Editing Nora Roberts (section)

== Life and career ==

=== Personal life ===

==== Early years ====
Roberts was born on October 10, 1950, in [[Silver Spring, Maryland]], the youngest of five children.<ref name="vernon">{{citation|last=Vernon |first=Cheril |title='Queen of Romance' still going strong |newspaper=Palestine Herald-Press |url=http://www.palestineherald.com/features/local_story_203002337.html?keyword=topstory |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130111072340/http://www.palestineherald.com/features/local_story_203002337.html?keyword=topstory |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 11, 2013 |date=July 22, 2007 |access-date=August 8, 2007 }}</ref> Her parents have Irish ancestry, and she has described herself as "an Irishwoman through and through".<ref>Irish Times May 12, 2007</ref> Her family were avid readers, so books were always important in her life.<ref name="bookreporter">{{cite web |last=Weiner |first=Debbie |date=March 10, 2000 |title=Author Nora Roberts |url=http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-roberts-nora.asp |access-date=August 9, 2007 |publisher=BookReporter}}</ref> Although she had always imagined stories from childhood, Roberts did not write in her youth other than essays for school. She does claim to have "told lies. Really good ones—some of which my mother still believes."<ref name="bookreporter2">{{cite web|title=Author Nora Roberts October 1998 |publisher=BookReporter|url=http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-roberts-nora.asp|access-date=August 9, 2007|date=October 1998|last=House|first=Jeanny}}</ref> She credits the nuns at her Catholic school for instilling in her a sense of discipline.<ref name="bookreporter2" />

==== Marriages ====
During her second year in high school, Roberts transferred to [[Montgomery Blair High School]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Senior picture from Blair High School 1968 Silverlogue Yearbook|url=http://www.itsallaboutfamily.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=51400&g2_navId=x6c68125d|publisher=Itsallaboutfamily.com|access-date=March 17, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120215230105/http://www.itsallaboutfamily.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=51400&g2_navId=x6c68125d|archive-date=February 15, 2012}}</ref> where she met her first husband, Ronald Aufdem-Brinke.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Collins |first1=Lauren |title=Real Romance: How Nora Roberts became America's most popular novelist. |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/22/real-romance-2 |access-date=August 29, 2018 |magazine=The New Yorker |issue=June 22, 2009}}</ref> They married, against her parents' wishes, in 1968, as soon as she graduated,<ref name="kloberdanz">{{cite news|last=Kloberdanz|first=Kristin|title=Don't Write Off Romance: Thought You Could Dismiss It? Think Again: Meet Nora Roberts, the Queen of the Genre, Who Reigns over a Changed Landscape|newspaper=Book Magazine|date=March–April 2002|access-date=August 10, 2007|url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=881767#interview|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711182242/http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=881767#interview|archive-date=July 11, 2007}}</ref><ref name="Plag" /> and settled in [[Boonsboro, Maryland]].

Roberts' husband worked at his father's sheet-metal business before joining her parents in their lighting company. She gave birth to two sons, Dan and Jason. Roberts would later refer to this time period as her "Earth Mother" years, when she did crafts, including ceramics and sewing her children's clothes.<ref name="kloberdanz" /> The couple divorced<ref>Bellafante, Ginia, (August 23, 2006) ''A Romance Novelist's Heroines Prefer Love Over Money'', New York Times, retrieved November 26, 2014.</ref> in 1983.

