Thanks to the internet, it has never been easier to steal other people's work. There's also a high risk you'll be found out. So why do it? Rhodri Marsden goes in search of a little originalityIt's not that hard to think of something totally original. If you don't worry about it being any good, it's easy. "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously," was Noam Chomsky's spirited attempt in his ground-breaking 1957 book on linguistics, Syntactic Structures. "Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers," was Stephen Fry's during an episode of A Bit Of Fry And Laurie. But when novelist John Gardner used the phrase "opening the throttle at the last moment" in his 1983 book Icebreaker, it's unlikely that he sat back and congratulated himself on being the first to have written it. Innovation wasn't what he was aiming for, after all; he was just trying to describe someone driving a scooter. But Google Books, that vast indexing project, informs us that Gardner's was the only book to contain this phrase until another, Vestige Of Evil by Len Vorster, appeared on Amazon in 2011. A section of the novel, one of two books self-published online under that name, featured other phrases that were no longer unique to Icebreaker, such as "the ice and snow were not as raw and killing as this" and "the slope angling gently downwards to flatten". The many coincidences were startling, though if it wasn't for the internet, nobody need ever have known.In... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 31/03/2011 - 09:10 Arts Council England (ACE) portfolio funding for literature organisations will rise 9.9% in real terms compared to the previous funding period, the government claims, as ACE revealed its new national portfolio of arts... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#literature organisations
#government claims
#ace revealed
#national portfolio
It's the Stieg Larsson show in 2010 paperback bestsellers. The first two books of his enormously successful trilogy racked up sales of more than 10,942,000 in their mass market and paperback editions. That's more than the combined sales of two other stellar sellersJames Patterson and Nora... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#mass market
#combined sales
#big names
#paperback editions
#nora roberts
Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Wed, 16/03/2011 - 09:03 The new-look Paris Book Fair will open on Friday [18th March] for four days as five of the leading French publishers ponder the raids by the European Commission competition officials a fortnight ago. Hachette Livre, Bayard... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#hachette livre
#scaled back
#opening hours
Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 07/03/2011 - 15:05 The Big Green Bookshop has raised nearly half of its fundraising target to secure its future at the beginning of its appeal week. Owners of the London independent bookshop, Simon Key and Tim West, appealed to 1,000 loyalty... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#fundraising target
#simon key
#tim west
#extra book
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 25/02/2011 - 08:45 The UK's big four publishing groupsPenguin, Hachette, Random House and HarperCollinscould be the worst hit in terms of exposure to the ANZ market according to Nielsen BookScan data, following REDgroup's collapse in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#redgroup collapse
#random house
Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 25/02/2011 - 08:38 The Big Green Bookshop is appealing to 1,000 of its loyal customers to help secure its future by buying one book each. Owners Simon Key and Tim West of the indie in Wood Green, North London, have also set up an online donation... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#loyal customers
#tim west
#wood green
#north london
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 10/02/2011 - 10:08 Bestsellers from Hachette UK helped limit the decline in sales at parent Lagardere Publishing, according to results filed by the French group, which is continuing to suffer from a year-on-year drop in sales of Stephenie... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#uk bestsellers
#results filed
#french group
#year-on-year drop
#stephenie meyer
#e-books accounted
Written By: Caroline Horn and Philip Stone Richard and Judys childrens book club initiative, which launched a week ago, saw average sales across the 18 selected titles grow by some 226%. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#big boost
#caroline horn
#week ago
#average sales
Written By: Charlotte Williams Amazon.co.uk has selected books published by Myriad Editions, Fig Tree, Atlantic Books and Simon & Schuster as its four Rising Stars for this quarter. Snowdrops by A D Miller (Atlantic Books) is currently the featured book, with a Q&A with Miller on the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#myriad editions
#fig tree
#atlantic books
#simon schuster
#rising stars
#titles chosen
Written By: Charlotte Williams Rob Brydon, Steve Coogan and John Bishop are among the latest big-name celebrities to have been snapped up for autobiographies, as comedians look set to dominate the hardback celebrity memoir market again this autumn. Gavin and Stacey star Rob Brydons memoir is... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#steve coogan
#john bishop
#michael joseph
While it may not apply to overall advertising budgets, "big" was in for individual ad pages that ran in MPA member magazines in 2010. According to data collected by MagazineRadar, high-impact ads that ran on heavy stock were up 19 percent in 2010 and the actual ad size increased as well: the... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#advertising budgets
#data collected
#high-impact ads
#average number