The other night on Twitter, Donna and Bree, the writing duo that makes up Moira Rogers, were talking about finding one of their novels on Scribd, Bookrix and other sites for writers to share their original work. In this case, the writer in question, one Angela Priest, had taken a novel of Rogers, changed a few scenes and the character’s name, and called it her own.
Through more research, Rogers discovered Priest had done this to other authors as well, including Nora Roberts. She claimed Roberts’ Circle Trilogy as her own, after changing a few key things. Based on the examples given by Rogers, this was a text-book case of find and replace. Here’s the blurb Priest put up on Scribd:
Artist and witch Flora Logger hasn’t had an orgasm since a bitter ex cursed her five years ago. Whenever she gets aroused, bad things happen. Now, she’s come to Last Call in hopes of gaining an audience with — and help from — its owner, a powerful wizard named Bernard Delacruz. If anyone can break the curse, it’s him. And if he won’t come downstairs to meet with her, she’ll bump and grind until his bar caves in from the backlash. Hurricane: Contents under magical pressure. Experience required. Bernard doesn’t get involved with patrons… not even the hot, sexually frustrated ones. But when a lush-looking reddish-blonde threatens to wreck his bar with her curse and her need, he decides it’s time to take matters — and her — into his own hands. After all, even if he can’t break the curse, he can certainly ease her frustration. And what powerful wizard doesn’t love a challenge?
and the original blurb from Hurricane, written by Moira Rogers and published by Changeling Press in 2008:
Artist and witch Fiona Logan hasn’t had an orgasm since a bitter ex cursed her five years ago. Whenever she gets aroused, bad things happen. Now, she’s come to Last Call in hopes of gaining an audience with — and help from — its owner, a powerful wizard named Benito D’Cruze. If anyone can break the curse, it’s him. And if he won’t come downstairs to meet with her, she’ll bump and grind until his bar caves in from the backlash.
Hurricane: Contents under magical pressure. Experience required.
Ben doesn’t get involved with patrons… not even the hot, sexually frustrated ones. But when a lush looking blonde threatens to wreck his bar with her curse and her need, he decides it’s time to take matters — and her — into his own hands. After all, even if he can’t break the curse, he can certainly ease her frustration. And what powerful wizard doesn’t love a challenge?
The similarities are too close to ignore. Since Rogers noticed what was happening, Priest has issued an apology and taken down all of the works she stole..from Rogers. The others are still up. Including what looks to be Nora Roberts Circle Trilogy
The best part, however, is that Priest is giving these stories away for free. I guess this is a new twist on Piracy..Plagiarize, then give it away for free! She also took copyrighted artwork and didn’t give credit for that. Not that we’re surprised.
Authors, I urge you to check out the sites to see if any of your works are there. Once Rogers realized Hurricane was listed, they did a Google search of the changed heroine’s name and found a ton of other sites where these had been posted.
To see the original post, check out Moira Rogers blog.
Those aren’t similar, they’re identical. The only thing changed is the names!
I used to see this happen a lot on fanfiction forums, etc, when I was in my late teens/early twenties. One person plagiarized Nora Roberts, Diana Gabaldon, and Wikipedia all in the same chapter. Legal action was taken, ironically enough, by Wikipedia.
I don’t know why people do that. Really. I just don’t get it. For one thing, even if they fool everyone else (and they won’t, plagiarists always get found out), they can’t fool themselves. What’s the point?
If she’s plagerizing and posting for free – what is she getting out of it? It can’t be about money …
The things people do never ceases to amaze me!
This is so bizarre! Did she really think no one would notice? And what was the point? The things some people do, I just don’t get.
I guess I definitely reflect my generation when I respond so strongly in the negative to writers who do what this particular writer is doing. I know of a colleague who lost his doctoral degree because he plagerized in very much this same day. Believe me, the dissertation committee was not amused and they threw the book at him. I wonder that the authors who are being pirated don’t take some kind of action against this unscrupulous author. In any event, I hope that authors who stop by this blog will take this seriously. After all, it DOES make a dent in their livelihood, but apart from that it is just plain WRONG!!