Roberts met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, a carpenter, when she hired him to build bookshelves in July 1985.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4qcADQAAQBAJ&q=%22Bruce+Wilder%22+%221985%22+%22roberts%22&pg=PT35 |title=The Obsession |publisher=Trivia-On-Books |year=2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/23/books/23roberts.html?mcubz=3 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |title=A Romance Novelist's Heroines Prefer Love Over Money |first=Ginia |last=Bellafante |date=August 23, 2006 |quote=Not long into her career, Ms. Roberts divorced. Then, in 1985, she married a carpenter, Bruce Wilder. Mr. Wilder runs a bookstore that the couple bought near their home.}}</ref> Her husband owns Turn the Page Books bookstore in Boonsboro<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ttpbooks.com/ourstory.html |title=Turn the Page Bookstore |publisher=Ttpbooks.com |access-date=October 31, 2013 |archive-date=November 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102131306/http://www.ttpbooks.com/ourstory.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and works as an adult content photographer and videographer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wilderphotography.com/|title=Bruce Wilder Photography|website=wilderphotography.com|access-date=July 6, 2023}}</ref> The couple also owned the nearby historic Boone Hotel. After it was destroyed by a fire in February 2008, it was restored and reopened as the Inn BoonsBoro in 2009; the suites were inspired by and named for literary romantic couples with happy endings.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|last=La Gorce|first=Tammy|title=Maryland's Civil War Country Seeks a Softer Side|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/travel/30boonsboro.html?scp=1&sq=Nora%20Roberts&st=cse&_r=0|access-date=April 6, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 29, 2010}}</ref>

She is an ardent baseball fan, having been honored by the local [[Minor League Baseball|minor league baseball]] team [[Hagerstown Suns]] several times.<ref>{{cite web|title=Suns release 2007 promotional schedule|url=https://www.milb.com/news/gcs-201534|access-date=May 17, 2014|newspaper=[[Minor League Baseball]]|date=April 2, 2007}}</ref>

=== Writing career ===
She began to write during a blizzard in February 1979. Roberts states that with three feet of snow, a dwindling supply of chocolate, and no morning kindergarten for her two boys, she had little else to do.<ref name="adwoff">{{Citation|url=http://adwoff.com/nora-faq-professional.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218163954/http://adwoff.com/nora-faq-professional.htm|archive-date=February 18, 2012|title=Frequently Asked Questions and Answers from Nora Roberts |access-date=August 4, 2007}}</ref><ref name="bio">{{cite web|url=http://www.noraroberts.com/bio.htm |title=Author Nora Roberts |publisher=Nora Roberts |access-date=August 4, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714082145/http://www.noraroberts.com/bio.htm |archive-date=July 14, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> She fell in love with the writing process, and quickly produced six manuscripts<ref name="elley">{{cite web|last=Elley|first=Karen Trotter|title=Nora Roberts deals with destiny in Three Fates|publisher=Book Page|url=http://www.bookpage.com/0204bp/nora_roberts.html|year=2002|access-date=August 9, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813174113/http://www.bookpage.com/0204bp/nora_roberts.html|archive-date=August 13, 2007}}</ref> which she submitted to [[Harlequin Enterprises Ltd|Harlequin]], the leading publisher of [[romance novels]], but was repeatedly rejected. Roberts says,

<blockquote>I got the standard rejection for the first couple of tries, then my favorite rejection of all time. I received my manuscript back with a nice little note which said that my work showed promise, and the story had been very entertaining and well done. But that they already had their American writer. That would have been [[Janet Dailey]].<ref name="regis">Regis, pages 183–184</ref></blockquote>

Dailey would go on to be embroiled in a plagiarism scandal in which she eventually confessed to stealing some of Roberts' work.

Roberts once stated: "You're going to be unemployed if you really think you just have to sit around and wait for the muse to land on your shoulder."<ref name="nuckols2">{{citation |last=Nuckols |first=Ben |title=Nora Roberts, 9-to-5 storyteller: Her writing output and sales are huge, her work is routine |date=August 22, 2006 |newspaper=The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey) |page=F07}}</ref> She concentrates on one novel at a time,<ref name="nuckols" /> writing eight hours a day, every day, even while on vacation.<ref name="Plag" /> Rather than begin with an outline, Roberts instead envisions a key incident, character, or setting.<ref name="nuckols2" /> She then writes a short first draft that has the basic elements of a story. Roberts then  goes back to the beginning of the novel. The second draft usually sees the addition of details, the "texture and color" of the work, as well as a more in-depth study of the characters. She then does a final pass to polish the novel before sending it to her agent, Amy Berkower.<ref name="aar1997">{{cite web |last=Gold |first=Laurie |author2=Linda Mowery |date=September 22, 1997 |title=Nora Roberts on her MacGregor Series |url=http://www.likesbooks.com/roberts.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070823003128/http://www.likesbooks.com/roberts.html |archive-date=August 23, 2007 |access-date=August 9, 2007 |publisher=All About Romance}}</ref>

