Saturday

Stolen Integrity

I know the name "Stephenie Meyer", but not her books. Today, I read publisher, Karen Syed's blog and learned the first 12 chapters of Meyer's incomplete book, Midnight Sun, were hijacked and posted in rough form on the internet. Foul!

My reaction was first shock, then dismay, then anger. Because I'm a first-reader for other authors and I love doing that job. I love that they value my opinion and that they trust me with their "babies". I can only imagine that Meyer's feelings are akin to a mother who's child has been abused by a babysitter. It's a terrible, terrible act that damages us all in the greater writing community. Our collective trust takes a hit.

To find out the truth from the author's perspective, go directly to her website:

"As some of you may have heard, my partial draft of Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the Internet and has since been virally distributed without my knowledge or permission or the knowledge or permission of my publisher." Read the remainder of the essay by clicking here.

Then go to Karen Syed's blog and leave her your comments, since she started this thread. I don't need more outrage to fuel my anger. I will read at least one Stephenie Meyer book as a demonstration of support. Why haven't I read one yet? Because it has vampires in it. It's that simple. But now, I'll bite the silver bullet.

May benefits accrue to her ten-fold to ease the pain. And dare I say it? May the scofflaw get it back ten-fold, too. Yeah, that should help even out the score a little. Ten-fold at least. Be thankful that I am not the god of fairness.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow - I mean, WOW! that sucks. I'll head over to Karen's site.

Man, if that happened to me I'd be in the mood for homocide.

L.J. Sellers said...

Myers has suffered some major hits recently and that betrayal must be the worst. Dani, if you read one of her books and recommend it, I will too.
Lj
http://ljraves.blogspot.com

Helen Ginger said...

I have read the first 3 in her vampire series and do recommend them. They're well-written and a door into what young girls are reading now (which was a surprise to someone who grew up on much tamer books).

All of us who read for others and respect the trust those authors put in us are hurt by Stephanie's betrayal -- and we hurt for her.

Charlotte Phillips said...

I spewed my anger over this at Karen's blog and won't repeat it here.

I think buying and reading an earlier book as a show of support is a great idea! Thanks, Dani. I'm off to do that right now so I don't forget.

Dana Fredsti said...

I am of the opinion the person who stole her work should be staked over an anthill, but I'm kind of an old testament, draconian kind of gal. I'm reading one of her books too tto show support! I like vampires anyway!

Anonymous said...

This just so WRONG! What a terrible violation of trust! We're heading over there now to find out more. Thanks for sharing this Dani. Hopefully it won't happen again to any author.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I have a different take on this. She is being incredibly childish about this. From what I've read, it seems that one of her friends posted the material online. Instead of getting angry at her friend (who has been completely forgiven), she gets angry at her fans who raced to read their "fix". And then she pouts about it and says she won't finish the book after all that. Totally unprofessional behaviour, IMO.