L.J. Smith Fired from Vampire Diaries- Injustice for all Writers

There are some things in this world that are just wrong, no gray area it’s just wrong, and firing someone from writing their own book series is one of them. You are probably wondering what I’m talking about. Well it’s very simple. I’m sure most of you know the hit show on the CW called The Vampire Diaries. If you are a fan of the show than you know that it is based off a wonderful book series written by the very talented L.J. Smith.

L.J. Smith started writing the books in 1990 so that has been her pride and joy for the last 10 years. And now that is being taken away from her. Here are the details. L.J Smith was hired in 1990 by what is now known as Alloy Entertainment. They hired her to write the Vampire Diaries series and because it was a series written “for hire” the book packagers own the books, not the author. This means that even though Smith has written the entire series she has no rights and doesn’t own anything about the books. As screwed up as it is that’s the truth.

She has stated that she didn’t know exactly what it meant to be a “writer for hire” when she first signed the contract but that isn’t the point. The reason that Alloy Entertainment fired her was because she was taking the story in a different direction. The company wanted the entire series to be nothing but Stefan and Elena, they didn’t want there to be any sort of romance between Stefan and Elena. If you have either seen the show or read the books you know that there is a good reason many people would rather have Elena with Damon, or at least give them a chance. Essentially Smith wanted to explore the relationship of Elena and Damon as well as Bonnie and Damon but the company didn’t want that.

They told her she needed to keep it Stefan and Elena but she had to follow her heart. She had been writing these stories for years and she had to go where her writing instinct/heart was telling her to go, she had to do what felt right to her and that cost her, her job. As a fellow writer this is heartbreaking to me. The company may own the book but she created it. All the characters, the stories, the plot twists, all of it came from her mind. And if it wasn’t for her we wouldn’t have this guilty pleasure to enjoy on Thursday nights. She put her heart and soul into this project and it shows.

Obviously Smith is devastated over this, I would be to. A company firing you just because you were being creative and writing from the heart, isn’t that what the whole point of writing is? Creativity and heart are key and they made her chose between that and her job. However it isn’t just Smith who is upset, all the fans of both the show and book series are infuriated. They should be, the company is hiring a ghost writer to finish the rest of the series the way they want it finished. The books will still have Smith’s name on them but after Midnight they won’t be written by her. This is a huge injustice.

It doesn’t matter if you have seen/enjoy the series. That isn’t what this is about to me. For me this is about limiting someone’s creativity, trying to control them, and letting them go when they don’t comply. It’s the principle of the whole thing. If you have ever put your heart and soul into something like this then you know how devastating this would be. If you are a fellow writer especially I’m sure you understand her pain. This is a wrong that we need to fight to right. There is already a petition out there to get Smith hired back and fans are agreeing to not read or purchase anymore books after Midnight. We are not going to support this and if you feel the same way then please do you can. Help L.J Smith and help writers in general, this is something that should be prevented from happening ever again.