Here’s an article from the celebrity gossip blog www.tmz.com that every author who chooses to self-publish should read. Click here.

It concerns a book written by Susan Hassett and produced by xLibris. (xLibris is associated with Random House but Random claims to have no oversight of its operations. Strange in itself.) Seems Ms. Hassett wrote a book about celiac disease and sent a copy to Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a “spitfire co-host” of ABC’s The View. Ms. Hassett is now suing Ms. Hasselbeck and others for plagiarism/copyright infringement, claiming Ms. Hasselbeck’s recently released book, The G-Free Diet, about her personal experience with celiac disease contains many similarities to Ms. Hassett’s book, Living with Celiac Disease, which was self-published a year earlier.

The story is fascinating on so many counts.

1. While several passages appear similar in both books, those claims, in my opinion, seem, at best, open to question. Isn’t  it reasonable, for example, to assume that any book on this topic might contain a section that asks the question, “What is celiac disease”? Not to Ms. Hassett, who claims it as her own.

2. I can’t help wondering whether anyone, the author herself or xLibris, made an attempt to edit Ms. Hassett’s work before printing it. The various passages quoted by her attorney in a letter to “ABC Broadcast Company” [sic] are filled with grammatical errors and misspellings.

3. Ms. Hassett may have found a kindred soul in her attorney, publicly reprimanded (by the state of Massachusetts) Richard C. Cunha, Esq., who obviously shares her own disregard for careless writing. Was it really both authors or Mr. Cunha himself who came up with “outer isles of the supermarket”?

4. The oh-so-accommodating Mr. Cunha says in his letter to ABC: “In order to avoid serious embarrassment to all concerned please be advised that I am authorized to consider an out of court settlement on behalf of my client, Susan Hassett.” Wattaguy.

5. Ms. Hassett’s suit has apparently produced a win-win publicity situation both for her and for Ms. Hasselbeck (and their respective books), at least according to Starz Life, yet another gossip site: “Hasset claims that along with the book she sent Hasselbeck a homemade cooking video, a personal note, a newspaper article and a business card.  (Nothing like a packet that screams ‘let me come on the view please.’)”

What will happen? My guess is Ms. Hasselbeck will pay up without admitting guilt, and Mr. Cunha will get his cut. Everybody looks bad, and they all win.  JK

JK :: Jun.23.2009 :: book publishing, self-publishing :: 1 Comment »