One question has plagued me--what culpability does the publisher have? Is the publisher a victim too?
In this brave, new, digital age I have many tools in my arsenal to detect plagiarism. I use Copyscape Premium and Turnitin There are other tools out there and, honestly, I am surprised that the publishing industry is so without tools to prevent these occurrences. Let's be honest, as the digital market grows, so will the number of plagiarized submissions, especially if the perpetrators believe that they will not be caught because each time a case is brought to light, the publishers throw up their hands and plead ignorance. Hell, books are digitized now, so a would-be plagiarist does not even have to take the time to transcribe the text.
At this point, to me, ignorance is just an excuse, especially since I am sure that publishers rarely check to see if a new author they are signing is legit. Should publishers make sure that their editors are not only aware that this is a problem but also how to double check? For me a red flag was the huge difference between the excerpt Phoenix posted and her blog posts and her interview for Siren's author page.
So what do you think? Is the publisher completely innocent or do they share some of the blame? Does a publisher, who has signed a plagiarist, taint their brand and do you lose trust for that pub? Lots of questions, I know.
