In these digital days, old-school publishing may get less attention, but one story certainly made the cut this week. News organizations revealed that Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan's debut novel will be pulled from the shelves after it was revealed that she had plagiarized numerous passages from another writer's work. I think this story contains some important questions for the publishing industry.

Since fiction writing is a hobby of mine, I have a pretty good idea of how difficult it is to break into the ivory towers of old-school publishing. I also know many writers consider practicing their craft more a labor of love than a lucrative line of work. ("Don't quit your day job" is the adage that springs to mind, and it's more about pay than competence.)

Some writers spend decades trying to break into the biz, and even then, they often can't make ends meet. For legitimate writers, an unproven teenager landing a $500,000 deal to write two books adds insult to the obvious injury of plagiarism. (Latest reports counted 40 close parallels between Viswanathan's novel and books by Megan McCafferty.)

Compare that to the princely $2,500 advance Stephen King received in 1974 for his first novel, Carrie. (Even adjusted for inflation, that's still only about $10,000.) King ultimately made much more from paperback and movie rights, and he's now known for the blockbuster salaries his books command. Still, I think his first earnings highlight the logical disconnect of a teenaged writer with no experience -- or product, for that matter, when the deal was made -- getting a contract worth half a million.

All 55,000 unsold copies of Viswanathan's HowOpal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life is being pulled by Little, Brown. Apparently, 9,600 copies had been sold by April 23, before the plagiarism controversy came to light. The movie deal Viswanathan had secured with DreamWorks SKG is off, too.

I did a little digging about Little, Brown and discovered that it was previously part of Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) publishing division. It was recently sold to French conglomerate Lagardere for $538 million, and I can imagine Time Warner investors breathing a sigh of relief. (In 2005, Time Warner Book Group had revenues of $571 million and operating income of $71 million. That 12% operating margin was probably dragging down Time Warner's overall operating margin of 17.3%.)

Pulling the novel is a rare move, not to mention a public relations debacle. Considering that a team of professional editors dropped the ball just as much as a young amateur did, it might reflect systemic problems in the traditional publishing industry. Even the all-powerful, market-moving Oprah Winfrey recently got burned by another publishing scandal, when James Frey's supposed memoir, A Million Little Pieces, was revealed to be largely fictionalized.

I'm sure most of us would like to see plagiarism punished harshly, for both business and ideological reasons. (Little, Brown's recall of Viswanathan's book is a much better course of action than its original plan to simply reissue an edited version.) Given how the Internet and digital content have highlighted the limitations of old-school media, stories like this one suggest that the publishing industry should take a long, hard look at where it's directing its financial resources, and why.

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Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned.