Suck It Up, Steph

[filkertom]

Author Stephenie Meyer entrusted a draft of her newest novel to someone... who put it on the Internet. And now the book is on hold indefinitely.

Cry me a river.

The problem isn't the Net -- the problem is you picked someone you thought trustworthy who wasn't. And, bluntly, isn't it more publicity for you?

I've been living this for years. I do my best not to put something online until I'm ready to have it there. To make sure I hadn't screwed up my mix too badly, I e-mail copies to a couple of people I trust with my life. And, oh yeah, then I put the stuff out there for free, asking money for a higher bit rate. (Wait till you guys see the new web site. Hee hee.)

What gets me, though, is this:

I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely.

I'd rather my fans not read this version of Midnight Sun [emphasis mine]. It was only an incomplete draft; the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes. But how do I comment on this violation without driving more people to look for the illegal posting? It has taken me a while to decide how and if I could respond. But to end the confusion, I've decided to make the draft available here [her link] (at the end of this message on the Midnight Sun page). This way, my readers don't have to feel they have to make a sacrifice to stay honest. I hope this fragment gives you further insight into Edward's head and adds a new dimension to the Twilight story. That's what inspired me to write it in the first place.

I'm not going to get into the emotions of putting something like this on hold -- I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can see it.

But then... making the offending, incomplete, messy, flawed draft that you'd rather your fans didn't read available to everyone!?

Sounds like a pretty straightforward marketing ploy to me.

Comments

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

I haven't read her books, merely boggled at the synopsis. But I've heard from a few people who have that the leaked draft is about the same quality as her published work.

[aiela.livejournal.com]

The friends I know who have read it have said yeah, the writing quality is crap.

My 13 year old read Twilight in a 3 hour marathon, though. She loves it.

Said one friend, "That's because it reads like a 13 year old WROTE IT. That's why they like it so much."

[jayene.livejournal.com]

I think this author said it best....

http://www.allycarter.com/2008/08/midnight-sun-situation.html

I write, I'm in rough draft right now on my current work. I won't even show my husband yet because its rough and whole sections say things like "Put witty comment here later" or "What the hell did I name the homeroom teacher?"
But if someone put it out on the net.... yeah I'd just die.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Almost everything I've ever written has originally been called "[Insert Brilliant Title Here]".

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Actually, the person who posted it should be the one to die. Preferably as painfully as possible.

[kengr]

It's only been a day or so since David Weber did that to *himself( over on Baen's Bar. He accidentally zipped and posted the latest Honoverse book instead of a set of revised snippets.

Stuff Happens.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Twilight, bleh. A pretty girl who thinks being pretty makes her special, reinforced by a pretty immortal who thinks being pretty gives him a license to do anything he wants to anyone he wants.

Yeah, these are just the traits I would want reinforced in tweenagers.

[droewyn.livejournal.com]

Nah, it's about a pretty girl who omg-tragically thinks that she *isn't* pretty, so she wants to become immortal so she'll be pretty. Oh yeah, and get to keep her boyfriend. But mostly become pretty.

I read the books, because sometimes I'm in the mood for that garbage in the same way that sometimes I'm in the mood for Taco Bell, but the scene where the heroine spends her 18th birthday staring moodily in the mirror looking for wrinkles almost made me hurl the book across the room.

I like some of the support characters in this series. The heroine is utterly without merit.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Which is why we read andpuff, matociquala, sazettel, jimhines, and, soon, seanan_mcguire. :)

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

Word. I keep thinking "Why aren't these books about Alice?" And then realizing that then they would be dreadful books about Alice. Not really an improvement.

My good deed for the month was warning the MiL off buying them for hubby's cousin's 11-year-old.

I girded my gag reflex and took 'em on in a deal with a coworker. She definitely got the better end of the bargain, but now I have her all nice and hooked on andpuff so it's worth it. Plus she admits they're dreadful and is a good sport about the mocking.

