30 Noteworthy Facts About Fan-Favorite Author Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts, one of the most famous American novelists in romantic genera, has an average of 34 books sold every minute over the last 20 years. There are over 400 million Nora Roberts novels in print, with millions of fans around the world. But still, there are many things that fans don't know about her. Here are some interesting facts about the author that will blow your mind:

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1.  Nora Roberts, a founding member of the Romance Writers of America, was the very first author to have been inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame.
2.  She was awarded the Romance Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award in the year 1997. The award was renamed as the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2008.
3.  Roberts has been awarded with 7 Golden Medallion Awards and unprecedented 21 RITA Awards by the Romance Writers of America. She has also received 2 RITA Awards under the pseudonym J.D. Robb.
4.  She was repeatedly included on the Giving Back Fund’s annual lists of the most philanthropic celebrities. Most of her donations were to the Nora Roberts Foundation.
5.  Through her foundation, the author financially supports organizations that promote literacy and arts, while also engaging in humanitarian efforts and assisting children.
6.  She was a victim of plagiarism by another best-selling romance writer Janet Dailey, in the year 1997, for which she sued Dailey, calling the plagiarism “mind-boggling.”
7.  The plagiarism came to light, when a reader read Roberts’s “Sweet Revenge” and Dailey’s “Notorious” back-to-back. Noticing similarities, the reader posted comparable passages on the Internet.
8.  In April 1998, Dailey, who admitted to have repeatedly plagiarized Roberts’s work, settled the case. The settlement from the case was donated to various literary causes including the Literacy Volunteers of America, by Roberts.
9.  She, along with several other authors, was again a victim of plagiarism by another best-selling Contemporary romance author Cristiane Serruya, in the year 2019.
10.  Since the year 1999, every one of Roberts’s novels has been a New York Times Bestseller. She is one of the few authors to have a total of more than 1100 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List, including over 150 weeks in the number one spot.

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11.  Eleanor Marie Robertson was born on October 10, 1950, in Silver Spring, Maryland, to Bernard E. Robertson and Eleanor Robertson. She was the youngest of five children.
12.  Both her father and mother are said to have Irish ancestors, and Nora has always described herself as “an Irishwoman through and through.”
13.  Coming from a family of avid readers, books have always played an important role in her life. Even as a kid, she had always made up stories in her head, but never wrote any.
14.  She attended a Catholic school, but transferred to Montgomery Blair High School, for her second year in high school, where she met Ronald Aufdem-Brinke, her first husband.
15.  The couple, fell in love, and got married against her parents’ wishes in the year 1968, just as she graduated from high school. After their marriage, they settled in Boonsboro, Maryland.
16.  At this point of her life, she was a homemaker, spending her time doing crafts, and taking care of her sons – Dan and Jason. Nora refers to this period of her life as her “Earth Mother” years. The marriage lasted for 15 years, ending in divorce in 1983.
17.  She actually started writing during a blizzard in February 1979, while household with her two kids. Stuck with three feet of snow, and no morning kindergarten, she had time to write.
18.  The first time she wrote down the ideas she had, she fell in love with the writing process, and immediately produced around six manuscripts. However, her scripts were constantly rejected by Harlequin, the leading publisher of romance novels.
19.  She found a home at a new publisher Silhouette books, and published her first novel, "Irish Thoroughbred" in the year 1981, using the pseudonym Nora Roberts, assuming that all romance authors had pen names.
20.  From the year 1982 to 1984, she had 23 novels published by Silhouette, under various imprints. The first novel in the MacGregor family series "Playing the Odds," was released in the year 1985, which became an immediate bestseller.

"Turn the Page Bookstore" by Maryland Green Registry is licensed under CC BY 2.0

21.  Her entire career was featured in Pamela Regis' "A Natural History of the Romance Novel," calling her "a master of the romance novel form."
22.  Since the very beginning, she had wanted to write romantic suspense novels, but at the urging of her agent, she focused only on romance novels to build a following of readers.
23.  In the year 1992, her publisher Putnam, being unable to keep up with Roberts's output, suggested adopting a second pseudonym, in order to publish more of her work every year.
24.  Her agent Amy Berkover convinced the publishers to publish her first romantic suspense novel under the pseudonym J. D. Robb, in the year 1995. J and D stand for her sons Jason and Dan, while Robb is just a shortened form of Roberts.
25.  Initially, she had decided on using the pseudonym D. J. MacGregor, but just before publication, Roberts found out that the pseudonym was already used by another writer.
26.  Her first appearance on "The New York Times Bestseller List" was in the year 1991. Within the next ten years, by 2001, she had 68 New York Times Bestsellers.
27.  In September 2001, she took the numbers 1 and 2 spots on the Publishers Weekly bestseller list, for the first time. Her book - "Time and Again" was number one, while her book "Seduction in Death" under the pen name J.D. Robb was number two.
28.  In the year 2007, four of Nora Roberts novels - "Angels Fall," "Montana Sky," "Blue Smoke," and "Carolina Moon," were adapted into Lifetime Television, marking the first time that Lifetime had adapted multiple works of the same author.
29.  She joined the chorus of other authors, who criticized Cassie Edwards, for lifting many passages from much older sources, without giving any credit, which led to Edwards getting out of the business.
30.  Under the pseudonym, she wrote a story for a magazine titled "Melodies of Love." Her series "Born In" was published in Britain, in the name Sarah Hardesty, instead of Nora Roberts.
31.  Nora Roberts Net Worth: $390 Million