http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/26/books/26cnd-book.html
Young Author Asserts Copying Was Unintentional By DINITIA SMITH and MARIA NEWMAN Published: April 26, 2006
Kaavya Viswanathan, the young author who has admitted copying parts of her chick-lit novel, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life," said today she was troubled to see so many similarities between her book and two novels by Megan McCafferty.
"When I was writing, I genuinely believed each word was my own," the 19-year-old Harvard University sophomore said in an interview this morning on NBC's "Today" show.
She also said the similarities were unintentional, even though she admitted earlier this week that she had copied them, and she hopes Ms. McCafferty can forgive her.
"The last thing that I ever wanted to do was cause any distress to Megan McCafferty," she said. " I've been unable to contact her and all I want to do is tell her how profoundly sorry I am for this entire situation."
She has promised to revise her book and said she would acknowledge McCafferty in a foreword.
On Tuesday, the day after Ms. Viswanathan apologized to the author, the publisher of the two books she borrowed from called her apology "troubling and disingenuous."
Steve Ross, Crown's publisher, said that, "based on the scope and character of the similarities, it is inconceivable that this was a display of youthful innocence or an unconscious or unintentional act."
He said that there were more than 40 passages in Ms. Viswanathan's book "that contain identical language and/or common scene or dialogue structure from Megan McCafferty's first two books."
Mr. Ross called it "nothing less than an act of literary identity theft."
Mr. Ross also questioned how quickly Ms. Viswanathan's publisher, Little, Brown, could deliver on their promise that future printings of the novel would be revised to "eliminate any inappropriate similarities" and that an acknowledgement to Ms. McCafferty would be added. The planned revisions, he said, would take several months, and "during those intervening months this original edition would still be in book stores." He added, "That's one of the issues that is of great concern to us."
Ms. McCafferty has a new book, "Charmed Thirds" in bookstores now, and Mr. Ross called the plagiarism incident "an enormous distraction and disruption."
Mr. Ross added that Crown had not ruled out legal action. "Right now this is in the hands of our lawyers. We're waiting to see what their recommendations are."
In an e-mail message on Monday, Ms. Viswanathan said that her copying from Megan McCafferty's "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings," both young adult novels published by Crown, had been "unintentional and unconscious."
Ms. Viswanathan received $500,000 as part of a deal for "Opal" and one other book.
Ms. McCafferty's agent, Joanna Pulcini, also reacted to Ms. Viswanathan's apology. "It is understandably difficult for us to accept that Ms. Viswanathan's plagiarism was 'unintentional and unconscious,' as she has claimed," she said in a statement.
Michael Pietsch, publisher of Little, Brown, said in response to Mr. Ross's statement, that the company was looking forward to "a speedy and amicable" solution. He added, however, he had not yet seen the 40 similarities that Mr. Ross has said existed between the books. "We look forward to hearing from the author and from Random House and to resolving this."
The Harvard Crimson first reported the plagiarism charges on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Harvard University would not say what, if any disciplinary action it might take against Ms. Viswanathan. Robert Mitchell, the director of Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences said in an interview, "We would not discuss any individual situation that might or might not come before the administrative board."
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