Stephenie Meyer, http://www.stepheniemeyer.com, author of the Twilight Series, is another one of those stories of authors like J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter books whose catapult to fame has become legend.
Four years ago, Stephenie was a stay-at-home mom with three small children. She had a dream one night about a vampire and the image was so strong, she decided to write it down. Three months later she had enough writing for the “dream” to be a book. So she went to Google and researched literary agents. She got the names of 15 agents and sent out query letters. Nine rejected her, five she never heard back from, and one asked for the first few pages. The rest, as they say, is history.
Stephenie Meyer has written four books in three years. These books, known as the Twilight Series, have sold over 16 million copies. They are all simultaneously on the New York Times Bestseller List. The first in the series, “Twilight” is coming out as a movie in November of this year. This catapult to fame is rare in the book world, but when it happens it makes the news and fosters the dreams of many people who want to be writers.
What is my point? I’m not sure, exactly, except that I am trying very hard to be happy for her. My story as a writer is not the stuff of legends. Oprah has not featured one of my books on her program; I may never have a bestseller; I have not been on Ellen. I wish I had the desire to write about vampires. If I did, I might have a lot more money in my bank account. But this is not my journey.
So I guess my point is that anytime an author wins the “lottery” in this world where 99.99 % of writers are in various stages of struggle, we have reason to celebrate. Because of the success of Stephenie’s books at Little Brown and Co., and J.K. Rowling’s books at Scholastic, these publishing companies can take a chance on other writers.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Congratulations, Stephenie!
Please check out my debut novel, Seeking Sara Summers. There aren’t any vampires but readers tell me it’s a really good read and many read it multiple times!
