Erupting over on reddit and elsewhere, from a very long post stating that Mark Dawson of Self-publishing Formula fame is possibly a serial plagiarist.
A small number of samples from the post -
There are far far more in the original post above. The author stumbled across it when they read that "harlequinade of youth" sentence, wasn't sure what that meant and so they googled it... only to find the original. Then they started checking samples for anything that stood out.
Have a read of the original post and the multiple examples provided. Note: this was only using samples, too. No one has yet gone through entire books searching for unusual words/phrasings, or for when Dawson uses gun descriptions.
Having read the original post, I find it utterly stunning... and highly convincing. Dawson, a highly respected member of our community, a break-out indie writer... and now possibly plagiarist... it's so bad.
I haven't seen a post here about it yet so I thought I'd put it up, see what people think.
A small number of samples from the post -
- [2013 William Boyd interviews James Bond by William Boyd from the Guardian] “the gaudy harlequinade of youth much in evidence”
- [2014 The Driver by Mark Dawson] “The harlequinade of youth much in evidence”
- [2012 Annecy shootings: On a steep forest road, few signs of the horror that was by John Lichfield for the Independent] “The misty slopes of the massif of the Montagne de Charbon tower above the treeline”
- [2013 The Cleaner by Mark Dawson] “The misty slopes of the massif of the Montagne de Charbon stretched above the treeline”
- [2009 I, Sniper: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel by Stephen Hunter] “He settled in, feeling the tension in the trigger, finding his stock weld, sliding to the eyepiece, and seeing the world through the mil-dot-rich reticle…”
- [2014 Tarantula by Mark Dawson] “The man settled behind the rifle. He felt the tension in the trigger, found his stockweld and slid up to the eyepiece, staring into it and seeing the ridge and the trees and the vegetation through the mil-dot-rich reticle.”
- “The folding bipod is mounted onto upper rails (above the barrel), and the adjustable horizontal front grip is mounted on the lower rails (under the barrel). The rifle features fully adjustable buttstock and cheekpiece. […] The barrel is protected by ventilated aluminum handguard and is fitted with muzzle brake (very useful when firing full-power magnum loads).”
- [Tarantula, 43% of sample] “The folding bipod was mounted onto upper rails above the barrel and the adjustable horizontal front grip was mounted on the lower rails, under the barrel. The rifle had an adjustable stock and cheekpiece. The barrel was protected by a ventilated aluminium hand guard and was fitted with a muzzle brake, useful when firing full-power magnum loads like this.”
There are far far more in the original post above. The author stumbled across it when they read that "harlequinade of youth" sentence, wasn't sure what that meant and so they googled it... only to find the original. Then they started checking samples for anything that stood out.
Have a read of the original post and the multiple examples provided. Note: this was only using samples, too. No one has yet gone through entire books searching for unusual words/phrasings, or for when Dawson uses gun descriptions.
Having read the original post, I find it utterly stunning... and highly convincing. Dawson, a highly respected member of our community, a break-out indie writer... and now possibly plagiarist... it's so bad.
I haven't seen a post here about it yet so I thought I'd put it up, see what people think.
