"When The Most Successful Author In Romance Judges Others"
Saturday, January 19, 2008Posted in: Deborah Smith, There is no such thing as bad publicity right?
Awwww….they make it so damn easy for me to be…. well…me…
Anyway, since author, Deborah Smith (I believe she wrote the award winning book, Crossroads Cafe) has much to say for herself, I thought I’d give her comments the exposure they deserve, cuz you know, I’m nice like that.
Thanks to the Anon commenter who posted this link of a cached Amazon post that she wrote, presumably, at the height of the CE Love Fest.
This is what she had to say:
“Hi, y’all. I debated whether to post publicly {K: Ooops, too late, and Google forgets nothing unfortunately} about this tempest in a teapot in the romance world, because the last thing I want is to be eviscerated by Nora Roberts’ avid fangirls. But there’s a quiet little stream of conversation in the world of romance writers as to why Roberts, unquestionably the richest, most award-winning, most successful romance novelist in the world — in fact, one of the most successful novelists in the world, period — hangs out at a blog site called “Smart Bitches,” where the topics include open attacks on authors so far down the food chain that one wonders how Nora has time in her busy career to even notice they exist.
Now Roberts has weighed in (via an interview with the national press) on a controversy surrounding old-school historical author Cassie Edwards. I don’t know Cassie Edwards; I’ve never read one of her many (nearly 100) historicals. But so far as I can tell she’s a hardworking, 71-year-old author who’s never slammed any other author in public. To the best of my knowledge Ms. Edwards is considered a rollicking good storyteller who likes to write westerns and pirate novels. She does not appear to have any pretensions, and her fans clearly love her books.
But — according to reports launched by the Smart Bitches bloggers, who admitted beforehand that they don’t like Ms. Edwards’ old-style books, and have spent considerable time making jokes about them — the author “plagiarized” bits and pieces of research material. The horrendous offense? Some passages about (I’m not kidding) buffaloes and ferrets. Looking at the passages myself, all I see is a writer who maybe should have paraphrased some research info a little better. I don’t see malicious or greedy intent; I don’t see “plagiarism” in any serious legal interpretation of the charge. If there’s more to the issue than that, I haven’t seen the evidence.
But I kinda doubt that Ms. Edwards’ success is built on her nature writing. I kinda doubt she sat at her computer thinking, “If I use this other author’s description of a buffalo, I’ll sell ten times more books.”
But now this grandmother (and accomplished violinist) is fielding national wire service inquiries about her alleged misdeeds. And Nora Roberts — unsolicited, unharmed, with no personal beef with Ms. Edwards in any way, as far as I know — has stood up atop her unassailable pile of money and awards to say — in the national media –that Ms. Edwards appears to have committed plagerism.
Why does Roberts feel compelled to play lawyer, judge and jury regarding a fellow author? Roberts has achieved a level of good fortune 99.9 percent of authors can only dream about. But does that make her not only the spokeswoman for the romance genre, but also its enforcer of public condemnation for unproven offenses?
Not for me, and not for thousands of other hardworking authors trying to earn a living down here in the trenches, that’s for sure.”
And on that bombshell, I’m off to the pictures with TTG. I may even buy a violin with my popcorn whilst I’m out. 🙂
Updated to add: Here at Karen Scott Central, (thanks to AztecLady) we’ve realised that Ms Smith’s motives may not have been so pure after all. She was the lady who ‘jokingly’ accused Mancusi and Maverick of encouraging pedophilia by wearing their school girl outfits, at the height of the RWA Swanhat-gate Lovefest last year. She originally posted on the SBs blog, but here’s her comments at DA.
Now we know why she’s hating on Nora and the SBs so much; she’s getting them back for making her look stupid and clueless. *g*
Shannon Stacey
January 23
10:39 pm
Holy crap, this is heading toward a group hug, ain’t it?
And may I say that I do not have a problem with authors who make stupid net comments and asses of themselves, affecting my my buying choices. Thank gawd for that or I wouldn’t have anything to read… lol.
We all have our moments, don’t we? And now, thanks to the wonder of the internet, we get to have them in public.
Cattymiss
January 23
10:51 pm
Shiloh,
Okay, that is whole other subject, Karen’s questionable,debatable, perfection. Don’t get me started, I am tired and don’t want to get into that one…..lol. (Really, Karen, I am just teasing, see my teasing face..see, see??? But I want you to come up with another word besides fucktard, well, because it offends the fuck out of me.)
Shannon,
I personally think that the reason we readers are running out of books to read is because authors are spending huge amounts of time having fun on the internet rather than sitting down writing. (Straight deadpan poker face). Stopppppppppp doing that. Internet providers need to limit your time on net…lol. Let’s take a vote. If you do one book you may have one month of spendable time…lol.
I will say it has been much more intersting though..
Kayleigh Jamison
January 24
4:22 am
Hey, you’ve spent the last few days arguing with a bunch of authors here… *wink wink*
I’m glad you took the time to research the whole CE mess, and you seem to now understand why a lot of us are fairly upset about it. At first I, too, felt some pity for the woman given her age, but then I realized it doesn’t matter how old she is or what she does (guess what, I’m a concert violinist myself), she was wrong. She hasn’t exactly done much for the romance genre, which is already the red-headed step child of publishing in most peoples’ eyes.
I really don’t think people have been that nasty in their comments about her, on the whole. Sure, there have been a few nasty, personal zingers, but I don’t see the lynch mob mentality others have claimed to see, here or anywhere else.
-Kayleigh
Cher Gorman
October 12
8:42 pm
I am new to this blog and am reading the comments from earlier this year.
Ms. Roberts, as far as I’m concerned, You da bomb!!
I heard a little bit about the CE controversy but don’t remember what I heard so I cn’t speak to that here.
Everyone has the right to their opinion and the right to speak their mind.
This past week I was the personal recipient of two nasty, vicious e-mails from the powers that be at NCP in which I was called the following list of names: idiot, moron, thief, liar and psycho. I’m still reeling over them. I’ve never been called names like that in my life. I hope this situation will be resolved soon so I can put this behind me and move on.
This whole thing has been so upsetting it’s been hard to focus and concentrate on my writing.
Cher
Zelma Orr
November 10
2:51 pm
Anyone remember how Nora Roberts got started? I met her (yeah, long time ago) when she first started writing successful novels. The only way I can tell she’s changed in all these years is to get better. No matter what type book she writes, somewhere in there you’ll find humor. Any author who can do that is ‘good.’ What a bland word to describe Nora Roberts! I might envy her, might wish I could come somewhere close to writing like her, but I can only admire her for her talent – not her millions or her popularity.
Remember that “book review Taliban” tweet? | Her Hands, My Hands
February 3
12:02 am
[…] romance authors “pedophile-luring” one year. The next, she was one of the more vocal defenders of plagiarist Cassie Edwards and one of the most vitriolic attackers of the SmartBitches, when they broke the story–back […]
Making lists, checking them twice. | Her Hands, My Hands
August 30
3:19 am
[…] far as the image goes, and for those who are into ancient history, here’s a post from Karen Knows Best, dated January 2008, with over 150 comments and some links to even more ancient engagement between […]