Best Selling Author, James Altucher, Admits Plagiarism

I'm a writing podcast fanatic, so I was really excited to find a new one: Write 2B Read. The host is author Ani Alexander. She has a wonderful Russian/Ukrainian accent and is a treat to listen to.

That said...

Ani recently interviewed best selling author James Altucher. James is an old hedge fund manager turned inspirational author. Unfortunately, his latest 'writing' idea lands him squarely in plagiarist territory ... and he doesn't even recognize it.

Forgive my lack of transcription abilities. The following dialog happen about 38 minutes into the interview:

Ani:

I'm seeing that you've been doing many, many different things. I mean apart from the writing you do many different things in life. So, first of all, how do you manage to do all these at the same time. Because, you know, those are like different projects and ... like time wise and attention wise, I don't know how you manage that. Why did you decide to do many different things, and did not pick just one? 

James:

Well, I kinda just do, you know. First off, you have to do what pays the bills for you and your children and things like that. Although most people live higher lifestyles than are necessary. There's probably cheaper ways to pay the bills for many people. But for me, I do what things are interesting. So if someone or something interests me a lot, then I'll get involved in it. Whether its a business or a book idea or a post or an article, or anything. 

I like to share my knowledge. So I have knowledge of business, and I have knowledge of writing, and I have knowledge of technology, and I have knowledge of entertainment, so I like to share my knowledge that I have in different endeavors. And then I just keep going. 

Again, I can never predict tomorrow. I may never get involved in anything new again, but my assumption is if I just keep doing things that are interesting to me, today, fun things will happen. 

I'll give you an example. Can I give you an example? 

Ani: 

Absolutely. 

James: 

So today something interested me. I decided, just for the fun of it, I'm going to take a very popular book and I'm going to hire somebody on [REDACTED] to take this very popular book, and change every word, but keep the same story. So if the words were, “Jane ran to the store,” I might change that to, “Christine walked quickly to buy her clothes.” 

So I'm gonna basically, it's just for fun, I'm gonna see if I can essentially see if I can have someone use a thesaurus to change/rewrite an entire book. So it's the same book, but just every single word is rewritten. So nobody can say this is plagiarism. And if I load this book to Amazon, what will happen? It's just an experiment. So I just had the idea to do it today. I found someone in India who extremely cheaply will do it, by Monday. So I'll have the book finished by Monday. 

Ani: 

Wow! (laugh)

James: 

Then I'll use [REDACTED] for free, to pick out a cover. And I'm gonna make, what I do, is I'm gonna make for $5 each, Facebook ads to test out ten different titles. So I came up with ten different titles, and I made ads for them on Facebook, and I'll see which title people click on the most. 

I'll know by tomorrow which title will be the most popular title. By Monday I'll have the book, I'll load it up on [REDACTED], make a paperback in Kindle, then I'll have a book finished and then as an experiment I'll see if the book does well or not. 

Ani: 

(laughing) Interesting. 

James: 

And then either the book does well, and then I came up with an idea for a business or the book doesn't do well, and I'll write a post about the experience, and either way I win. 

Ani: 

Absolutely. And I presume the book you're using is a successful one? 

James: 

Yeah, sold millions of copies. 

Ani: 

Okay, yeah. That's what I thought.

That truly sad part of this dialog, is that neither Ani nor James realize James just admitted to plagiarism. So, to increase Mr. Altucher's knowledge base, here's the definition of plagiarism.

Plagiarism: (noun) The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

Sure, James kept saying it was 'an experiment' and 'just for fun,' but he also said, "And then either the book does well, and then I came up with an idea for a business ..."

No, James. You just came up with a way to steal someone else's hard work. With the current rash of plagiarists rewriting other author's ebook works, you're just another sleazeball out to make a buck. Apologize for making such a BAD mistake, then destroy every copy of your plagiarist work.

It's not an experiment and it's not fun because its not yours.

UPDATE: On 2/1/2016, I redacted the names of several websites in the effort to hinder others using Mr. Altucher's 'blueprint to plagiarism.'

The Art of Profanity

I don't like profanity. I can tolerate it in books (even enjoy it when it's well placed), but I personally--if ever--use it. When a 'choice word' does slip out, it's an event. Or I'm feeling awkward. Or lose my temper. Get cut off in traffic. Hmmm...