She often writes trilogies, finishing the three books in a row so that she can remain with the same characters.<ref name="schendel" /> In the past, her trilogies were all released in paperback, as Roberts believed the wait for hardcover editions was too long for the reader.<ref name="bookreporter" /> All her new publications are released in hardcover first and e-book, with paperback editions following.

Roberts does much of her research over the Internet, as she has an [[fear of flying|aversion to flying]].<ref name="Plag" />

=== Pseudonyms ===

==== Nora Roberts ====
In 1980, a new publisher, Silhouette Books, formed to take advantage of the manuscripts from the American writers that Harlequin had rejected.<ref name="regis2">Regis, p 159</ref> Roberts' first novel, ''[[Irish Thoroughbred]]'', was published in 1981, using the pseudonym Nora Roberts, a shortened form of her birth name Eleanor Marie Robertson because she assumed that all romance authors had pen names.<ref name="kloberdanz" />

Between 1982 and 1984, Roberts wrote 23 novels for Silhouette,<ref name="kloberdanz" /> published under various Silhouette imprints: Silhouette Sensation, Silhouette Special Edition and Silhouette Desire, as well as Silhouette Intrigue, and MIRA's reissue program. In 1985, ''Playing the Odds,'' the first novel in the MacGregor family series, was published and was an immediate bestseller.<ref name="kloberdanz" />

In 1987, she began writing single title books for Bantam. Five years later she moved to [[G. P. Putnam's Sons|Putnam]] to write single title hardcovers and original paperbacks,<ref name="NRWriting">{{Citation|url=http://www.noraroberts.com/nwriting.htm |title=Nora Roberts on writing |access-date=August 6, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714082058/http://www.noraroberts.com/nwriting.htm |archive-date=July 14, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> reaching the hardcover bestseller lists with her fourth hardcover release, 1996's ''Montana Sky''. Roberts has continued to release single-title novels in paperback. She still occasionally writes shorter category romances. Her attachment to the shorter category books stems from her years as a young mother of two boys without much time to read, as she "[remembers] exactly what it felt like to want to read and not have time to read 200,000 words."<ref name="Plag" />

Roberts was featured in Pamela Regis's ''A Natural History of the Romance Novel.'' Regis calls Roberts "a master of the romance novel form", because she "has a keen ear for dialogue, constructs deft scenes, maintains a page-turning pace, and provides compelling characterization."<ref name="regis" /> ''Publishers Weekly'' once talked about her "wry humor and the use of different narrators, two devices that were once rarities" in the romance novel genre.<ref name="Plag" />

==== {{anchor|J. D. Robb}}J. D. Robb ====
Roberts had long wanted to write romantic suspense in the vein of [[Mary Stewart (novelist)|Mary Stewart]], but, at the urging of her agent, she concentrated on classic contemporary romance while she built a following of readers.<ref name="Plag" /> After moving to Putnam in 1992, the publishing company quickly realized that they were unable to keep up with Roberts's prolific output. They suggested that she adopt a second pseudonym so they would be able to publish more of her work each year.<ref name="schendel">{{cite web|last=Schendel|first=Jennifer|title=The Appeal of the Romance Series|publisher=All About Romance|url=http://www.likesbooks.com/128.html#robb|date=November 15, 2001|access-date=August 9, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807072307/http://www.likesbooks.com/128.html#robb|archive-date=August 7, 2007}}</ref>

Her agent, Amy Berkover, convinced the publishers to allow Roberts to write romantic suspense under the new name.<ref name="Plag" />  She chose the pseudonym D. J. MacGregor, but right before publication, discovered it was in use by another author.<ref name="adwoff" />  Instead, her first romantic suspense novel was published in 1995 under the pseudonym J. D. Robb. The initials "J. D." were taken from her sons, Jason and Dan, while "Robb" is a shortened form of Roberts.

