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TELL-ALL: Kohnstamm was not paid enough, so did not go to Colombia.
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AN AUTHOR for the Lonely Planet travel guidebook series has claimed that he plagiarised and made up large sections of his books, an Australian newspaper reported yesterday.
Author Thomas Kohnstamm told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that he had worked on more than a dozen books for Lonely Planet, including its titles on Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean, South America, Venezuela and Chile.
His revelations have rocked the travel publisher, which sells more than six million guides a year.
The newspaper said Kohnstamm also claims in his new book, Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?, that he accepted free travel, contravening company policy.
He said in one case he had not even visited the country he wrote about.
'They did not pay me enough to go to Colombia. I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating - an intern at the Colombian consulate,' the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Other writers believe some practices described in the book are widespread. Lonely Planet forbids its authors from accepting gifts or discounts.
An e-mail message to Lonely Planet's management, posted on the company's authors forum, described Kohnstamm's book as 'a car crash waiting to happen', the newspaper said.
'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?' wrote author Jeanne Oliver, an experienced travel writer.
Another e-mail message, sent in the name of Lonely Planet chief Janet Slater, stated that Kohnstamm's books were all being reviewed urgently.
REUTERS
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