Introducing Nora A Roberts, Poacher, With Response from Nora Roberts, Real Author

Copy Cats AheadIn the ever-so-zippy development of the digital publishing marketplace, there's a few levels of trickery from those attempting to make a quick dollar (or euro, or pound, or whatever). There's people selling copies of public domain books for profit, which is pretty skeevy. There's people who sell cut-and-paste substitutions of other authors' books, which is a lot skeevy.

And then there's this example, which I think might be the reigning champion of skeevy behavior. Also chutzpah.

Meet Nora Roberts. You know her.

Now, meet “Nora A. Roberts.

According to mediabistro, she's a bestselling self-published author on Barnes & Noble.

Many a romance author tweeted about the idiocy and chutzpah of whomever is behind Nora A. Roberts in the past 24 hours, but the WTFery grows apace. At the home page for the “publisher” which is allegedly comprised of “renegade authors,” Southern Pied Media, there are several more books, including some by “James A Patterson,” and a book titled “Nora Roberts: Firecracker,” which features a main character named… wait for it… Nora Roberts.

My first reaction: “You have got to be kidding me.” Are people going to fall for the middle initial? Of course. And apparently readers have, judging from the bestseller placement, and early reviews that state that the reader isn't so sure this is a “Nora Roberts” book.

Yesterday, the title and author name of “Spellbound Cafe” at BN.com was changed to Lora Roberts. That would be marginally (a very thin margin) better except that Lora Roberts is also a self-published writer of mysteries.

Great. Now there's three authors having their names misused to further sales.

This type of trickery is so galling, because it preys on readers who don't know the difference or who are reading author names on a tiny screen, perhaps, using another person's name and reputation as collateral.

But what really tops the WTFery is the entry published today on the “Southern Pied Media” site, which leaves no doubt as to their intentions:

When we decided to circumvent our publishers in order to keep the prices low and the readers happy, of course, we had to come up with pen names!
We decided to choose names similar to authors in our genre.

One of us choose James A Patterson

One of us choose Nora A Roberts.

We thought it would get peoples attention, but that readers would be intelligent enough to realize that Nora A Roberts is not the Nora Roberts – as there is no “Best Selling” author titled anywhere on the book nor a list of Nora's books as you'd usually find in a Nora Roberts book.

Well! What a commotion we caused.

Our first reviews were wonderful (thank you).

Then the one star reviews drifted in “This is not a Nora Roberts book!”

I sincerely doubt they read the book, because anyone who has, is directed to this website.

While we did choose names similar to our James and Nora – our intention was to draw people into reading the description of the book, realizing it was not the splendid Nora Roberts, but a genre similar at a very affordable price point – in the hopes the description and price were tantalizing enough for a reader to buy.

We decided to make it less confusing, and changed the name from Nora A Roberts to Lora Roberts – but this just created more of a stir!

We've pulled the other 2 books we had published under the name Nora A Roberts and we'll meet this weekend to decide how to approach this situation.

If you have any thoughts regarding this – please send us an email to southernpied@gmail.com

If you read SpellBound Cafe and truly liked it, please consider leaving a review to let people know it's not the authors name that matters – it's the entertaining story that's most important. At least, I always thought so!

Of course, now we come to find out that there is another author named Lora Roberts – so there could possibly be another change!
Hold to your hats, ladies, we're in for a shi* storm!

I need more pie!

Let's break that down for a moment: they chose pen names using one letter additions to extremely successful authors' names and they thought “it would get people's attention but that readers would be intelligent enough to realize that Nora A Roberts is not Nora Roberts” based on the content inside the book. But oh, darn, looks like readers are dumb.

The whole entry carries the gleeful subtext of “We're trying to trick readers, whee!”

They claim the books have been removed, but as of this writing, three titles by “Nora A Roberts” or “Lora Roberts” are still available on Amazon and BN, in addition to the Nora Roberts: Firecracker title by “G. G. Raleigh.”

Have a look at the “Customers Also Bought:”

 

I'm guessing that's exactly the result they were looking for.