[renquestor.livejournal.com]

I've just become sick of the whole, vampires are immortal, blood sucking, gorgeous, sensual, irresistible beings. Ann Rice did it, and I hated it. Now this woman's doing it and it still sucks ass.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, Bram Stoker did it. What Rice did was focus on Teh Angst, and an entire generation of teens wallowing in their own angst said, "Yeah, yeah, that's like me. [snif]"

[renquestor.livejournal.com]

True, but I didn't think the sensuousness and angst was as pronounced in Stoker's work. Admittedly, though, it been a few years since I've read it, so I might be forgetting some key language.

I've read Interview With a Vampire and it was ok. It wasn't something I enjoyed reading all the time, but it wasn't horrible. I merely got tired of all the goddamn wangst. I suppose that I like characters that I can relate to. Not ones who, overall, have a really good existence but have to find some reason to whine.

[mdyesowitch.livejournal.com]

Dracula addressed xenophobia, the role of women in modern society, and the globalization of the world.

Lucy Westenra is the quintessential beauty queen/good girl, and she dies for it, unable to choose between her endless supplies of lovers (she finally does choose to marry the wealthy and titled suitor over her others). Mina Harker on the other hand, is a working girl who is a support and a help to her husband as he recovers from his experience with Dracula and his loose, wild women. Mina survives the experience, and it's her connection to Dracula that ultimately causes his death.

Lesson to Dracula - stick to the bimbos in other, less progressive countries. Don't invade England! And don't mess with our modern, unconquerable women!

[ardent-firesong.livejournal.com]

Haven't red Dracula yet. But Ann rice blows some serious blow. People complain that Tolkein (whose name I can never remember how to spell, so please forgive me) took five pages to say nothing, but at least when he said nothing it was interesting. Rice, on the other hand, makes me cry. Ohhhh, Teh Angst (as you so eloquently put it). *vomits*

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I think I'd give a pass on the "blood-sucking" part. ;)

[renquestor.livejournal.com]

You have a point there. Sorry, you caught me in the midst of two issues. One, I hadn't had my morning coffee. Two, I'm trying to quit smoking, so nicotine fit through the roof when I wrote that.

[kengr]

I saw a web carton that claimed it was due to their (vampires') publicists!

[skemono.livejournal.com]

Possibly What's New?

[kengr]

Nope. Not any of those strips. The one I'm thinking of was definitely in "strip" format and explicitly mentioned vampire publicists in the last panel.

[erinwrites.livejournal.com]

I couldn't even bear to finish Interview With the Vampire. That was my first and last experience w/Anne Rice.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

What I want to know is....where did this woman come from? I had literally *never heard of her* until the fourth book in her series was set to be released, and suddenly there were articles talking about what a phenomenon she was and how she was the next Rowling and...

I don't live in a bubble. I try to keep up with what's going on in popcultureland, if only by reading Entertainment Weekly to see what the trends and highlights are.

Did I just completely miss the first three books? Or is this manufactured hype from Marketania?

[aiela.livejournal.com]

I'm with you there - and I have a member of her marketing segment living in my house who never asked anything about them until about a month ago.

Now, granted, school's just now starting back up (last few weeks, depending on where in the country you are), and one of the things Scott Westerfeld was talking about was how his book sales always surge when school gets back in, because kids start talking about what they read over the summer, but yeah - there were three books in this series. They couldn't have all been released in the last six months.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

I was hearing about them, but it was definitely small, smallish, medium, OMG HUGE!!!! Still, the earlier books showed up in my recomendations and 'stuff coming out in teen lit' newsletters. From multiple bookstores. But often series are like that. Harry Potter was fairly small for the first couple of books and then kind of exploded around book 3 or 4.

That said, Harry Potter really was a LOT more popular. And better written. And the story was better. And doesn't include vampires who sparkle in sunlight.

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

vampires who sparkle in sunlight

I heard about that. Vampires DIE in sunlight.

What is that too harsh to deal with, so you gotta turn 'em into glittering pixies??

Yeesh.

[cadhla.livejournal.com]

I will say...

I don't like the woman's politics, her position, or her work. But if something's been leaked, the best thing to do is to just go 'yeah, it's been leaked, you can find it here if you really want it, but I'd rather you didn't.' It was already out there. She couldn't stuff it back into the box.

