Oh, also, very very poor showing if she ripped off Born Confused because that is a really, really cute book.
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.
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!
(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?