Eoin Purcell's Blog

I think it just may be my lucky day. Not surfing too heavy and I found some great stories by way of a very fine site that is definitely my "Find of the Month" for May (se follow on post).

In any case my reason for happiness is an article in Slate by John Barlow called:

I Coulda Been a Pretender: How I didn’t end up like that Harvard sophomore accused of plagiarizing her novel.

Two tastes will suffice:

Book packaging is not a new phenomenon. It involves getting a book concept together, thus saving the publisher the trouble of finding writers, illustrators, editors, etc. Then a finished concept is sold to a publisher as a fait accompli. 17^th Street is currently the most successful packager in the world when it comes to teen literature and the targeting of "Generation Y."

That seems dry but believe me there is plenty of gold in this article as the quote below shows:

We had agreed, previously, that I would write the thing as naturally as I could, and the people at 17th Street would filter out the unacceptable elements. So, I did just that, leaving in the text a modest fistful of shits, craps, a bastard, and several fucks. I even told them so when I mailed the finished text. Did they filter? Did they read? No; they gave the manuscript straight to the 8-year-old son of the company president. Little Timmy saw a shit and a fuck. He cried. He read the word bastard and needed counseling. It was a catastrophe.

Now go read it in full.

Tags: Books, Publishing, Authors, Writing

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