Nora Roberts has been quoted in a revised AP article regarding the Cassie Edwards story:
Roberts, whose fiction has sold hundreds of millions of copies, told The Associated Press on Thursday that “it seems clear” Edwards acted improperly.
“Given the side-by-side comparisons I’ve read, it seems clear Ms. Edwards copied considerable portions of previously published work and used them in her books without attribution to the original source,” Roberts wrote in an e-mail to the AP. “By my definition, copying another’s work and passing it as your own equals plagiarism. As a writer, a reader and a victim of plagiarism, I feel very strongly on this issue. I’m not a lawyer, but I can’t see it as fair use, or fair anything when one writer takes another’s work.”
Both Roberts and Edwards are published by Penguin Group (USA), which on Wednesday defended Edwards, saying: “She has done nothing wrong.”
I applaud Nora Robert’s taking this strong, public stance, and the Bitches for exposing this. But now it’s out in the open, what is the result people want? How can CE resolve this honorably? Clearly no academic sanction can be taken against her, and the likelihood of her publisher canceling her contracts or withdrawing the books is vanishingly small, so how can the crime be dealt with in a way that lets CE enjoy what’s left of her career, but sends the right message to other writers-to-be?
I don’t want to see even a lousy writer run out of town on a rail, and I blame the publishers as much or more as Mrs Edwards, though the fault lies with her too. Where the financial damage to the authors she copied from is small or nonexistent, the remaining issue is moral. Would a public mea culpa be enough? A donation to a Native American charity? Outrage is good, but a positive outcome is better, seems to me.
Aimee—Nora isn’t the coward here. She said what she thought about the situation to reporters. There was no backstabbing or talking behind back. How much more of an open talk do you want beyond issuing a public statement?
Besides, Nora didn’t have her husband speak on her behalf, unlike Cassie Edwards.
Aimee, are you really suggesting that everyone who has a problem with CE’s blatant plagarizing should actually ring her and tell her off? I think after the first hundred phone calls she’d be somewhat irate lol.
Is it possible for the authors of these non-fiction books to sue Ms. Edwards for a chunk of her profits? After all, they inadvertantly ‘wrote’ parts of her books; surely they’re due some of the gains!
That’s why Nora Roberts is…well…Nora Roberts. Smart people who want to be taken seriously know that using respectful language and refraining from insults and pot-shots is the best way to influence opinion and possibly change minds. The lack of this knowlwdge is also why trolls are…well…trolls.
Actually, I had nothing to do with the media getting involved. The first AP story broke, then the reporter contacted me for her follow up.
No reponse to the troll. Everything I can think of is either too silly or too nasty.
Good question, ann. I’ve been thinking a lot about what outcome would satisfy me. I’d like Cassie Edwards to apologise to her readers for falsely selling them words that were not her own. I’d like someone from each of her publishing companies to admit that it is wrong to pass off other people’s work under a new name and to apologise for having allowed this to happen. And I’d like the publishers to set new checks in place to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. I want to be able to buy books in confidence that I’m getting original work.
If anyone would like to make a charitable donation of some portion of the profits from Ms Edwards work (say, the portion that she didn’t write) that would be a nice gesture too.
Nora said: Actually, I had nothing to do with the media getting involved. The first AP story broke, then the reporter contacted me for her follow up.
I sorta thought that’s what happened. Having dealt with the media a lot as a local politician, I’ve come to realize that the general public doesn’t quite understand the details of how reporters or the news media operate.
Actually, I had nothing to do with the media getting involved. The first AP story broke, then the reporter contacted me for her follow up.
Thank god/dess for that!
I can only say that I already respected you for your talent as an author. I now totally *heart* you as a well-spoken/honorable/decent person as well. And add my “Nora Rocks” sentiments to all those above.
( great58- yeah Nora, your statement was indeed that!)
In addition to apporpriate public statements by Cassie Edwards and Signet, I think that future runs of all the books which contain plagiarized passages should get an additional page listing the resources used. There’s obviously no good way to have Cassie Edwards go in and rework every single bit of dialogue she uses other people’s material in (more’s the pity), but the books shouldn’t continue to be reprinted without correct attribution.
And, of course, for future books, she (and her publishers) now know that they do in fact need to include the source attributions.
I also agree with the idea that there should be financial restitution to the plagiariazed parties, insofar as that is possible. Perhaps the Defenders of Wildlife could set up a Cassie Edwards Ferret Fund?
JaneDrew
Ditto the “Nora ROCKS” – as always she is a voice of reasonableness, honesty and calm.
I’m with JaneDrew on what should be expected at this point from Cassie Edwards.
As for others thinking this should have been done privately. There isn’t an author posting here that wouldn’t expect to be called publicly to the carpet if they were caught plagiarizing. And if there were any authors who thought there was nothing wrong with it, they now know they are wrong.
I’ve always thought the romance community was very loyal, but lately it appears that some people on the blog want to ruin this woman’s life and career (Nora Roberts included). Yes Edwards should be held accountable, but when you care about your authors (the way romance fans do), you don’t just toss them under the train and then joke about it. As a life-long romance reader, I find all of this to be very embarassing – on both sides.
I tried to comment in another post, and I’m not sure if it went through or not, so I want to echo those sentiments here.
Yes, romance readers are loyal. Sometimes loyal to a fault. I’ve noticed while working in a different arena of the literary community that some readers place authors on impossibly tall pedestals. However, despite sometimes holding authors (and other celebrities in other media formats) to high standards, I don’t think it’s asking too much as a reader to expect, and trust, that my favorite author is publishing his/her own creative thoughts.
Yes, some readers here want to make their stance known, but it seems to me that a lot of anger is directed towards Signet for blowing it off originally. I don’t get the sense that they want her ran out of town on a rail – they want the truth to be acknowledged.
So while yes, some of the comments here might read as mockery or some sort of witch hunt, my reading is that many were dumbfounded, because what once was fodder has now evolved into a serious situation. I haven’t read anything by Cassie Edwards, so I don’t have any kind of emotional investment in this story. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that if there was a way for her to graciously admit that she made a mistake, some readers might be able to just look at it and say “ok, she’s human” and get past it. It’s the “she didn’t do anything wrong” mentality that I think is raising the ire of the other posters on this blog.
I’m not trying to trivialize anyone else’s viewpoint, because determining tone from the written word is very difficult, I can only say what I think and openly encourage others to do the same – I don’t think there have been any “wrong” comments – people simply react differently to various elements of this story.
*looks over at her bookshelf full of Nora Roberts books with pride*
Seriously, I think some people need to take Experimental Psychology with Dr. Hughes at UNCW. I guarantee you will learn what plagiarism is. After writing 6 lab reports for that woman and turning in a hard copy and an electronic copy so she could use that turnitin.com site to check for any lifted passages, I don’t see how there’s any debate over what Edwards did. And I never even heard of this woman until I started reading this site a couple of months ago.