Stephenie Meyer Stops Work on Fifth Twilight Book to Protest Illegal Leaking of Her Work
Bestselling author Stephenie Meyer has stopped working on her current book, Midnight Sun, after the unedited manuscript was leaked online. Stephenie had apparently given several different drafts to just a few people for review and comment and someone leaked one online, much to the author's horror. She says she has put the fifth book in the popular Twilight series on hold as a statement about an author's right to control her own work.
"The manuscript that was illegally distributed on the Internet was given to trusted individuals for a good purpose. I have no comment beyond that, as I believe that there was no malicious intent with the initial distribution," she wrote in a posting on her website.
But Meyer, 34, said this was a huge violation of her rights of an author as well as her rights as a human being because she owns the copyright and has say over when the book should be made public.
She said that musicians and filmmakers have the same rights over their work, and that it is dishonest of anyone to download material off the Internet and to reproduce and distribute it.
"This has been a very upsetting experience for me, but I hope it will at least leave my fans with a better understanding of copyright and the importance of artistic control," Meyer wrote.
"I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on 'Midnight Sun,' and so it is on hold indefinitely."
Meyer said the draft that was released on the Internet was incomplete, with messy and flawed writing, but she was making that draft available on her site because it added a new dimension to the "Twilight" story.
So, who was the idiot who leaked the draft? Clearly, she knows exactly who it is, because she has said it wasn't done maliciously. But her vehement statements about an author's copyrights make us believe that she's pretty angry at whoever did it. One thing's for sure: whoever it is won't be getting to see any future drafts.