As J. D. Robb, Roberts has published a series of futuristic science fiction [[police procedurals]]. These books, all part of the ''[[in Death]]'' series, feature detective [[Eve Dallas]] and her husband [[Roarke (In Death)|Roarke]] and are set in a mid-21st century New York City. Despite the emphasis on solving a crime in each of the books, the overall theme of the series is the development of the relationship between Eve and Roarke.<ref name="schendel" /> When the ''in Death'' series began, neither Roberts nor her publisher acknowledged that she was the author. They hoped to allow the series to stand on its own merits and build its own following.<ref name="die">{{cite web|title=Interview with Nora Roberts |publisher=Die Buecherecke Romantische |first=Isolde |last=Wehr |date=April 2000 |url=http://www.die-buecherecke.de/roberts2.HTM |access-date=August 9, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070705021841/http://www.die-buecherecke.de/roberts2.HTM |archive-date=July 5, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

After publishing 18 novels in the ''in Death'' series, Putnam published the nineteenth, ''Divided in Death'', first in hardcover. The book became Roberts' first bestselling novel of 2004.<ref name="maryles2">{{citation|last=Maryles |first=Daisy |title=Nora's Newbies |newspaper=Publishers Weekly |date=February 9, 2004 |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA380278.html?q=Nora+Roberts |access-date=August 9, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090929094549/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA380278.html?q=Nora+Roberts |archive-date=September 29, 2009 }}</ref>

As of March 2022, Roberts has published 54 novels plus ten novellas in the ''in Death'' series.<ref>{{cite web|title=In Death Series by J.D. Robb|website=GoodReads|url=https://www.goodreads.com/series/41029-in-death|access-date=March 2, 2022}}</ref>

==== Other pseudonyms ====
Roberts wrote a story for a magazine titled ''Melodies of Love'' under the pseudonym Jill March.<ref name="adwoff" /> She has also been known as Sarah Hardesty in the UK. When the ''Born In'' series was released in Britain it carried that name instead of Nora Roberts. She has since changed publishers.<ref name="adwoff" />

=== Success ===
In 1996, Roberts passed the hundred-novel mark with ''Montana Sky'' and, in 2012, doubled that with ''The Witness''. In both 1999 and 2000, four of the five novels that ''[[USA Today]]'' listed as the best-selling romance novels of the year were written by Roberts. Her first appearance on [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''The New York Times'' Best Seller list]] came in 1991,<ref name="nuckols">{{cite web|last=Nuckols|first=Ben|title=For Romance Titan Roberts, Writing Novels is a 9-to-5 Job|publisher=WTOP News|date=August 7, 2006|url=http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=25&pid=0&sid=872864&page=1|access-date=August 9, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010162819/http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=25&pid=0&sid=872864&page=1|archive-date=October 10, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> and between 1991 and 2001, she had 68 ''New York Times'' Bestsellers, counting hardbacks and paperbacks.<ref name="regis184">Regis, p 184.</ref> In 2001, Roberts had 10 best-selling mass-market paperbacks, according to ''Publishers Weekly'', not counting those books written under the J.D. Robb name. In September 2001, for the first time Roberts took the numbers 1 and 2 spots on the ''Publishers Weekly'' bestseller list, as her romance ''Time and Again'' was number one, and her J.D. Robb release ''Seduction in Death'' was number two.<ref name="maryles">{{citation|last=Maryles |first=Daisy |title=Roberts Scores with Mass Turnover |newspaper=Publishers Weekly |date=September 10, 2001 |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA155409.html?q=Nora+Roberts |access-date=August 9, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090928070628/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA155409.html?q=Nora+Roberts |archive-date=September 28, 2009 }}</ref>

