. The price and royalty paid on sales of books manufactured on the Espresso Book Machine are the same as books that are printed traditionally.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the idea of constant availability of books. Many times I've heard about a certain book or author and tried tracking down one of their books with little success because most times the book is out of print and only available at eBay and I'm not one to buy a lot of stuff from eBay.

So there's that.

But let's be honest here: what HarperCollins is really trying to do is keep these books "in print" so they can retain the rights to the ebooks, which will sell probably one hundred times more than the print on demand books.

Why?

Because these books will only be available through these Espresso Book Machines which are rare right now, and even if and when every bookstore gets one, so what? Authors rely on visibility in bookstores; readers like to browse shelves and page through books to find new authors. Readers can’t quite do this with a kiosk. If anything, the reader will have to have prior knowledge of a certain author or book first before even going to the bookstore, and if that’s the case, why not just order the book online?

After all, TechCrunch recently predicted that bookstores won't be around for much longer anyway:

2013 – EBook sales surpass all other book sales, even used books. EMagazines begin cutting into paper magazine sales. 2014 – Publishers begin “subsidized” e-reader trials. Newspapers, magazines, and book publishers will attempt to create hardware lockins for their wares. They will fail. 2015 – The death of the Mom and Pops. Smaller book stores will use the real estate to sell coffee and Wi-Fi. Collectable bookstores will still exist in the margins. 2016 – Lifestyle magazines as well as most popular Conde Nast titles will go tablet-only. 2018 – The last Barnes & Noble store converts to a cafe and digital access point. 2019 – B&N and Amazon’s publishing arms – including self-pub – will dwarf all other publishing. 2019 – The great culling of the publishers. Smaller houses may survive but not many of them. The giants like Random House and Penguin will calve their smaller houses into e-only ventures. The last of the “publisher subsidized” tablet devices will falter. 2020 – Nearly every middle school to college student will have an e-reader. Textbooks will slowly disappear. 2023 – Epaper will make ereaders as thin as a few sheets of paper. 2025 – The transition is complete even in most of the developing world. The book is, at best, an artifact and at worst a nuisance. Book collections won’t disappear – hold-outs will exist and a subset of readers will still print books – but generally all publishing will exist digitally.

Of course, that's just one guy's prediction, but if the last few years are any indication, the changes in publishing are just beginning. After all, many literary agents are beginning to get into the e-book publishing game, such as my own agency. I had heard talk about this happening awhile ago but they just officially announced it earlier this week:

Trident Media Group, one of the world's leading literary agencies, today announced that it is launching a new e-book initiative, Trident E-Book Operations. This division will create, manage and implement innovative e-book strategies for its authors, including the distribution of a variety of e-books directly to a large number of e-tailers in North America and internationally. Authors will have more flexibility than ever before, as well as new potential domestic and foreign revenue streams.

Robert Gottlieb, Chairman of Trident, said "Trident has been a leader in innovative approaches in the representation of its authors, including in the international markets with its "hot list", at the international book fairs and in new audio licensing. We will continue to manage all facets of our clients' businesses by the extension of our services into the ever-changing e-book publishing business around the world. Trident Media Group will devise strategies to maximize value for its authors in the new and complex e-book publishing field. Trident will not become a publisher, but will instead continue in its new e-book operations to have itself aligned with its clients whose interests we serve as an agent and manager."

I find it interesting that Gottlieb says Trident won't become a publisher, because that's what they're doing. They're not the only ones, though. My old agency is now doing the same thing, and Richard Curtis, a very well known literary agent, runs E-Reads, which has been around since 1999.

But this is 2011.

And Amazon just announced three new Kindles, two of which are priced until $100, and a very reasonably priced tablet that will be released later this year.

Which means even more people will have e-readers.

Which means this is a better time than any to have reasonably priced e-books available.

Again, just like this post's heading, some recent events worth noting.