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(WestSide Books, Dec 2011; Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Feb 2012)
SkinWalkers: 
Stephenie Meyer’s Work In Progress illegally posted – betrayal
Imagine taking a writer’s work-in-progress and posting it online, unauthorized, for the whole world to see. Now imagine you’re already a famous author, with thousands of fans, some of whom will read that unfinished work, before it’s been revised, edited, published.
What a betrayal! But that’s what happened to Stephenie Meyer. Yes–Stephenie Meyer of the Twilight 
And as a result, she said she’s put the work on hold indefinitely; that she’s so upset over the betrayal, and that emotions effect writing (I agree) that if she were to work on the manuscript in her current frame of mind, “James would probably win and all the Cullens would die.” Obviously she’s deeply hurt. I would be, too. But hopefully that eases, and she can get back to writing. I would hate to have someone’s betrayal stop an author’s career or book.
I feel for Stephenie Meyer. Writing a book is hard work–and it always needs to go through revisions. Always. For me, a first draft is the most uncrafted work. It’s missing so much–layers, connections, polished writing; it’s just getting the story idea down, and some scenes, chapters, or entire threads will be reworked or deleted in the next drafts. In a first draft, all my weaknesses in writing show; I have to work at correcting them and adding to the depth of the book in the next edit, and the next. I feel the most vulnerable showing my first draft to trusted readers. I often prefer not to show a first draft to anyone (though sometimes I need to, to get feedback). And Stephenie had hers distributed on the net…. I wince inside.
It’s hard to imagine fellow writers doing such a thing–we all understand the vulnerability, and the courage it takes to write and then share the writing in the first place. I wonder who Stephenie’s readers are? She has a good idea who leaked the manuscript, since she didn’t give many copies of her manuscript out to readers, and the ones that she did each had different changes made to them. At least she knows who betrayed her, and knows who not to trust. But what a way to find out.
Stephenie Meyer says on her site: “I’d rather my fans not read this version of Midnight Sun. It was only an incomplete draft; the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes.” Early drafts of a book should only ever be read by the people the author personally chooses to share it with. Anything else is, to me, a violation of that author’s trust.
What do you think?
August 31st, 2008 at 9:41 am
I’ve enjoyed everything I have read here and *love* the star system for your reviews, Cheryl.
I didn’t know this had happened to Stephenie, but am really sorry it did. It is a betrayal. There legal copyright issues, too. This person “published” Stephenie’s unfinished work without her permission and without paying her for the right to copy it (copyright).
This is theft–even though the original poster probably never intended it to go as far as it did. If it had happened to someone less known, the publisher might have cancelled the book–feeling that sales would be impaired by the available “free” copy making the rounds.
As artists, we can’t ignore the internet or try to control it. Musicians tried and gave up. Bands tour constantly now.They can’t really own anything but their live shows.
I don’t know what this means for authors, but we can’t ignore the facts. The internet is changing *everything* in interesting ways. Artists will adjust and survive. We always do. But it is going to get interesting, I think.
August 31st, 2008 at 9:46 am
Thank you, Kathleen, for letting me know you like my blog and my review system. It felt good to read that!
I agree that it’s a betrayal–and a theft. That’s a good take on it. I think you’re right about a lesser known author might have had their book canceled–it has so many repercussions.
I agree that the internet is changing everything, and we can’t ignore it as authors. There are some wonderful things about it–but some pretty cruddy ones, too (where people do things that they might not in person).
Thank you for your thoughtful comments, Kathleen. I appreciate it.
August 31st, 2008 at 10:24 am
I have tremendous compassion for this author. I think it was terribly mean-spirited of that trusted person to betray the author’s confidence with something so important.
I hope there are legal recourses available to the author in a case like this.
August 31st, 2008 at 10:33 am
I like how you put that, Ms S–tremendous compassion. It does seem really mean-spirited–though Stephenie, on her site, says she believes “that there was no malicious intent with the initial distribution” which is quite big of her. But the end result was huge.
I assume there are legal recources. Though perhaps Stephenie doesn’t want to take that route (given her above comment). We’ll see. I just hope she doesn’t stop writing.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:46 pm
This is why you always, ALWAYS, need to be careful who you share your work with. That’s why I only trust every detail about my plots with only a few friends that I can trust with my life and know they are never going to do anything like that to me. Heck, most of them think I’m crazy for even writing!
I do hate that happened. But honestly, I think the author needs to suck it up and move on. Nothing can change what happened and it’s obvious it’s her work so there’s no way she could loose in a court of law (if it even goes that far.) Yes, I understand that she’s upset, but I sent my work to a scam, found out it was a scam, was depressed for one day, then decided that I wasn’t going to let some bum get to me. She needs to buck up and write, otherwise she will have some VERY disappointed fans (one of whom would be my best friend.) So, Stephenie, don’t let some bum ruin your life. Hold your chin high, write, and prove that you can rise above.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I regularly share my writing with my critique group, and often give my entire manuscript to my writing friends, as they do to me. I think that’s an important part of the writing process. I really trust them. I just can’t imagine another writer doing this.
Madison, I, too, hope she keeps writing. But sometimes it also helps to go through some of the emotion when something painful happens, and then get back into the routine of writing.
I’m glad you could go back to writing after finding out your work went to a scam. Good for you!
August 31st, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I really hope she picks her pen up again soon. Writing can be very freeing, but if she doesn’t finish that book, like I said, my best friend will be VERY disappointed. She’s a big fan!
August 31st, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Yeah, Madison–I think there’ll be a lot of disappointed fans.
Every writer is different, I guess. I’m not sure that I would stop writing the book–though it’s hard to know, since I’m not in the situation (thank goodness). Maybe her fans will cry out for her to finish the book, and that’ll help her. Who knows.
December 10th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
i have recently finished reading the twilight series and was astonished to hear about this theft, betrayal of Stephanie Meyers rightes as a person and author. How can people call themselves fans by hurting the author they “LOVE”? Fans having read the unrevised, unpublished script was a stab in the back to their so called favorite author. Stephanie Meyers im sorry that people in this world are greedy and corrupt and hopefully in the near future you can get back on the path you started. Most of us are waiting patiently for another masterpiece of the twilight series.