Academic Mercenary Lands Book Deal

Bloomsbury has acquired The Shadow Scholar by Ed Dante, the pseudonym of the author of a controversial article about term paper factories in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Sydelle Kramer and Susan Rabiner at Rabiner Literary negotiated the deal with Ben Adams.

Dante wrote an anonymous essay for The Chronicle of Higher Education about his work as an “academic mercenary,” composing 5,000 pages of academic writing for cheating college students last year alone. According to Dante’s shocking article, he has written 12 graduate theses. He has been hired for projects in a range of subjects, from history to anthropology to literature. He earned $2,000 for a recent business school essay.

Here’s more from the article: “I live well on the desperation, misery, and incompetence that your educational system has created. Granted, as a writer, I could earn more; certainly there are ways to earn less. But I never struggle to find work. And as my peers trudge through thankless office jobs that seem more intolerable with every passing month of our sustained recession, I am on pace for my best year yet. I will make roughly $66,000 this year.”

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