Author Claims Stephenie Meyer Ripped Her Off

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By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 08/24/2009

Musician and little-known author Jordan Scott is suing Stephenie Meyer, creator of the popular “Twilight” vampire series, claiming striking similarities between Scott’s book, The Nocturne (Yorkshire, 2009) and Breaking Dawn (Little Brown, 2008), the fourth book in Meyer’s series.

Nocturne was available online and electronically prior to its recent print publication with Yorkshire Publishing Group, a self-publishing enterprise.

Author Stephenie Meyer is being sued for plagiarism.

A lawsuit filed in California’s federal court claims that Breaking Dawn has “striking articulable and substantial similarities to Scott’s novel Nocturne.” And although Scott's book is set in 15th-century France and details a love affair between a young sorcerer and a teenage girl and Meyer's book chronicles a modern-day teenage love triangle between a human, a werewolf, and a vampire, lawyers for Scott have claimed that there are many similarities between the texts of the two novels.

A Breaking Dawn wedding scene, a post-wedding scene on the beach, and the element of a human being transformed into a vampire were specifically singled out. The suit also goes on to mention similarities “in plot lines, theme, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters, sequence of events and ideas.”

J. Craig Williams, Scott’s lawyer, told MTV that it’s “highly unlikely that many similar points was simply a coincidence.”

Meyer’s publisher, Hachette Book Group, says the plagiarism claim is completely without merit. “Neither Stephenie Meyer nor her representatives had any knowledge of this writer or her supposed book prior to this claim,” the publisher said in a statement, adding that Scott’s attorney has yet to furnish a copy of Nocturne as requested.

“The world of 'The Twilight Saga' and the stories within it are entirely the creation of Ms. Meyer,” the statement goes on to say. “Her books have been a phenomenal sensation, and perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that other people may seek to ride the coattails of such success. This claim is frivolous and any lawsuit will be defended vigorously.”

Scott’s Web site says that she began writing the "Nocturne Trilogy" series at 15, after taking time off from writing music and working in film and television. “I wrote The Nocturne with the intent of bringing readers into a completely new world of the fantasy and romance genres,” she writes.

Breaking Dawn has sold more than 70 million copies worldwide and a film version is in the works.