Author of Vampire Diaries Fired From Series

cryaegm · Feb 10, 2011

"Adam Whitehead - The Wert Zone — L.J. Smith, the author of the bestselling Vampire Diaries series of novels, has been sacked by her publishers, HarperCollins. Another author will complete the series.

The Vampire Diaries is unusual in that the series premise was (apparently, going by fan comments in the SpoilerTV link above) conceived by the publisher and given to Smith as a work-for-hire project. Whilst Smith conceived of the characters, the world, the rules and so forth, HarperCollins owned the project and its copyright in their entirety. Apparently, during the recent books Smith was moving away from the character interrelationships which HarperCollins considered the core of the series. Smith has thus been replaced."

http://io9.com/#!5756378/the-author-of-the-vampire-diaries-has-been-fired-from-her-own-book-series

So, I don't know where this goes and if this is the wrong place it, I'm sorry. I just saw this and wasn't sure if this was a common thing. Then again, though, it was Harper's premise and it was a work-for-hire kind of project.

Thoughts?

Also, if this was posted before, sorry for the double post.

Nightmirror · Feb 10, 2011

I would be pretty upset if I was reading a series and the writer was "replaced" before the story concluded. It doesn't seem like a wise move on HarperCollins part. New writer=new person, new style, new everything. Won't fans be upset? I know I would be. Who wants to adjust to the writing style of a new writer in the middle of a series?

shelleyo · Feb 10, 2011

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=204048&highlight=vampire+diaries

Some discussed it in another thread, too.

Shelley

icerose · Feb 10, 2011

Chances are good it will continue to be published under the original author's name, but they may not. There are several write-for-hire series that used several authors such as Nancy Drew, Star Wars, ect. If the new writer picks up the voice and stays true to the story and characters I don't think the fans will even notice.

Plot Device · Feb 10, 2011

icerose said:
Chances are good it will continue to be published under the original author's name, but they may not. There are several write-for-hire series that used several authors such as Nancy Drew, Star Wars, ect. If the new writer picks up the voice and stays true to the story and characters I don't think the fans will even notice.

Well icerose, as you and I both know (since we both write screenplays), Hollywood has already proven that it's not only possible to replace one writer with another who can duplicate the prior writer's voice, but that it's downrigt commonplace and standard procedure.

Meanwhile, this past year I made the difficult move away from writing screenplays and into the world of writing novels. I made this decision for a number of artistic reasons. And one of my consolations/motivations in sticking with this very hard attempt was that at least as a novelist I would have more control over my work. But this situation in the OP (as well as some other new developments in publishing***) doesn't bode well for the future of novelists.

::ETA::

***Such as the following new development:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203745

.

icerose · Feb 10, 2011

Plot Device said:
Well icerose, as you and I both know (since we both write screenplays), Hollywood has already proven that it's not only possible to replace one writer with another who can duplicate the prior writer's voice, but that it's downrigt commonplace and standard procedure.

Meanwhile, this past year I made the difficult move away from writing screenplays and into the world of writing novels. I made this decision for a number of artistic reasons. And one of my consolations/motivations in sticking with this very hard attempt was that at least as a novelist I would have more control over my work. But this situation in the OP (as well as some other new developments in publishing***) doesn't bode well for the future of novelists.

::ETA::

***Such as the following new development:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203745

.

Thing is it isn't a new development and has nothing to do with novelists of new series. Just make sure you don't sign away rights to your series and your name though. Write for hires have always been this way. The writer hired is at the mercy of the person who hired them and the series stays in control of the person who hired the writer and if the writer doesn't please the person who hired them someone else takes the reigns.

And it was a lot worse. As far as I know hired series writers now get royalties. Back when Hardy Boys was being written, it was a flat sum. Even though the publication was making millions of dollars the hired writers got a flat 125 dollars at first and then slowly bumped up with inflation but they never got royalties and were never paid more than a tolken payment. http://hardyboys.bobfinnan.com/hb3.htm

JerseyGirl1962 · Feb 10, 2011

Hmm...shades of James Frey and his factory.

Nancy

willietheshakes · Feb 10, 2011

JerseyGirl1962 said:
Hmm...shades of James Frey and his factory.

Nancy

Not hardly.

