Indian Readers discussion
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Shared writing is unethical?
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My answer will be hardly adequate since I haven't read the book, but I speculate there is no harm in co-authoring a book. How far it is practically possible is a different matter - but I cannot make out the unethical part. As to whether collaborative writing is discouraged by disqualification, I have simply no idea, but I also do not recollect any co-authored books winning awards.
a 17 yr old submits a story to a new-author contest. The story is brilliant while the writing is horrible, so another guy with better writing skills (and yet not published coz of not-so-good stories) rewrites this novel and submits it on behalf of the 17yr old girl. That girl eventually wins the prize - but this entire re-writing stuff is kept under wraps for fear of 'controversy'. here the re-writing is done in consultation with the original author herself. I didn't understand why this had to be kept under wraps. Why cudn't they have come clear and announced that both of them together wrote it?Don't worry none of this needs a spoiler alert - it all happens within the first few pages of this 1000 page magnum opus :)
Rather than unethical, it might be embarrassing to someone to admit that the work is not entirely his/her. That s/he needed 'help' and cannot take entire credit for the work. That is all I can conceive of for the moment. Sheer embarrassment. Does that make sense in the context of the story?
Lit Bug wrote: "Does that make sense in the context of the story?..."Nope, the original author never bothered whats happening to her story, as long as it gets published. She doesn't mind if its released on her name or someone else's. Hence, I wanted to check if 'writing' is considered a single player game like our exams where we can't 'copy' officially, but happens all the time :P
Non-fiction has often been co-authored. But I haven't heard of fiction ever been co-authored.
Lit Bug wrote: "Non-fiction has often been co-authored. But I haven't heard of fiction ever been co-authored."There is (are) Wu Ming. I have never read them so I don't know if they write good books but under this pen name there are four writers.
Thanks for pointing it out... Never heard of them - any idea if they've ever been considered for any literary award?
Lit Bug wrote: "Thanks for pointing it out... Never heard of them - any idea if they've ever been considered for any literary award?"I know them only because they are Italians, I don't know if they are famous abroad or if they have won some award (I don't think).
In Malayalam, two very well known writers M T Vasudevan Nair and N P Mohammed (Both are very popular for their individual works) have co-authored a novel called Arabiponnu, which is also quite popular.So, it is definitely possible, and I don't consider it unethical, so long as the end product is good, and credit is shared between all the authors, that is.
Hardy Boys series by Franklin W. Dixon is a series which is written by a lot of ghostwriters who write this series under the "pseudonym" of Franklin W. Dixon.
i know there were numerous examples - eric van lustbader and robert ludlum etc. but anyone knows a multi-authored book winning a prize/award ?
Co-authored books are eligible for prizes - at least in the technical categories - but I'm not sure about literature
Were Lustbader and Ludlum co-authors? I'm not so sure... They didn't write a book together as far as I know.
Lit Bug wrote: "Thanks for pointing it out... Never heard of them - any idea if they've ever been considered for any literary award?"I asked a friend about Wu Ming and he said that their books are terrible and unreadable.
Aww :( I was looking forward to reading them.
Lit Bug wrote: "Co-authored books are eligible for prizes - at least in the technical categories - but I'm not sure about literature"So technically is it possible to approach a guy with good writing skills, present ur unique story, form a masterpiece together and bag ur award - year after year? Am sure we are missing some technicality here... need to dig more.
Lit Bug wrote: "Were Lustbader and Ludlum co-authors? I'm not so sure... They didn't write a book together as far as I know."
Guess you are right.
In my digging, found this - a crime fic co-authored by 26 "best-selling" authors :)
Post the title! Want to see a book like that!!!
'Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898' is a historical non-fiction book co-authored by historians Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace and won the Pulitzer prize in 1999. Are you limiting the topic only to literary authors/works? Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
Lit Bug wrote: "'Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898' is a historical non-fiction book co-authored by historians Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace and won the Pulitzer prize in 1999. Are you limiting the to..."And, after the above couple of posts - am wondering if the authors are the ones who feel its difficult to co-author a book? The kind of situation described in Murakami's book seems pretty common to me - one has the ideas but not the skill while another has the skill but not much of an imagination - kind of surprised why there aren't even any nominations to Booker Prize like that?
Lit Bug wrote: "'Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898' is a historical non-fiction book co-authored by historians Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace and won the Pulitzer prize in 1999. Are you limiting the to..."A kind of historical research books seems a good idea where authors can collaborate. But is it tougher for fiction?
A preliminary google search showed that though there are no restrictions on co-authored books being submitted for nominations, none has yet won any literary award.Collaborating on fiction is pretty tougher than history, I suppose - one may have brilliant ideas, the other writing skill, but they might not make a compatible team due to creative differences - history is much more rooted in facts, and perhaps the only difference that may arise is when they attempt to write a history in the cultural studies fashion, which may give rise to different interpretations on the same event - apart from that possibility, there is little scope for differences and hence, co-authoring history seems to me pretty easy v/s collaboration in fiction.
Indian Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (other topics)No Rest for the Dead (other topics)
1Q84 (other topics)
Do most or all literary award committees disqualify books my multiple authors? If someone has good writing skills and someone else has wonderful ideas/stories to tell, is it unethical for them to join hands and write a book? If not why does Murakami make it such a big deal in 1Q84 ?