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Errata In Books Meta Discussion
   

Actually, the books bear the names of professionals, but with a few exception have not actually been written by them, but by some strong (5D-6D) amateur players. Because of this, go errors sometimes do creep in, as is for example known of the Ishida joseki dictionary. -- Andre Engels


We can probably distinguish between three kinds of books:

  • Those written by a (team of) strong amateur player(s), but which have the name of a famous professional attached for promotion purposes.
  • Those written by a (team of) strong amateur player(s), but which a famous professional player has actively contributed to, by commenting games, review and correct, etc.
  • Those entirely written by a famous professional player.

While I can understand that a book "written by Cho Chikun" sells better than one written by a noble unknown, and while I do not expect that a professional player is better at explaining the rules and basic life and death or tesuji than a six dan amateur, I think it would only be fair when the category a book belongs to becomes common knowledge. It should even in some way be noted in the book itself. Publishers have no right to deceive their readers.

--Dieter


BillSpight: "Deception" puts it a bit strongly, I think. Even when the ghost-writer is not acknowledged, the named author is responsible for the contents, and, almost surely has at least checked them out. Often, I am sure, there have been discussions previous to and during the writing.

There has been a trend (which I welcome) around the world to acknowledge ghostwriters. E. g., "as told to" books. I think that has extended to go books, as well. Recently I have seen go books with both authors acknowledged. :-)




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