I tend to get REALLY pissed when people insult the intelligence of romance readers, and that's what I think this person (or persons) is doing: presuming readers are stupid, ignorant, or blithe enough to purchase anything with “Nora + Roberts” on the cover, thereby earning this author a quick buck. And likely it's working for the time being.

The following is Nora Roberts' statement regarding Southern Pied's question:

Southern Pied Media asks What's In A Name when explaining why they decided to create pen names that tag onto established writers. As in Nora A. Roberts.
 
I'll state what's in my name. Over three decades of hard work, of writing, of building an audience, of experience. All mine. And absolutely no one has the right to use my name–with an added middle initial–to try to cash in on that.
 
If, as they state in the blog, it's all about how good the book is, then don't market the book, try to sell the book, by using a slight variation on an established author's name. It's insulting to all parties, which includes readers.
 
What they did, and may be continuing to do as far as I know with other established names, is deceptive and offensive. It's also pretty damn pathetic.
 
Nora Roberts

Agreed.

What recourse to readers have? You can email customerservice@BN.com, and you can contact Amazon.com customer care through their site, explaining why you find this publisher to be deceitful and what you think of their “business practices.” 

And, much as I'm surprised to be suggesting this as a method of recourse, there's always the reviews. Perhaps this is a valid opportunity to One Star Bomb the crap out of the books that are still available, including:

I struggled with the idea of suggestiong the One Star Bomb method. If you have a suggestion of how readers can better respond to this sort of predatory and utterly skeevy behavior, please do let me know. I'm still trying to figure out who the people are behind “Southern Pied,” but my hope is they'll take the books down and go elsewhere, and soon. 

ETA 14 June 2012, 8:15 am ET: Well, someone did something, and I'm going to give you all the credit, k? All of the above titles except for All the President's Friends at BN.com are gone. Maybe they took them down, maybe Amazon and BN removed them, maybe the International WTFairy struck quickly, but whatever the cause, I've never been so happy to see 404 errors. The Southern Pied site is scrubbed of the content displaying and linking to books for sale, and the June 13 entry I reprinted above is gone, too (I do have screencaps, though). (You know, for decorating). Seems that this name poacher is down for now – but I'm betting this won't be the last time we see name poaching as a “digital strategy.” 

Some folks asked in the comments about what to do if your legal name is similar to an already-established author. Tough call. There are a LOT of authors now. My feeling, and this is purely my own opinion unfetted by things like actual experience working in a publishing publicity or marketing house, is that it's sort of like when someone wants to be an actor, and they have the legal name of someone who is already famous. Say, “Michael Douglas.” There's already a Michael Douglas (son of Kirk Douglas, whose real name was Issur Danielovitch).

So if you're named Michael Douglas and you want to be an actor, you become Michael Keaton instead – by, ironically, using Diane Keaton's last name (whose real name is Diane Hall). Part of all this is due to Screen Actor's Guild rules, and there are no similar rules for authors that I'm aware of. But, bottom line, to avoid confusion, if your legal name is similar to an established author's name, you should go by “Michael Keaton” when you publish. Got that? 

Categorized:

Ranty McRant

Comments are Closed

  1. Mslizalou says:

    Really stupid, stupid people. You want to go after an established author, I’m thinking Nora Roberts would be your last pick. Hello, she has already shown she has no problem taking people to court and winning when you try to steal her work. Dumbass is the first thought that came to mind, quickly followed by I hope Nora takes them down. I have too many author friends to not want this group of people to be taken down. Off to both Amazon and B&N to ask the books be removed…if they haven’t been already.

  2. Adoweyko says:

    Why doesn’t Amazon simply flag the work as a mimick? A special symbol might work … any suggestions?

  3. Wow, this is an epic UFHM – Unnecessary Feminine Hygiene Move. I’m just glad the books don’t seem to be Real Nora (TM) books with the names changed.

    I self-publish, and I did the exact opposite—took on a different pen name from the one I had with publishers, partly because I self-pub different stuff than the other nom-de-pixel, and partly because I wanted to see if I could build up a readership, and how long it would take, with the self-pub route.

