Writer LJ Smith has found out why
self-publishing –despite its hazards- is a better route. The author, who has
been penning the popular Vampire Diaries
series since 1990, has basically been fired from writing anymore of those
books. While her name will remain on them, any future novels in the series will
be ghostwritten by others.
She explains:
"You’re probably wondering
how this can happen, since I write the series and have done so since 1990. But
the truth is simple. When I got a call asking me to write a vampire trilogy for
Harper, it wasn’t Harper who was calling me. It was a book packager, now called
Alloy Entertainment, calling on Harper’s behalf. Their job was to take authors’
work, put blurbs and covers on it, and sell it to a publisher. When I wrote the
first Vampire Diaries trilogy it was
called “work for hire.” By the time I found out what that meant it was too
late. What it means is that the book packager, Alloy Entertainment, owns the books,
not me. Even though they are copyrighted to me, I still can’t write them
without Alloy’s permission. And they really hated any Delena content—as well as
the many scenes I had given to Bonnie, which they wanted to cut. They demanded
only Stelena. And now they’ve gotten an anonymous ghostwriter to do the books,
the way a ghostwriter does Stefan’s Diaries.” She added “unlike most writers
who work with book packagers, I was not submissive, meek, and eager to please
them. Instead, I had my own vision of the books.”
Which is fine, you wanted to
write Damon/Elena storylines, but you found out that they wanted Stefen/Elena and
you did not do what they asked, so they fired you. Still, I doubt Smith will be
hurt by this and after 22 years as a writer, she should be able to land on her
feet and get published. But this might be the opportunity to self-publish her own
ideas; property that she’ll have complete control over.
It’s also a cautious tale of
budding authors who sell their souls just to get published. As a
writer-for-hire, no matter how many books you write, in the end, you own none
of it.
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