Steroid use keeps managing to make the headlines. Sports figures want to outdo those before them while becoming nothing more than a chemically fueled machine. But does this compare with authors who tend to pump out one book after the next in record time? It seems that Nora Roberts, who also publishes under the byline of J.D. Robb, is one of these authors; James Patterson, another. I am not saying that Roberts has a team of writers, but Patterson has admitted as much. Being prodded on by hormones to cycle over the most difficult terrain is deceptive, and misleading readers by letting them believe that the name on the book is really the author of the many books being pumped out, is also a questionable act of ethics—especially since most readers are unaware of this fact.
Just like the champion who breaks a baseball record or the cyclist who wins the Tour de France, while doing so with a little help from his chemical friend, the author who is a best-selling author without having actually written those titles is playing unfair. If the byline included “incorporated” then perhaps I would be less critical. I’m not sure what to say, though, for the athlete who keeps denying that he hasn’t taken anything to help him win the Tour de France while tests prove otherwise.
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