    Also, I don’t buy the “Oops, giggle, we wanted to get attention but it all blew up in our pretty faces!” Nopology. Maybe I’m becoming a cynic.

  4. Laurie Evans says:

    wow, that IS pathetic!! I hope that Nora Roberts can get this stopped. 

  5. Jordan Summers says:

    As someone who also looked up a pen-name before using one in 2002, I have been disheartened by the fact that there are now three Jordan Summers’. Two write fiction and one writes hiking books. There is also a Jordan Winter and a Summer Jordan. All of which appeared after I was published.

    One of the Jordan Summers’ was kind enough to change their pen-name after I had a mini-rant about the name thing a couple of months ago, but it wasn’t before a friend bought one of the books, thinking she was purchasing one of mine. 🙁

    I don’t know if the sudden burst of similar/the same names is due to deception or inexperience. Either way it’s troubling.

  6. Sandy James says:

    My heart goes out to you, Ms. Roberts.
    BUT here’s the good news—Amazon just stopped selling the books!!

  7. Sandy James says:

    There is a newer author who is using a name very similar to mine, but she hyphenates the last name. I can’t imagine she’s trying to ride my coattails because they are awfully short. 😉  I will admit to be a bit irked to see her start publishing after I already had, though. And I hate that her books come up when someone searches my name. Sigh.

  8. The Southern Pied page seems to have been scrubbed. I barely kept from sending them an email (the email is still listed) telling them they’re horrendous creeps.

  9. Totally and absolutely despicable.  I blogged the other day about letting the book buyer beware because of how some authors were gaming the systems with reviews and tags.  This takes the cake, however.  Ms. Roberts has worked long and hard to establish her name and no one has the right to pass off on her hard work.  What’s more galling is that they admit to doing it and think that can justify their actions.

  10. Nora says:

    The power of the intertubes, and bitches who are smart. Thank you.

    Now I need to do something about the ridiculous Nora Roberts: Firecracker—how completely absurd and creepy.

    Nora

  11. Liz Talley says:

    SMH at this. Nora’s response was exactly right because though this company did not plagarize her work, they’ve gone around to the back door and “borrowed” her name so they can steal her sales. Her name is the refectioin of all those hours upon hours she spent weaving stories and building her reputation as THE Nora Roberts. So it’s reprehensible and their flippant response makes me want to punch them in their nose. “Oh, we didn’t know it would cause this uproar” (in a Southern accent). Yeah. Right.

    Maybe tagging as “imposter” would work to scare off readers who might not know any better, but giving them lots attention by one star bombing just gets them what they want…lots of attention. I’m not even bothering to go one star the book. I’m ignoring those wanna-be, lazy-assed scam artists because they don’t even deserve any of my emotion.

    Sorry you have to deal with this THE Nora. Thanks for bringing it to everyone’s attention, SB.

  12. Violet Hall says:

    So the authors are basically blaming readers for this issue because we allegedly don’t want to pay certain prices for ebooks?  They had to “circumvent” their publishers and come up with pen names to keep prices low?  I declare SHENANIGANS!  Um.  Aren’t authors usually creative types who come up with all sorts of names all the time?  Here’s one (and I’m not even an author):  Bullshit A. Liarpants.  Sell some books with that, jerks. 

  13. LG says:

    I had heard about this – I think it came up in library acquisitions circles as yet another one of those things to be careful of. Like those books that sound perfectly legitimate, until you buy and receive them and realize they’re nothing more that print-on-demand collections of Wikipedia articles.

    I roll my eyes at their “Oh gosh, we had no idea what a stir this would cause!” response. Riiight, uh huh.

  14. Gabi Stevens says:

    When I had to pick a pen name my first thought was to go with my first name and my husband’s first name because that’s how an author whom I admire came up with hers. But that would have made me Gabi Roberts, and there was no way I would do that because although I adore Nora, I didn’t want o look like I was encroaching on her fame. So I picked my father’s first name and became Gabi Stevens. Now there are a lot of authors with Stevens, but it’s also really close to my maiden name (odd Hungarian/Croatian one) that made me love the nom de plume. The actions of these “authors” are despicable.

