The Fake Economies of Internet Publishing

https://kirstenhacker.wordpress.com/2019/12/04/the-fake-economies-of-the-internet-2/

It is a long-form piece with lots of links, but it gives an interesting look at how internet publishing has changed how fiction is produced.

" Turning your mom’s old romance novels into dinosaur porn is illegal, but novelists are doing this on a regular basis. Even new works are being plagiarized in this way. My feminist first novel was plagiarized by a men’s rights activist within four months after it was published and the plagiarist used the assistance of online ghostwriters and editors to finish the job. He then purchased fake reviews, fake followers, and online advertising on a scale that suggests he had money to burn. He even created a fake website that ‘interviewed’ him. It is fascinating how much of a digital trail self-publishing thieves like him leave behind.

That’s not to say that plagiarism doesn’t ever make it through major publishing houses today. Consider the 1970s novel Shogun by James Clavell. It is a classic and it required many years of research, painstaking construction, and meticulous attention to detail. Today, you might find an author who visited Japan once, read Shogun while he was there, and then wrote his own, dumbed-down version of Shogun for a modern audience that likes fewer side plots, less nuanced characters, and more gratuitous violence. That author probably genuinely believes that he is a creative genius, even though all of the historical research and some of the more striking passages came directly from Clavell.

James Clavell is dead, so only his heirs would care about such a crime, but suppose that shortly after Harry Potter was first published, a copycat used online freelancing services to quickly produce a similar story while claiming that he’s never heard of Harry Potter before. He says he didn’t infringe on Harry Potter’s copyright because he believes that ‘there are no new stories’ and his work is different because it is two thirds as long as Harry Potter. In addition, his protagonist is addicted to porn, he doesn’t play Quidditch, and he doesn’t have many friends. While such an update might bring the character in line with present-day trends, is that legal? I don’t think so. Unique plots matter.

The story of plagiarism might be an old one, but the internet has increased the speed and frequency with which the story repeats today and this has big impacts on the culture of publishing. Just as citizen journalists and fake news have depressed the income of professional journalists, the explosion of self-published novelists has depressed the income of fiction writers. Even if you don’t care if professional writers get paid, you should be concerned that the internet has increased the production of rehashed fiction and news while drowning out illuminating, transformative work that helps us make sense of the world today."

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