Cyia · Feb 10, 2011

willietheshakes said:
Not hardly.

QFT.

Celia Cyanide · Feb 10, 2011

Wait....why are they doing this?

brainstorm77 · Feb 10, 2011

From what I have gathered from reading different articles, they didn't see eye to eye on where the series should go.

AlexPiper · Feb 10, 2011

From what I hear, it's not HarperCollins that's fired her, per se, but Alloy Entertainment. As I understand it, Alloy Entertainment hired L.J. Smith to create a vampire romance series. She did -- four books -- and HarperCollins published the books for Alloy. Since Smith wrote the books to the original spec she was given, Alloy owned the rights to the world/characters. At any rate, the series was concluded, and was successful. ESmith got money, Alloy got money, HarperCollins got money... everyone was happy.

Some years later she returned to write three additional books. While writing those books, she decided she wanted Character A and Character C to get together, rather than Character A and Character B (as in the original series). She got her way in those books. Then another trilogy was announced, and she continued to write relationship between Character A and C, rather than A and B in the first of /those/ new books. At this point, Alloy said "no dice, go back to the original relationships, which we think sell better." She pushed back again, and this time they fired her and said they'd have the remainder of the books in the world ghostwritten.

Mind you, that's just what I've gotten of the situation from articles and such over this, as someone who is familiar with neither the books or TV series.

cryaegm · Feb 10, 2011

shelleyo said:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=204048&highlight=vampire+diaries

Some discussed it in another thread, too.

Shelley

I was looking for that, but my searching skills seem to be not as great as I thought it was. :e2smack:

Now I have a link that I wanted.

Thanks.

Zoombie · Feb 10, 2011

AlexPiper said:
From what I hear, it's not HarperCollins that's fired her, per se, but Alloy Entertainment. As I understand it, Alloy Entertainment hired L.J. Smith to create a vampire romance series. She did -- four books -- and HarperCollins published the books for Alloy. Since Smith wrote the books to the original spec she was given, Alloy owned the rights to the world/characters. At any rate, the series was concluded, and was successful. ESmith got money, Alloy got money, HarperCollins got money... everyone was happy.

Some years later she returned to write three additional books. While writing those books, she decided she wanted Character A and Character C to get together, rather than Character A and Character B (as in the original series). She got her way in those books. Then another trilogy was announced, and she continued to write relationship between Character A and C, rather than A and B in the first of /those/ new books. At this point, Alloy said "no dice, go back to the original relationships, which we think sell better." She pushed back again, and this time they fired her and said they'd have the remainder of the books in the world ghostwritten.

Mind you, that's just what I've gotten of the situation from articles and such over this, as someone who is familiar with neither the books or TV series.

Too bad she didn't try and have Character A, B and C get together...

Celia Cyanide · Feb 10, 2011

Zoombie said:
Too bad she didn't try and have Character A, B and C get together...

Word.

I would totally wanna read that...

C. R. Reaves · Feb 14, 2012

A reminder to always check your contract. (L.J. Smith fired from Vampire Diaries)

Linking to the blog I'd stumbled across today: http://parafantasy.blogspot.com/2012/02/this-is-utterly-ridiculousi-cant-even.html

I know the point is that if you don't understand what's in your contract, don't sign it. But I still think it's horrible the way this is happening.

I also am a bit sad at the way people are reacting - bagging on the ghostwriter who's taking over. I understand that it's a hard pill to swallow for most creators to think of someone taking over from them - especially if (by implication) they're not a hardcore fan of the series themselves. But it's hardly the ghostwriter's fault they were given the opportunity to write.

I didn't see anywhere else posting about it here at AW, though it may have been buried in a longer thread. (I searched, though.)

KalenO · Feb 15, 2012

Thing is though, this (while horrible) was never about a standard publishing contract - if there is such a thing. Smith never sold the Vampire Diaries to Harper Collins.....as she herself mentions in the letter in that blogpost, she worked for a book packager. They knew what they wanted, and Smith was hired to write the books based on those initial wants...and then the book packagers sold the finished product to Harper Collins. Smith never owned the rights, not even before she typed the first word of her first draft.

