Random to Press Plagiarism Claims

by Rachel Deahl and Jim Milliot, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 4/25/2006

An apology by Kaavya Viswanathan, author of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life and a promise by publisher Little, Brown to immediately begin revising sections of Viswanathan's book that closely resembled portions of author Megan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings will not be enough to end the dispute over Viswanathan's "unintentional" copying from McCafferty's work.

While McCafferty publisher Crown is expected to issue more details about the issue later today, Random House spokesperson Stuart Applebaum called Viswanathan's explanation about how she came to use passages from McCafferty "at best disingenuous and at worst literary identity theft." He noted that there are approximately 40 cases where Opal mirrors passages from McCafferty's works. Although Applebaum declined to comment if Random will file a lawsuit against Viswanathan, he said "Crown and Random House support our author in seeking a proper and full resolution to this matter." McCafferty is one of Crown/Random's rising stars. After releasing her first two books as trade paperbacks, Crown/Three Rivers has just published Charmed Thirds in hardcover. There are about 350,000 copies in print of the three books.

The story of Viswanathan's copying first broke in The Harvard Crimson and has been picked up across the country. Late yesterday, Little, Brown issued a statement in which Viswanathan apologized. She said she is "a huge fan" of McCafferty's books, but that "any phrasing similarities between her works and mine were completely unintentional and unconscious," Viswanathan goes on to say: "My publisher and I plan to revise my novel for future printings to eliminate any inappropriate similarities. I sincerely apologize to Megan McCafferty and to any who feel they have been misled by these unintentional errors on my part."

Senior v-p and publisher of Little, Brown, Michael Pietsch, echoed Viswanathan's statement with a release of his own; he described the author as a "a decent, serious, and incredibly hard-working writer and student" and added that he is "confident that we will learn that any similarities in phrasings were unintentional." LB gave Viswanathan a $500,000 advance for Opal when she was still in high school.