Anyway, when I began writing, this showed as a fatal flaw in my work. A memorable instance occurred when my main character, in a heated situation, called his mom a 'wicked witch.' This insult resoundingly fell flat with my writing group (none of them are heavy handed with artistic verbiage). Unanimously they said the proper word for this instance was, 'bitch.'

Was I wrong? Yeah, I kinda was.

You see, it all boils down to your audience. If your target is the middle-grade market, then little to no profanity is expected. A religious market? Probably the same. But the Young Adult market is going to expect a curse word or two. This doesn't mean the author has to use profanity, but it's permissible. My story was a gritty YA sci-fi/horror mash-up, so an arrogant little prick of a son, would be expected to call his mother a bitch. Not using that word made my character instantly unbelievable.

Chuck Wendig, an author known for cursing, once said that he would get letters saying he had too many F-bombs while simultaneously getting additional letters wanting more F-bombs. In the end, he wrote what was comfortable for him, and let his audience choose whether they read the books or not. Chuck follows the mantra of George Carlin, "My argument is that you don’t need paprika or oregano or a few other things to make a stew, technically, either — but you make a better stew. If you’re inclined to make a stew of that type, “seasoning” helps."

Ranking Profanity
In my writing group, author Jordan Ricks suggested that curse words had a severity ranking from 1 to 10. Words higher on the list would be much more severe, and thus, used less frequently if at all. So there's a better chance that I'll use a 'hell' (ranking number 2), in my writing, than take the name of God in vain (a 10). This ranking system would naturally vary from person to person. And if you're feeling so inclined, socially offensive words could be added to the list as well. These words, however, could define a character more than a paragraph of purple prose, but should still be used cautiously.

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to serve as an LDS missionary. A few of the young men in my mission were--what I would call--less than apostolic. Nineteen year old boys can sometimes go awry, so consequently, my mission president was famous for uttering the words, "Damn it, Elder," when counseling wayward missionaries. One of these missionaries happened to ask him, if his swearing wasn't wrong as well. My mission president's reply? "Sometimes I have to say, 'Damn it, Elder,' just to get a missionaries attention."

And he was right.

Swearing is closely akin to an exclamation mark, and if you think about it, that's exactly what it is: an exclamation of intensity. Author David Morrell explained this principle best in, The Successful Novelist (If you haven't picked it up, I recommend you do).

"If the passage absolutely demands cursing, be moderate. A little of it goes a long way. I've seen beginning writers pepper curse words through sentence after sentence.

'If you don't -blanking- get your -blanking-blank-blank- in to this house this -blanking- minute, I'm going to -blank- your -blank- and nail it to the -blanking- door.'

"Two things happen when I read this junk: I get bored and I get angry. I didn't pick up your book to read garbage. If this is as clever as you can be, I don't want to read your prose. In life if you met someone who spoke like this, you'd want to flee. Then why put this stuff on the page?

"As near as I can determine, this abomination occurs because a writer is corrupted by the awful -blanking- dialog that movies inflict on us these days. It's also a sign of insecurity. The writer wonders if the dialog is strong enough and decides a lot of -blanking-blank- will do the trick.

"Someone might object that this kind of dialog is realistic in certain situations--intense scenes involving policemen or soldiers for example. I can only reply that in my research I spend considerable time with policemen and soldiers. Few of them curse any more than a normal person would. This garbage isn't realistic. It merely draws attention to itself and holds back the story. Use it sparingly."

The Final Word
Writing is--as always--an art. Every artist is different, which is fortunate because art is completely subjective. From King, to Heinlein, to you, each author paints with a variety of words, molding worlds for readers to explore. Just as one drop of paint can ruin a Matisse, one ill-used profanity can stagger a story. Readers are the final arbiters of what will be ultimately successful, but remember the words of Ricky Nelson, 'You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself.'

NaNoWriMo Prep Time!

It's time to gear up for again for thirty days and nights of literary abandon. For those of you unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, November is National Novel Writing Month. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write 50,000 words between November 1st and November 30th.

It doesn't have to be polished or publishable! But when you're finished, you should have a killer rough draft of that novel you've been wanting to write.

Who you? Yes, you! You know you've always wanted to write a book.

October is the best time to prepare your outline so you have a rough idea where you're going. This doesn't have to sparkle like a wanna-be vampire either. But you should get something down so you have a better plan than I did when I decided to take my writing seriously (it didn't end well...).

The good news is that when you sign up at the National Novel Writing Month website, they'll give you a ton of help in achieving your novel writing dream.