  15. Flo_over says:

    Be honest, is anyone TERRIBLY surprised?  I’m more surprised it hasn’t happened sooner and with more frequency.

    Consider it like pirating.  It’s wrong, it shouldn’t be done, it takes away from those who do the creating and leaves them with no monetary recourse.  But at the same time there is a REASON it is done (movie costs, book costs, game costs, living in a different country blah blah blah).  The reason isn’t a good one.  There is no logical good reason for someone to steal.  With the internet the stealing of names/identities is an easy thing to accomplish.  Register on various forums with whatever handle you want and you “become” that handle.  Piggy backing on someone else’s moniker is merely a step away.

    Does it suck?  Yes.  Should it happen?  Not in a perfect world but we are so far from perfect that it’s laughable.  It’s not even done WELL in this situation.  Sad.

  16. Jody Wallace says:

    I really want to go publish something under Bullshit A. Liarpants now. Is that bad?

  17. Violet says:

    Do it!  I promise I’ll buy it if you do.  😀

  18. Eliza Evans says:

    It’s not just the author names! I have seen at least three times in recent months self-pub books with titles identical to upcoming NY books that MYSTERIOUSLY show up after the NY books are announced in PM. 

  19. Cassandra says:

    Just an etiquette question, please: obviously what these twits did is indefensible, but what if a new author’s actual legal name is similar or even identical to a famous person’s? Is New Author ethically obliged to publish under their initials or a nickname they do not normally use or a pseudonym they don’t want? Is there an expected protocol in this situation?

  20. Natalie Damschroder says:

    I have minimal legal knowledge but it seems to me there’s a pretty solid case for a fraud charge here. They admit they deliberately and knowingly tried to fool readers into buying books thinking they were written by someone else. If appropriate, filing charges could also make other forons think twice about doing the same thing.

    I have a lot of sympathy for people who share their legal names with another author. Luckily, the Natalie Damschroder who works for Microsoft doesn’t seem inclined to write romantic fiction. 🙂

  21. Jeanette says:

    They “didn’t know” it would cause such a stir?

    Well, sweet southern women that they are, I’m going to respond in kind…

    Bless their hearts.

  22. Keri Ford says:

    Cassandra, I don’t know the correct answer, but for me? Yes, I would use a different name. Because otherwise, you look like the d-bag clinging on the coattails of the famous author and are able to “hide” behind the fact that it’s your legal name.

    it looks so skeevy as mentioned above and it would feel skeevy to me.

  23. Catherine Bybee says:

    I’m stunned. I have to wonder if this is a case of ‘No bad publicity’. Well it’s seriously bad for this reader and writer. *shakes head*

  24. azteclady says:

    I know that authors, editors and agents go through recently published book lists to avoid coming up with titles too similar to each other, particularly in the same genre, so it would make sense to me to check, and if there are already books out by someone with your legal name, find a pseudonym you can live with.

  25. Bnbsrose says:

    Thunk! Thunk! THUNK!!! S**T, I cracked my desk.

    “Though they wrote in different genres, the authors all had one thing in common: emails and letters from readers tired of paying overwhelmingly excessive prices for eBooks. “

    Was it really readers griping about the pricing, or was it publishers sending out numerous rejection letters? I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: If people put as much effort into an ethical enterprise as they do into cheating, they’d be millionaires. 

  26. Alicia says:

    I want to be surprised, but I’m not. People seem to have no problem with people selling their fan fiction now. Why not take it a step further and steal names? It seems ethics and decency are in our rear view mirrors at this point.

    I’m glad you pointed out their attempt to impugn the intelligence of readers who were duped even though they did everything they could to deceive. ‘It’s your own fault for not noticing that the word “bestselling” wasn’t on the cover!’ Er, okay.

  27. ducky says:

    I hope the real author goes after them legally.

