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cazador83
Joined: 28 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 8:24 pm Post subject: Lonely Planet writer "made up" part of the books.. |
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http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23530231-5013605,00.html
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THE Lonely Planet guidebook empire is reeling from claims by one of its authors that he plagiarised and made up large sections of his books and dealt drugs to make up for poor pay.
Thomas Kohnstamm also claims in a new book that he accepted free travel, in contravention of the company's policy.
His revelations have rocked the travel publisher, which sells more than six million guides a year.
Mr Kohnstamm, whose book is titled Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?, said yesterday that he had worked on more than a dozen books for Lonely Planet, including its titles on Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean, Venezuela, Chile and South America.
In one case, he said he had not even visited the country he wrote about.
"They didn't pay me enough to go Colombia,'' he said.
"I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating - an intern in the Colombian Consulate.
"They don't pay enough for what they expect the authors to do.''
An email to management, posted on the company's authors' forum, describes Mr Kohnstamm's book as "a car crash waiting to happen''.
"Why did you (management) not understand that when you hire a constant stream of new, unvetted people, pay them poorly and set them loose, that someone, somehow was going to screw you?'' author Jeanne Oliver wrote.
Ms Oliver, an experienced travel writer having written for Lonely Planet on eastern Europe, France, Germany and Greece, admitted to sending the email, but did not wish to comment further.
Other writers believe some practices described in the book are widespread. Lonely Planet forbids their authors from accepting gifts or discounts.
Another email, sent in the name of Lonely Planet chief Janet Slater, states that Mr Kohnstamm's books were all being urgently reviewed.
The email said: "If we find that the content has been compromised, we'll take urgent steps to fix it. Once we've got things right for travellers as quickly as we can, we'll look at what we do and how we do it to ensure as best we can, that this type of thing never happens again.''
Lonely Planet publisher Piers Pickard told The Sunday Telegraph that the company's urgent review of Mr Kohnstamm's guidebooks had failed to find any inaccuracies in them. |
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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| Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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The above doesn't surprise me. I mean most of the authors write that they visited the country and dropped back on a trip just to see if the information is up to date.
None were actually living in the country and if you have seen how quickly businesses rise and fall around my town, prices shift, you would take thier writings with a grain of salt as unless you live in the country, you don't really see the country as it grows. |
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PGF
Joined: 27 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Summer Wine wrote: |
The above doesn't surprise me. I mean most of the authors write that they visited the country and dropped back on a trip just to see if the information is up to date.
None were actually living in the country and if you have seen how quickly businesses rise and fall around my town, prices shift, you would take thier writings with a grain of salt as unless you live in the country, you don't really see the country as it grows. |
yeah, it's just travel writing. It's not like it's real writing or it makes a difference. Who buys LP anyway? backpackers? |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 4:56 am Post subject: |
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I always thought they just contracted a person who lives in the country? I didn't think it paid a lot to begin with. I would have bet a typical LP book pays max $3,000.
Why would LP be trying to contract with a guy who is not living in the country? |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:00 am Post subject: |
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| PGF wrote: |
| Summer Wine wrote: |
The above doesn't surprise me. I mean most of the authors write that they visited the country and dropped back on a trip just to see if the information is up to date.
None were actually living in the country and if you have seen how quickly businesses rise and fall around my town, prices shift, you would take thier writings with a grain of salt as unless you live in the country, you don't really see the country as it grows. |
yeah, it's just travel writing. It's not like it's real writing or it makes a difference. Who buys LP anyway? backpackers? |
I bought the Seoul LP when I came here in 2000. It was invaluable. However, with the internet these days it is really easy to make and print up your own from various tourist sites online. Also, Seoul has some excellent tourist material at their tourism offices. |
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patongpanda
Joined: 06 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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| My old sis' is a LP writer. Doesn't pay very much. Lots of young traveller types want to the job though. |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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| The section on Thai massage parlours is total bollocks. |
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genezorm
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Location: Mokpo
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