L.J. Smith: How The Author Of 'The Vampire Diaries' Got Fired From Her Own Series
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L.J. Smith was one of the most popular Young Adult authors of the 90s. She had several successful series, including The Forbidden Game (as part of the Point Horror series), The Secret Circle, and The Night World. However, The CW optioned The Vampire Diaries in 2009 and the long-running TV show was born. The author has had no input on the TV series, but she’s been distanced from the brand even further than that.
Back in 1991, when Lisa Jane Smith was starting out, she signed a very aggressive contract with Alloy Entertainment. Alloy is a subsidiary of Warner Bros that packages books (makes them ready for publishing) and produces TV and film, most famous for Gossip Girl and The 100. The author was brought on board with a loose brief to write an ‘upscale’ vampire trilogy about a good brother and a bad brother who fall in love with the same girl. Despite coming up with the plotline, and creating the characters of Elena Gilbert, Damon Salvatore, and Stefan Salvatore, L.J. Smith did not own the rights to her own series.
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L.J. Smith wrote eight The Vampire Diaries books, but after she submitted the final draft of the first book of the Hunter’s Trilogy (The Vampire Diaries - The Hunters: Phantom) she was unceremoniously booted off her own creation. Smith says she was informed of Alloy’s decision by post. She received a carbon copy of a letter addressed to a ghostwriter telling them to rewrite the whole manuscript.
According to L.J. Smith’s messages to fans, the reason for the parting of ways was down to a dispute over plot lines in the trilogy. Smith wanted to give Damon a chance to explore relationships with both Elena and Bonnie. Alloy wanted the focus to remain on Elena and Stefan. Ironically, this is where the TV show went with their plot lines, eventually having Elena pick the other brother. This might be why L.J. Smith praised the adaptation, although she could never get over Elena’s hair colour change as she was blonde in the original books.
L.J. Smith’s name remains on the front cover of all the books, including the Hunter’s Trilogy that she was forced away from. Smith’s name might be in bold, as is the mention of her accolades, but she’s listed as The Vampire Diaries creator rather than writer. A creative piece of wordplay to get around that another author has been handed the series. Later books have added the name of ghostwriter Aubrey Clark in the small print, but this is suspected to be a pseudonym rather than an individual. Alloy Entertainment also removed L.J. Smith from The Secret Circle series using the same mechanism.
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In 2013 Amazon launched Kindle Worlds, which allowed fanfiction authors to earn money on their writings. L.J. Smith used this as an opportunity to write three unofficial The Vampire Diaries books, as well as several short stories. However, none are canon and are only available online.
Then, in 2015, Smith had a major health incident and never really recovered. Smith went from being one of the most in-demand authors with two major network TV show adaptions to being completely in the wilderness. Another one of her popular series (under a different contract) suffered and her publisher lost interest in the last book while they waited for her to recover. But there are plenty of fans who would still love to get a hold of Strange Fate, the unreleased last book in The Night World Series if L.J. Smith decided to go rogue again and publish it online.
L.J. Smith isn’t given enough credit for how much vampire/witch/werewolf lore she established. She (along with Anne Rice) is the mother of the YA urban fantasy genre, paving the way for authors like Stephenie Meyer, Cassandra Clare, and Rachel Mead. So, if you’re going to buy a book from The Vampire Diaries series, make sure it’s a real L.J. Smith.
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Source(s): L.J. Smith, Writing Forums, Wall Street Journal, The Author Hour, Wikipedia [1], [2]
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