Last week a reader contacted Becky McGraw to say that a book she was reading was a plagiarized version of one of McGraw’s books. McGraw was understandably outraged and started looking for lawyer. Author Jenny Trout posted about it here and here when it was discovered that a six part serial story of Harner’s was a rip off of a book by Opal Carew.
Harner’s twist on her plagiarism of two best selling m/f romance authors was to take their stories and change m/f to m/m. McGraw made her FB post on the 19th and Harner had just returned from GRL2015 in San Francisco where she had sat on panels and signed “her” books.
Now authors are scrutinizing Harner’s backlist, Jenny Trout reported that Harner pulled 10 books from retailers when word of her plagiarism first circulated, and the backlist is extensive. Add to that Harner has also co-written several books and at least one of these authors has now posted about her experience of writing with Harner. Another author posts about her rocky relationship with Harner here.
Through all this this is the only response Harner has made in public:
McGraw has posted this:
Harner is a thief. Just Harner, nobody else but those authors who so-wrote with her will suffer a financial loss because who wants to buy a book with Harner’s name on it? Same for those in the anthologies. Harner has stolen from a lot of authors and I suspect we haven’t heard from the last of them. She has stolen from other authors in her genre because readers who might have bought their books spent their money on books Harner had no right to sell.
Harner is a thief. She has stolen the trust of her readers and her fellow authors.
And Harner is stupid, she has thrown away something infinitely important- the woman her husband, her children, her family and friends thought she was for the price of a book. I wonder if today she thinks it was worth it?
We can all do something positive, we can buy a book by McGraw or Carew, or a book by any author she co-wrote with or are in an anthology with her.
38 Caliber Reviews 