I'm fascinated with how the romance industry has real elements of the HP fandom now that the internet has come to play a role. It's always been fan-driven - but now there are places to go for people to talk about the books (and the authors) and to start taking notes . . .

I think editors are like the middle-level managers at Wall-mart at some of these publishing houses - they have very little time to read the submissions, deal with agents, contracts, etc, nevermind double-check the facts. Cassie Edwards has been writing for a very long time - so I'm sure they gave her a "pass" as far as scrutinizing her text. As for the author - she has to crank out so many books a year - she has a flimsy story and needs something to pad it - so in goes the kewl research she's done on the net. None of this is right, mind you, but I do see how cost-cutting and bottom-line mentality would allow such a thing to happen.