This is a good example of the use and misuse of twitter that can be used in a lesson on social media for users of all ages.
Tomi Adeyemi has written a brilliant book called The Children of Blood and Bone
Nora Roberts’ new book is titled Of Blood and Bone
Tomi publicly accused Nora of plagiarism on Twitter due to the similarity of the titles:
This led to the usual mob pile on of fans calling Nora out on multiple platforms; who reached out to Tomi to try and smooth over the trouble that was erupting.
Tomi then tweeted an apology and explanation to calm her fans:
However, she left the original tweet up, which has kept the hate cycle rolling.
Requests from Nora’s side to have the tweet taken down have, so far, remained unanswered.
Nora then wrote this post on her blog: Mob Rule By Social Media
This post gives a brilliant insight to what people under attack online can experience. It can also be used to discuss plagiarism, how the publishing industry works and also (and very importantly) online bullying as well as the importance of having all your facts in order before attacking someone publicly.
Nora and Tomi are both amazing writers, one with 30+ years experience and the other a first-time author, this contretemps seems to have soured views in both fan camps which may lead to many people not experiencing the wonderful work both authors have produced.
Fan is short for fanatic and sometimes the fanaticism comes to the fore and events can occur that damage fandoms, publishing and book lovers are not immune to this, as this event shows.
