Just another plagiarist

If working writers were designers of the afterlife, then a particularly brutal hell would be waiting for plagiarists.

plagiarize
1716, from plagiary (c.1600), from plagiarius “one who kidnaps the child or slave of another,” also “a literary thief,” from plagiare “to kidnap” (see plagiarism). Related:Plagiarized; plagiarizing - The Online Etymology Dictionary

Now comes Quentin Rowan, aka Q.R. Markham, a thief of intellectual property who pretended to write a book. Publishers Little-Brown were the accomplices in this fraud. Hopefully unwitting ones, but their ‘no comment’ policy since the story broke a week ago hasn’t been helping their case.

The book, a cold-war era spy thriller, was launched in early November to rave reviews, even being called an instant classic. Within weeks, however, hardcore fans of the genre were burning up the online forums with the blatant plagiarism they were finding — long sentences, whole paragraphs and vast passages were lifted wholesale from distinguished thriller writers like Robert Ludlum, Charles McCarry and John Gardner. Spotchecking is still ongoing, but Rowan is thought to have “borrowed” from at least thirteen separate books.

.What makes Rowan’s case marginally more interesting than other recent high-profile plagiarism cases, is the more or less full confession he made to author Jeremy Duns. Duns, who originally blurbed Rowan’s book then alerted Little-Brown when we saw the online allegations, was contacted by Rowan about a week after the scandal broke — after being consistently ‘unavailable’ to all press inquiries. He originally asked Duns if the two could exchange emails ‘off the record,’ but Duns insisted that he would share whatever Rowan revealed with readers of his blog. Amazingly, Rowan agreed.

The exchange is amazing, and worth reading in its entirety. Duns can hardly hide his disdain, but manages to ask Rowan just about every question that an honest writer has ever wanted to ask of a dishonest one. And Rowan appears to be credibly candid in his responses. His descriptions of fear, self-loathing and near-schizophrenic levels of denial are nearly enough to make you feel sorry for him.

Then you remember that he’s Just Another Plagiarist, famous for his infamy. In six months or a year we’ll have forgotten his name. That’s a small measure of justice but it’ll have to do. Very little other reckoning will come the way of the would-be author, his negligent agent and purblind publishers, in spite of this wreck they’ve heaved up on the shores of the fiction business.

By that I mean, I wish I could say plagiarism doesn’t pay. However a quick check of Ebay reveals that Rowan’s literary abortion is now going for $270.