  28. Beth Yarnall says:

    ‘We decided to make it less confusing, and changed the name from Nora A Roberts to Lora Roberts – but this just created more of a stir!
    **shortened**
    Of course, now we come to find out that there is another author named Lora Roberts – so there could possibly be another change!’

    This flippant attitude is what makes this whole thing even skeevier. We expect these people to be more upset about being caught than the actual wrong they did, but this attitude of- ‘Rats! We didn’t want to deceive LORA Roberts’s fans just NORA Roberts’s fans. What a bother!’ -really churns my butter.
    They readily admit they set out to capture and decieve Nora’s and James Patterson’s fans and then blame those poor readers for being deceived. I think these people win the Grand Poobah crown for being King of the Skeevers hands down.

  29. Jane Davitt says:

    *One of us choose Nora A Roberts.*

    The fact that they can’t spell ‘chose’ makes me wonder how many typos litter their books.

     

  30. NicoleGlass says:

    what’s bad is that I *love* supporting “renegade” authors and might have read the Nora A. Roberts books…had they not resorted to cheap trickery and shenanigans to market them.

  31. Libby Rodriguez says:

    So proud of you guys as fellow book bloggers (well, I’m just a newbie) for putting together this post.  I came over in the link from Galley Cat.  Really awesome work here.

  32. Wow, can’t believe the pettiassness of this. Loved Nora Robert’s statement. An author puts in a lot of work building up her name and reputation, and doesn’t deserve to be ripped off like this…a sad day for those who truly love to create and craft stories.

  33. I’m continually surprised how low people stoop to make a quick buck. I feel like every week there’s a new occurrence of scuzzy activity from people taking advantage of an author’s hard work.

    Blargh.

  34. Ses822 says:

    Wow, it takes some major balls to take a famous name, insert initial, and claim it as your own. That’s really just pathetic.

    Now, I admit there have been times when I’m wandering through the shelves at the bookstore and might grab a new (to me) author because they are situated near the vicinity of my sought after book might be. I could see coming up with a different play on the name ( Laura comes to mind, or Flora, or even Lanora, etc.) but just adding an initial is just lazy (not to mention sneaky) compared to what an imaginative author should be able to come up with.

  35. Lisa Myer says:

    It goes without saying that this was totally opportunistic behavior on the so-called “authors’” part. But am I alone in thinking that Amazon, et. al, might bear an, um … *tad* bit of responsibility here? Amazon imposes very few rules when it comes to their self-publishing platform — hence the reason why so many scammers have uploaded slews of books now in the public domain to score a quick buck. And why these Southern Pied People got away with what they did, at the gullible consumers’ loss. We could suggest that perhaps Amazon might take a more active role to ensure that what it sells on its site is … well, not misleading. That it’s a quality product.

    Oh, but wait. That would put Amazon in the position of the much-reviled gatekeeper.

  36. Terri Reid says:

    I am not even close to being as successful as Nora Roberts, but I have had success as an indie author and have found that someone is using the name “Terri M. Reid” to sell a knockoff self-help book.  Unfortunately, when I look at the page – in the “Customers Who Bought This Also Bought” section, all of my books are listed underneath.  So, obviously, my readers are being scammed.

  37. Des Livres says:

    The implication is that their work is so poor that noone would buy it unless they were tricked into to.

    Since Amazon et. al. make money off the sales, surely they are colluding/profiting in “passing off” those items. (was going to wrote “works” but felt like that was too polite).

  38. Lenorejago says:

    I do believe, that, here in Texas, misled readers could sue for triple damages under the state’s deceptive trade practices law. Just saying.

  39. Diane Smith says:

    I cannot find either Nora A. Roberts or James A Patterson still listed on Amazon.  Maybe the furor has resulted in them being pulled or dropped.  Whichever – it works for me!

  40. Nichole Fife says:

    I think Amazon and BN took the book listings down because I could not find the purported authors either. Go Nora Roberts for tearing them down in her personal rebuttal! This is simply a disgrace to real authors and readers a like.

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