Longtime bestselling romance author Nora Roberts, who ranked 50 on Forbes’ 2018 list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, responded to an accusation of title plagiarism by novelist Tomi Adeyemi in a blog post Wednesday entitled “Mob Rule By Social Media.”
On Tuesday, Adeyemi Tweeted side by side images of the cover of her debut young adult fantasy novel Children of Blood and Bone (Henry Holt and Co.) and Roberts’ thriller Of Blood and Bone (St. Martin’s Press) with the text, “it would be nice if an artist could create something special without another artist trying to shamelessly profit off it.”
Children of Blood and Bone was published on March 6, 2018, while Of Blood and Bone will be published on December 4, 2018.
In her blog response, Roberts wrote;
“I titled this particular book, wrote this book, turned this book into my publisher nearly a year before her book–a first novel–was published. So unless I conquered the time/space continuum, my book was actually titled before hers. Regardless, you can’t copyright a title. And titles, like broad ideas, just float around in the creative clouds. It’s what’s inside that counts.” She also elaborated on the timing of the book title process. “If your book came out a few months before the other book (and if you know SQUAT about publishing) you’d certainly realize it was written, titled and in production when yours hit the stands. So how could a damn title be ‘stolen’?”
Roberts went on to share that the “lie gutted me,” stating, “I’ve been plagiarized, and will always have an open wound from the blow. To me, plagiarism is the most terrible sin a writer can commit.”
While the original Tweet is still live, Adeyemi Tweeted a follow-up response on Tuesday, writing;
“update: Nora was kind enough to reach out & explain that today was the first she’d heard of my book. After talking to her, I believe our titles were created in isolation. I’m grateful she explained & I’ve apologized, but I wanted to address it here as I know others were upset too.”
Source: Forbes
Comments
Post a Comment