Publisher to review romance novelist's books for plagiarism

U.S. publisher Signet Books will review all the romance novels written by Illinois-based author Cassie Edwards after allegations of plagiarism in her work.

Two days ago, the publisher had dismissed reports on a website that Edwards's books contained passages lifted directly from reference sources.

But on Thursday Nora Roberts, one of the most prominent romance writers, questioned Edwards methods.

And on Friday, Signet, an imprint of Penguin Books, announced that "the situation deserves further review."

"Our original comments were based on Signet's review of a limited selection of passages," the publisher said in a statement.

"We want to make it known that Signet takes any and all allegations of plagiarism very seriously."

Signet said it will review all of Edwards's books that it has published and will take action based on what it finds.

The prolific writer haspenned more than 100 novels in the last 25 years and has more than 10 million copies of her work in print.

Edwards haswritten books such as Savage Quest and Shadow Bear.

A romance novel website, smartbitchestrashybooks.com, has posted numerous excerpts from Edwards's novels and placed them alongside passages from magazines and nonfiction books that were found by using the Google search program.

"By my definition, copying another's work and passing it as your own equals plagiarism," Roberts said on Thursday.

She herself was a victim of plagiarism in 1997, whenromance novelist Janet Dailey acknowledged taking material from her.