Yesterday, on November 27, Nigerian-American fantasy writer Tomi Adeyemi accused American novelist Nora Roberts of what she perceived to be an unfair use of her titled. In March, Adeyemi had published her blockbuster debut novel titled Children of Blood and Bone, which sounds very similar to Nora Roberts’ forthcoming book titled Of Blood and Bone and set for a December 4th release.
In a tweet, Adeyemi shared the two book covers and wrote: “It would be nice if an artist could create something special without another artist trying to shamelessly profit off it.”
Adeyemi has since cleared things up, even tendering an apology. Apparently, Roberts wasn’t aware of Adeyemi’s book when she came up with the title. In a follow-up tweet, Adeyemi said that, following talks with Roberts, she is convinced that they came up with the titles independently.
See the two tweets below.
it would be nice if an artist could create something special without another artist trying to shamelessly profit off it pic.twitter.com/GDCcYS2TGa
— Tomi Adeyemi (@tomi_adeyemi) November 27, 2018
update: 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 https://t.co/OCcaUtu83F— Tomi Adeyemi (@tomi_adeyemi) November 28, 2018
Disappointed March 23, 2021 10:41
I was told to read Adeyemi’s series. Don’t really want to now... what a shame.