Oh, also, very very poor showing if she ripped off Born Confused because that is a really, really cute book.
[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
There also are some celebrity novels that are ghostwritten. One well-known Emmy winning actor/popular singer with a toupee had an entire series of novels ghostwritten for him, though he did contribute the outline and also acknowledged the ghost, if you knew how to read it.
[/QUOTE]
And if we’re talking about the same person, he’s the first author I’ve encountered that charges people to autograph books. His assistant said he wanted $10 each to sign his $6.99 books (hopefully without tearing his shirt). Since I don’t charge extra for autographed books in my store, I figured I pass on the offer.
[QUOTE=Ghanima]
The only one I have a point of contention with is the descriptions of Indian food - there are only so many ways to explain the amazing smell of spices when the food is cooking, or how to describe meat that is so tender it’s falling off the bone.
[/QUOTE]
Yet somehow you just managed to do it without plagiarizing. There are plenty of ways to describe it. The crisp bite in the smell of hand-rubbed chicken hot from the tandoor; the pieces of lamb in the vindaloo falling apart when you stab them with the fork; the burst of warm air when you bite into a fresh puri; the… Dang. Where was I? I’m hungry!
[QUOTE=even sven]
Ms. Viswanathan is is of limited literary talent. But she has a nice face, a compelling story and a shitload of backers and packagers behind her keeping the media buzz up and the money rolling in. Thanks to the power of ghost-writing and apparently plaguerism, she was able to play the role of the literary prodigy.
[/QUOTE]
(emphasis mine) You completely missed my point about the advance. The size of the advance makes it highly unlikely that there’s a ghost writer involved. If a publisher wants to package an unknown and push the story, there’s no need to shell out a six-figure advance. There are lots of young attractive non-angos out there. Sure, they need to pay a royalty, and if they can pimp out millions of books, the writer (or “packagee,” if you prefer) will do quite well financially. But in this case, they ponied up a reputed half-million dollars up front. Why do that if you’re going to provide ghost writers?