Editorial Inspirations

James Frey, the author who took down the reputation of the memoir, has a new book out, Bright Shiny Morning. With Frey’s controversial reputation, Harper has had to make some tough decisions on how to market this new book.

In an interview with Vanity Fair’s Evgenia Peretz, Frey said that he “fears and loathes” the press and would not be doing any other interviews. However, Frey did appear on the Today show and also did an interview for USA Today. But that, according to Tina Andreadis at Harper, is all the national media currently lined up for Frey.

When asked about whether Frey is avoiding the press, Andreadis said the author is not afraid of the press. She noted that Frey is prohibited from discussing the details of what happened with Random House and A Million Little Pieces for legal reasons.

In addition to the three interviews, Frey went on a book tour for the latest book. He’ll be stopping all over the country, sometimes with author/friend Josh Kilmer-Purcell, and also doing some local radio. In addition to traditional signings at stores like Book Passage in Corte Madera, Calif., and Book Court in Brooklyn, Frey appeared with some bands at a May 13 at New York’s Blender Theater and May 15 at West Hollywood’s Whisky A Go Go.

Amazon has sent an open letter explaining “what we’re changing with print on demand and why we are doing so.” Amazon has caused a major stir in the POD field with its decision to have publishers who want to sell POD titles directly through its website use its BookSurge POD subsidiary.

In the letter from the Amazon.com books team, the company reiterated that by using machines that are located in its own fulfillment centers, Amazon can have a title ready for shipment quicker than if it needs to wait for a book to be shipped to its facility. The extra time will permit Amazon to “marry” a title with another product that will be shipped in the same box, in most cases hitting Amazon Prime shipping times.

“It isn’t logical or efficient to print a POD book in a third place, and then physically ship the book to our fulfillment centers. It makes more sense to produce the books on site, saving transportation costs and transportation fuel, and significantly speeding the shipment to our customers,” the letter states.

Earlier this year, federal prosecution had tried to get a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Wisconsin to approve a subpoena compelling Amazon.com to disclose the identity of thousands of people who bought used books online. They were investigating former Madison public official Robert D’Angelo, who was indicted on charges that he ran a used book business and did not report the proceeds as income.

Judge Stephen Crocker turned down the request, ruling that there is a First Amendment right to keep your reading habits private. “The subpoena is troubling,” Crocker wrote, “because it permits the government to peak into the reading habits of specific individuals without their knowledge or permission…. It is an unsettling and un-American scenario to envision federal agents nosing through the reading lists of law-abiding citizens while hunting for evidence against someone else.”

As seen in the debacles of people like Stephen Glass and James Frey, plagiarism is not seen as a big deal among many writers. In the same way, students are violating ethics via plagiarism. Though it is unknown whether plagiarism is now more prevalent than before or whether more of the students are now being caught, the fact that plagiarism is occurring so often should be alarming to everyone’s parents, as well as writers, publishers, and readers.

In 2006, Ohio University officials discovered that plagiarism had been occurring in the mechanical engineering department for more than 20 years. The investigating committee notified 37 engineering graduates that they must either give up their master’s degrees, rewrite their theses, or challenge the accusations in hearings. Apparently, this was a widespread problem, as it led to the department chair’s resignation.

What has led so many people to believe that plagiarism is okay and that ethics don’t matter?