A Nigerian writer, Tomi Adeyemi accused Nora Roberts of plagiarism. She took to her twitter handle to question the fact that Nora’s latest book has similar title as hers.
“it would be nice if an artist could create something special without another artist trying to shamelessly profit off it” – Tomi
This got the international community of readers upset with very angry responses to her tweet.
She later tweeted that the issue had been resolved after she was contacted by Nora Roberts.
“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.” – Tomi
The American writer, Nora Roberts responded in a blog post. Here is an excerpt of her statement.
“By accusing me, in public, of attempting to ‘shamelessly profit’ off of her creativity, she incited her readers into attacking me–on her feed, then on my pages, then on the internet in general.
She did nothing to stop this. I have been accused of theft, of trying to use this first time writer–whose book has been well received–for my own profit. To ride her coattails as I have no originality. This after more than thirty years in the business, more than two hundred books.I was accused of plagiarism–for a title–of stealing her ideas–though I had never heard of her book before this firestorm, have never read her book.
And trust me, I never will now.” – Nora Roberts
If there’s anything I’ve learnt in the creative industry, ideas are in the air and anyone can have access to them.
Tomi Adeyemi should have gone the professional route of contacting her publishers so the issue is sorted quietly as against coming online to make such accusations.