Since 1999, every one of Roberts's novels has been a ''New York Times'' bestseller, and 124 of her novels have ranked on the ''Times'' bestseller list, including 29 that debuted in the number-one spot. As of January 24, 2013, Roberts's novels had spent a combined 948 weeks on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list, including 148 weeks in the number-one spot. As of January 9, 2009, 400&nbsp;million copies of her books are in print, including 12&nbsp;million copies sold in 2005 alone. Her novels have been published in 35 countries.<ref>{{cite web|title=Did You Know?|publisher=Nora Roberts Official Website|date=March 21, 2013|url=http://www.noraroberts.com/aboutnora/funfacts.php|access-date=March 21, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130326045301/http://www.noraroberts.com/aboutnora/funfacts.php|archive-date=March 26, 2013}}</ref>

A founding member of the [[Romance Writers of America]] (RWA), Roberts was the first inductee in the organization's Hall of Fame.<ref name="Plag" /> In 1997 she was awarded the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, which in 2008 was renamed the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award.<ref>{{cite web|title=RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award|publisher=[[Romance Writers of America]]|year=2013|access-date=March 21, 2013|url=http://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=543|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140920213109/http://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=543|archive-date=September 20, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> As of 2012, she has won an unprecedented 21 of the RWA's [[RITA Award]]s, the highest honor given in the romance genre.<ref name="rita">{{cite web|title=RITA Awards: Past Winners|publisher=[[Romance Writers of America]]|year=2013|access-date=March 21, 2013|url=http://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=535|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714074216/https://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=535|archive-date=July 14, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Two of Roberts' novels, ''Sanctuary'' and ''Magic Moments'', had previously been made into TV movies. In 2007, [[Lifetime Television]] adapted four Nora Roberts novels into TV movies: ''[[Angels Fall (TV film)|Angels Fall]]'' starring [[Heather Locklear]], ''[[Montana Sky]]'' starring [[Ashley Williams (actress)|Ashley Williams]], ''[[Blue Smoke (2007 film)|Blue Smoke]]'' starring [[Alicia Witt]], and ''[[Carolina Moon (2007 film)|Carolina Moon]]'' starring [[Claire Forlani]]. This was the first time that Lifetime had adapted multiple works by the same author.<ref name="andriani">{{citation|last=Andriani |first=Lynn |title=Romance Blossoms Between Nora Roberts and Lifetime |newspaper=Publishers Weekly |date=January 29, 2007 |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6410901.html?q=Nora+Roberts |access-date=August 9, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090929094552/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6410901.html?q=Nora+Roberts |archive-date=September 29, 2009 }}</ref> Four more films were released on four consecutive Saturdays in March and April 2009. The 2009 collection included ''[[Northern Lights (2009 film)|Northern Lights]]'' starring [[LeAnn Rimes]] and [[Eddie Cibrian]], ''[[Midnight Bayou]]'' starring [[Jerry O'Connell]], ''[[High Noon (2009 film)|High Noon]]'' starring [[Emilie de Ravin]], and ''[[Tribute (2009 film)|Tribute]]'' starring [[Brittany Murphy]].

''[[Time (magazine)|TIME]]'' named Roberts one of their 100 Most Influential People in 2007, saying she "has inspected, dissected, deconstructed, explored, explained and extolled the passions of the human heart."<ref name="holt">{{citation|last=Holt |first=Karen |title=Roberts, Mitchell Make Time's List |newspaper=Publishers Weekly |date=May 14, 2007 |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6442060.html?q=Nora+Roberts |access-date=August 9, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090928070743/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6442060.html?q=Nora+Roberts |archive-date=September 28, 2009 }}</ref> Roberts was one of only two authors on the list, the other being [[David Mitchell (author)|David Mitchell]].<ref name="holt" />