So yes, its definitely still a cautionary tale, and its definitely callous of the book packager (it was Alloy's decision, not HarperTeen's) to just cut her loose after years of writing these books and making them what they were, but I think a lot of people are getting the wrong impression about this situation. This was never about an author who wrote her own concept/story and sold it to a publisher.

PulpDogg · Feb 15, 2012

I read about this yesterday ... And what I don't understand is WHY HarperCollins fired her. Its not mentioned anywhere. It seems they just dropped her because they could ... which is strange.

Polenth · Feb 15, 2012

Work for hire isn't the same as the average publishing contract. They approach you to write something to their specifications and they keep the rights. This isn't the sort of publishing contract most new writers will get, because most new writers are trying to get a deal for their original fiction (not written to anyone's specifications).

Judging from the blog comments, some of the commenters don't realise that. It's not that HarperCollins tries to get all authors to sign work for hire contracts. It's a specific sort of contract for a particular kind of work.

Which isn't to say it's nice for the author concerned. But it's not something that should send out waves of panic among other writers. If you don't want to do work for hire, no one's going to make you.

KalenO · Feb 15, 2012

PulpDogg said:
I read about this yesterday ... And what I don't understand is WHY HarperCollins fired her. Its not mentioned anywhere. It seems they just dropped her because they could ... which is strange.

HarperCollins didn't fire her. The book packager she worked for, Alloy, fired her, presumably because she wanted more money (understandably, her initial advances were pocket change considering she's an international bestseller). Alloy however probably figured it'd be cheaper in the long run to just fire her and get ghostwriters to continue the books, counting on the majority of readers continuing to pick them up based on name/brand recognition.

Terie · Feb 15, 2012

KalenO said:
HarperCollins didn't fire her. The book packager she worked for, Alloy, fired her, presumably because she wanted more money (understandably, her initial advances were pocket change considering she's an international bestseller).

I wouldn't even assume this to be the reason, much less presume it to be.

This actually happened just over a year ago (early February 2011), and you can read much more about it by googling 'lj smith fired from vampire diaries'. Funny enough, those links include the actual reason, which was 'creative differences', not 'more money'.

ETA: Here is one thread at AW on the subject.

KaiaSonderby · Feb 15, 2012

I remember hearing something about this at the time. Something about how they didn't like the direction she was taking the series, or something. Don't know if that's true, it's just what I heard.

BethS · Feb 15, 2012

She probably doesn't see it this way at the moment, but this could end up being a very good thing for her career. She mentioned that she recently got a good agent. She can write her own series now, get far more money for it, and her fans from the previous series will no doubt be eager to read it.

Torgo · Feb 15, 2012

BethS said:
She probably doesn't see it this way at the moment, but this could end up being a very good thing for her career. She mentioned that she recently got a good agent. She can write her own series now, get far more money for it, and her fans from the previous series will no doubt be eager to read it.

I've got the fiction dept. here to make enquiries...

Jamesaritchie · Feb 15, 2012

C. R. Reaves said:
Linking to the blog I'd stumbled across today: http://parafantasy.blogspot.com/2012/02/this-is-utterly-ridiculousi-cant-even.html

I know the point is that if you don't understand what's in your contract, don't sign it. But I still think it's horrible the way this is happening.

I also am a bit sad at the way people are reacting - bagging on the ghostwriter who's taking over. I understand that it's a hard pill to swallow for most creators to think of someone taking over from them - especially if (by implication) they're not a hardcore fan of the series themselves. But it's hardly the ghostwriter's fault they were given the opportunity to write.

I didn't see anywhere else posting about it here at AW, though it may have been buried in a longer thread. (I searched, though.)

I don't see the problem here. These books never were L. J. Smith's. When you work for someone else, write their books instead of your own, you can be fired.

I've done ghostwriting on a one out basis, but I've never been fond of book packagers, and I won't write for them. I think they're a bad deal for writers, and a big part of what's wrong with big publishers. But if I did work for one, I wouldn't have reason to complain when I lost the job, or reason to be concerned about who got hired to replace me.

Write your own books. You may get dropped, but if you do it's because your books aren't selling well enough, and that's your own doing. And you still own the books, even if you do get dropped.

I didn't become a writer in order to work for someone else, I can do that without being a writer, and this case is one example of why I don't like book packagers, or writing books other than my own.

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