Vampire Diaries Author Now Writing Fan Fiction For Her Own Series

Via the Wall Street Journal:

When Alloy Entertainment fired L.J. Smith from the popular young-adult book series “The Vampire Diaries” and replaced her with a ghostwriter three years ago, a civil war broke out among fans. One camp swore fealty to the characters and embraced the new books, which still feature Ms. Smith’s name prominently on the cover as the series’ creator. The other, more vocal faction sided with Ms. Smith and boycotted the ghostwritten novels.

“I would not read those books if they were the last books on earth,” said Christina Crowley, a 35-year-old substitute teacher in Riverview, Mich., and a staunch L.J. Smith fan. “I didn’t want to read her characters written by someone else.”

Now, in one of the stranger comebacks in literary history, Ms. Smith is independently resurrecting her stories about the adolescent undead. She’s publishing her own version of “The Vampire Diaries” digitally on Amazon, as fan fiction, creating a parallel fictional universe that many hard-core fans regard as more legitimate than the official canon.

The business aspect of this story is fascinating: The Vampire Diaries series is still being published with Smith’s name prominently featured on the book covers, and Alloy after firing her is semi-promoting her fanfiction because they get a cut of the proceeds, thanks to the widening copyright loophole that Smith is using through Amazon Worlds. Shorter version: all writers are doomed. [WSJ]