Want outline help? Try these links:
Creative Writing Now: How to Make a Novel Outline
How To Write a Book Now: Writing an Outline of Your Novel

Want a great book for writing your book in a month? I can't recommend Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt highly enough. It's one of the Writer's Digest books that I just love. When you're finished using this awesome workbook, you'll have your main plot line drafted and well on your way to a finished novel.

And if you'd like a warm up for NaNoWriMo, try Jane Ann McLachlan's October Memior and Backstory Blog Challenge. This will get your creative juices flowing and might even give you some ideas for NaNoWriMo!

Good luck and may the odds be ever... well... just get writing.  ;)

Follow Your Bliss!

I'm actually pretty bummed I won't be doing NaNoWriMo this year, but I want to encourage all of you who ever wanted to write a novel, to jump in and do it. Last year at this time, I was seriously taking my writing into a higher gear. I signed up for NaNoWriMo and David Farland's Writer's Death Camp. But the most important thing I did was recognize that, if I was going to be serious about my writing, I needed to start investing in myself and do it NOW.

Life has a way of throwing a million things at you. All of them important. But if you feel you have something you desperately want to do... something that your life feels empty without... then you have to find a way to make it fit in with everything else.

Dan Wells, bestselling author of the John Cleaver series, is famous for saying he knew he had to give up gaming if he wanted to be a successful author. Now, is Dan still a gamer? Sure! But gaming isn't his passion now. It's writing.

I'm a recovering World of Warcraft player. I spent 2+ hours everyday on the computer playing that game. Well... Let's be honest. It was more like 4+ a day. Two hours would have been on a busy day. This made me realize how many other things I could be doing (And Warcraft was starting to get boring anyway).

So, taking inspiration from Dan, I killed my gaming time and started focusing on my writing. I signed up for NaNoWriMo and the Death Camp. These little steps led to many other things including my AWESOME writing group, listening to a host of writing related podcasts every week, and attending workshops and conferences for writing. But most important, it brought me to where I am now. Finishing my first novel.

Am I still a gamer? DUH! But I play little games on Facebook. Nothing that takes too long to play. And when I finish my rough draft, I have Homefront and Skyrim waiting for a try before I rush off into the revision process. Gaming is my reward system. It has become my chocolate ice cream after a days hard work.

So, back to NaNoWriMo. If you have ever thought you wanted to write a book, start now. You have the drive to do anything you set your mind to. You know where to fit in the time. One author interviewed, said she wrote in her laundry room because she knew her family avoided work. Another said she would tell her family she was running to the supermarket, but would spend and hour in her car, at the park, writing. She finished almost her entire novel in the car.

It doesn't matter if you make your goal. Sure it's awesome if you do, but how much closer will you be than if you do nothing now? Sign up for NaNoWriMo and get going! And if what makes your motor purr isn't writing, well, get going on what does! Sign up for a class. Check out a book from the library on something you've always wanted to learn. Just do it so that one year from today, you can say you've done something you've always wanted to! And when it comes right down to it, you're worth investing your time in.

To NaNoWriMo, or not to NaNoWriMo...

To NaNo, or not to NaNo...

That is the question.

Last year was a big year for me. I decided to really push my writing by signing up to compete in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and going to Dave Farland's Writer's Death Camp. Since the Death Camp started November 6th, I figured that would be the perfect time to start my NaNoWriMo project.

Now, keep in mind that I'd never actually finished a novel before. The one that I came closest to finishing went down in flames when I learned that there was NO chance of selling it. (Lucas Film has this thing that you can't write Star Wars novels unless you're on their approved author list and you can't get on that list unless you've written something they've liked.)

So, I show up at the Death Camp with only an idea of the story I want to write. You know what I forgot?

A lot of plotting and research.

It seems that writers do a LOT of research into the stories they're going to tell. Most of it revolves around character and world building, but I showed up with only the idea of a general plot coupled with a few characters. Fortunately, I managed, with the tolerance of my writing group, to catch up. Seven months later, I'm banging down the last third of the novel I so horrendously began last November.

So, NaNoWriMo is nearing again and I promised myself I wouldn't begin another novel without research. But last night I realized that if I'm going to do NaNoWriMo this year, now is the time to start doing my research. Then again, I also promised myself I wouldn't start a new project until I'm done with the old one.

Either I need an aggressive writing goal or I need sit back and enjoy the journey.

Hmmm...

"To do, or not to do, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The lack of sleep and aching hands,
Or to take caffeine against a crushing word count,
And by opposing end them?"