Plagiarism- I'm not sure if any of you've heard about this. It's crazy. How can anyone do this. Other than Courtney Milan, these authors have been basically stolen from:
Michelle St. James Laurann Dohner Karen Marie Moning Tessa Dare Victoria Alexander Kerrelyn Sparks Abby Green Lynne Graham Sarah MacLean Carmen DeSousa Nora Roberts Callie Hart Michelle M Pillow Trish Morey Cathy Williams Alys Murray Loretta Chase Bella Andre Christi Caldwell Lisa Kleypas Gena Showalter Anne Gracie Kresley Cole Jamie Oliver
The last one really surprised me. What could Jamie Oliver have to do with this? Apparently she stole a scone recipe from one of his cook books. The best part is that the author says it wasn't her who did this but her ghost writer. The ghost writer has said that it wasn't them who had done it. They had gotten emails from the author of what to put in the writing. This is truly disgraceful.
On top of that she claims to be a lawyer. Which means she definitely should know better. Most of my favorite writers are on that list. I hope this woman gets treated like the criminal she is. She should not be able to walk away from this and do it again under a different name.
Courtney Milan is a lawyer and chair of the RWA ethics committee. She has recused herself from the committee reviewing the complaints filed with RWA, but she is putting her considerable store of knowledge out there for the other authors and helping them navigate the channels to deal with everything. She is livid, to say the least, and just so happens to be one author the plagiarist REALLY should not have messed with.
Last Edit: Feb 21, 2019 11:12:11 GMT -7 by agreads: Edited to correct author's name
Post by secretromancejunkie on Feb 21, 2019 9:27:49 GMT -7
What a disgusting person. I can't begin to express how angry this makes me. This person (I won't call her an author because she isn't) deserves to be publicly vilified. These poor authors will never get back the money she made off their work but, hopefully, people will stop buying her crap.
BTW, the book that Courtney Milan talks about is no longer available on ammie. It still has a page but it isn't actually for sale. But the author still has a page advertising herself and all "her works".
So, she got a ghostwriter to write her books? Does that mean I can get a ghostwriter and become a romance novelist? Hmmm all those new and improved grovel scenes...
I can't remember where I read this but it named the books of the authors she stole from. These are the only ones I can remember:
Coutney Milan- The Duchess War Lisa Kleypas- Marrying Winterbourne Tessa Dare- The Duchess Deak Sarah MacLean- The Rogue Not Taken Kresley Cole- Lothaire
Makes me think of when Janet Dailey was charged with copying from Nora Roberts titles, way back in 1997. I had really enjoyed Janet Dailey's work, but after that, I just couldn't get back into them, not even the Calders, and I did try as I'd enjoyed early Calder titles. However, I didn't know that she'd died 5 years ago.
Plagarism is a problem that college professors are taught how to be on the look out for, also, there are a couple programs out there that they can run a paper thru & it checks for that paper in other papers online; ones purchased from "paper mills". Unfortunately, kids are being taught that ethics don't matter; what does is getting the good grade so you can get ahead, but do it with as little effort as possible. Yep, gets me a bit annoyed!
This is a good blog about this whole case. It was funny when she said her first thought when she saw Nora Roberts on the list was 'everybody get underground'