=== Victim of plagiarism ===
In 1997, another best-selling romance writer, [[Janet Dailey]], admitted to repeatedly plagiarizing Roberts' work. The practice came to light after a reader read Roberts' ''Sweet Revenge'' and Dailey's ''Notorious'' back-to-back; she noticed several similarities and posted the comparable passages on the Internet. Calling the plagiarism "mind-boggling", Roberts sued Dailey.<ref name="Plag" /> Dailey acknowledged the plagiarism and attributed it to a psychological disorder. She admitted that both ''Aspen Gold'' and ''Notorious'' lifted heavily from Roberts' work. Both of those novels were pulled from print after Dailey's admission.<ref name="wilson">{{citation|last=Wilson|first=Jeff|title=Romance novelist Janet Dailey apologizes for plagiarism|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=July 30, 1997}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Standora|first=Leo|title=Romance Writer Janet Dailey Sued|date=August 27, 1997|newspaper=New York Daily News|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1997/08/27/1997-08-27_romance_writer_janet_dailey_.html|access-date=November 18, 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090801054127/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1997/08/27/1997-08-27_romance_writer_janet_dailey_.html|archive-date=August 1, 2009}}</ref> In April 1998, Dailey settled the case. Roberts donated the settlement to various literary causes including the [[ProLiteracy|Literacy Volunteers of America]] (now ProLiteracy).<ref name="Plag">{{citation|last=Quinn |first=Judy |date=February 23, 1998 |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA165397.html?pubdate=2%2F23%2F1998&display=archive |title=Nora Roberts: A Celebration of Emotions |newspaper=Publishers Weekly |access-date=December 25, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080208100926/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA165397.html?pubdate=2%2F23%2F1998&display=archive |archive-date=February 8, 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.likesbooks.com/daileyupdate.html#roberts |title=All About Romance: A 2001 Update in the Janet Dailey/Nora Roberts Plagiarism Case |publisher=Likesbooks.com |access-date=October 31, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106173705/http://www.likesbooks.com/daileyupdate.html#roberts |archive-date=November 6, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.likesbooks.com/daileyupdate.html |title=All About Romance: A 2001 Update in the Janet Dailey/Nora Roberts Plagiarism Case |publisher=Likesbooks.com |access-date=October 31, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106173705/http://www.likesbooks.com/daileyupdate.html |archive-date=November 6, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Plagiarism paid for|newspaper=The Victoria Advocate|date=April 17, 1998|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bnIKAAAAIBAJ&pg=3241,3430145&dq=janet+dailey+plagiarism+settlement|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513010834/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bnIKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3EoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3241,3430145&dq=janet+dailey+plagiarism+settlement|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 13, 2016|access-date=November 18, 2008}}</ref>

Roberts joined the chorus strongly criticizing fellow romance writer [[Cassie Edwards]], who had lifted many passages from much older sources (many in the [[public domain]]) without giving credit, forcing Edwards out of the business.<ref name="SB">{{cite web|url=http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/a_centralized_document_for_the_cassie_edwards_situation/|title=A centralized document for the Cassie Edwards situation|last=Tan|first=Candy|author2=Wendell, Sarah |date=January 11, 2008|publisher=Smart Bitches|access-date=July 20, 2009}}</ref><ref name="CB">{{cite web|url=http://www.criminalbrief.com/?p=812|title=The Case of the Purloined Prose|last=Lundin|first=Leigh|date=May 11, 2008|work=Scandal Sheets|publisher=Criminal Brief|access-date=July 20, 2009}}</ref>

In 2019, Roberts, along with other authors, was a victim of plagiarism by Cristiane Serruya.<ref>{{cite magazine|author= Hillel Italie |url=http://time.com/5577788/nora-roberts-brazil-plagiarism-lawsuit/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425054056/http://time.com/5577788/nora-roberts-brazil-plagiarism-lawsuit/ |title=Nora Roberts Is Suing a Brazilian Writer for Plagiarism on a 'Rare and Scandalous' Level |archive-date=2019-04-25|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/books/nora-roberts-plagiarism.html|title=Nora Roberts Sues Brazilian Writer Who She Says Plagiarized Her Work|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 24, 2019|last1=León|first1=Concepción de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/25/nora-roberts-files-multi-plagiarism-lawsuit-alleging-writer-copied-more-than-40-authors|title = Nora Roberts files 'multi-plagiarism' lawsuit alleging writer copied more than 40 authors|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = April 25, 2019}}</ref>