Also, I've had that fear. The 'oh God I gave someone something and I trusted them and now I'm realizing I'm an idiot and I can't possibly get it back and what if they decide to be a dick?' moment sucks.

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought of you, luv, when I read Tom's post, because of your editing pool. Just so you know, I am so paranoid that if I even print out a reading copy for myself, I shred it before throwing it away.

And yes, I agree with you that once Meyer's manuscript appeared on the internet the best option for her was to go ahead and say "Here it is if you want to read it."

Free publicity? Maybe, or maybe just making some lemonade out of the lemons.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

It may be something of a rough-and-ready response, but I can't say I'd necessarily be able to do something at least vaguely in the right ballpark if I was famous and had a crap-quality first draft of an upcoming book spammed to the net.

Somewhere, a published author is hyperventilating.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

And it's not necessarily an issue of deliberate betrayal -- accidents happen, jerks cracking into computers just to show that they can happen, etc.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Writers have a love/hate relationship with the net. We'd love to have our works available without destroying forests and being less expensive to our readers. But we also worry about publishers owning our work forever online and the ease of duplication. The DRM garbage comes from the publishers wanting to guarantee THEIR incomes, though the writers like being able to eat also. Me, I will never use or allow to be used, any DRM with my stuff. Me, I don't allow anyone to have the whole copy of a story until it's finished and on my pages - a few chapters at a time is all.

I feel very sorry for this woman. You may be able to put out an album in two weeks, but it takes ages to write a book, especially when it's not a fulltime job.

[amazingadrian.livejournal.com]

Now that's a sucky thing to do; to both herself and her fans.

It'd be like if a band cancelled their latest album because a few songs got leaked.

It'd be like if a movie director canned his film because someone gave out more plot information than he should've.

She should not have trusted the work with that person, that much is true. But rather than punishing everyone for it, she should be taking the opportunity to make the novel better, and ride the publicity while she's at it. Not gracious at all, this move.

[sazettel.livejournal.com]

One question and one question only: WHAT in blue blazes is she doing handing over an unfinished mss. to ANYONE?

I mean, was it her fire copy, what?

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of different reasons an author might give unfinished mss. to people. They might have proof readers. They might have artists who are doing cover art or tie-in artwork. They might have a friend they trust to say 'that part really doesn't work, fix it!' I'm sure there are other reasons as well. But I have unfinished mss from at least three or four different people. On the other hand, usually one doesn't give it to people one doesn't trust. Though it sounds like she thinks the leaking was an accident and not done deliberately.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

The story I was hearing over at Fandom Wank is that the actor who was playing Edward in the movie adaptation of Twilight needed help getting a handle on his character (big surprise there). So she sent the MS to him, and hilarity ensued.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

She handed her fan fiction to beta readers.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

There are no accidents. That's all I really have to say about that.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

*gasp!*

Court Jester icon!

*luffs*

[mouser.livejournal.com]

She IS the angsty Mary Sue she writes about!

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

When your published work is incomplete, messy, and flawed, what does it matter who sees your rough draft, really?

I'm still boggled that she thinks she's a writer.

[lapislaz.livejournal.com]

Hey, when someone pays you that much money to publish what you write, yeah, you're a writer.

Whether or not you're a GOOD writer is debatable. But that's someone else's problem, because you're on your way to the bank.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I love your website. I love your habit of making so much of your material available free, and the rest of it affordable. It makes it easier for us to hook you new fans. Typical conversation in my living room:

Me: "Hey, that reminds me of [Tom Smith song]."
Doug: "It's in the CD changer." beep*beep*beep
*music plays*
Guest: "That's hilarious."
Doug: "Here, I'll play another one."
*music plays*
Guest: "Just one more."
... 20 minutes pass ...
Me: "Um, it's midnight. Didn't you say you have to get up early?"
Guest: "#@&!! But they're *funny*...!"
Doug: "Look up Tom Smith Online."

I think we've sold a good half-dozen CDs that way.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

http://shinga.deviantart.com/art/Head-Trip-Twilight-Sucks-85504254

While I've never read the Twilight series, if it's anything clost to what this DA artist has described then I may consider myself lucky.