In late 2024, I ran a long analysis of the Crave series copyright case brought by author Lynne Freeman in 2022 against author Tracy Wolff as well as her publisher, Entangled; literary agent Emily Sylvan Kim; and others. Freeman alleges that the series bears “overwhelming and undeniable” similarities to her unpublished work, which was submitted to agent Emily Sylvan Kim; Kim also represents Tracy Wolff.
Earlier this week, the judge in the case ruled that Tracy Wolff did not plagiarize; to reach this conclusion, the judge read six drafts of Freeman’s work and the four Crave novels, or about 6,000 pages of romantasy fiction over eight weeks. (Copyeditor comments, “Please say the judge received hazard pay.”) In the end, as one New Yorker reporter concluded on her own, after very thorough reporting in 2025, the stories simply share a lot of common fantasy tropes, and that’s not against the law. Read the judgment.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
