L.J. Smith Fired From The Vampire Diaries Book Series

The rumor on the web is that L.J. Smith is being fired from completing The Vampire Diaries book series, the very books which inspired the show on the CW. As much as I hate to say it – this rumor is true. Yesterday, the author confirmed the terrible news on her blog. Here’s what she wrote to fans on her official blog:

“…if you’ve asked me a question about the future books or the endgame of The Vampire Diaries and I’ve been vague about what’s in store, I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize.  I really wasn’t  looking forward to the day when I would have to talk about this.”

Smith continued by asking fans not to hold a boycott towards Harper, the publishing company behind the books.

“…I want to ask anyone who was thinking of it, not to boycott Harper’s or anyone.  It just doesn’t make sense.  Although I wanted and still want more than anything to be able to continue The Vampire Diaries series myself, there’s no point in not trying the new books.  (And remember, for fans of Bonnie and Damon, and strict Stefan and Elena fans, the immediate dynamics may be more to your liking.)  Besides which, Midnight, which is all mine, is coming out in March, and I believe there may be some of my writing in Phantom.”

Jeez. This is absolutely ridiculous. Grr.

I am sure all of you are wondering  how an author can be fired from their own book series, well, the sad truth is that while Smith writes the books, she doesn’t actually own the rights to The Vampire Diaries, Alloy Entertainment does. L.J. Smith was hired to write the series back in the early 90s, when they were first published. She will now be replaced by a ghostwriter who will complete the series instead of Smith. If you’re wondering, a ghostwriter is someone that writes under another person’s name but isn’t listed as the author. For example, most celebrities don’t write their own autobiographies (even though their name in on the cover), they have a ghostwriter do it. So this means that the new books will have “L.J. Smith” listed as the author, but the truth is that she actually isn’t, it’s some random person doing the writing and using her name.

As for the reason L.J. Smith was fired from the series – creative differences.

How do you guys feel about this? I know we have a lot of L.J. Smith fans here. How do you feel about some random ass author writing The Vampire Diaries story under Smith’s own name?

– Moonlight

By Moonlight

Moonlight (aka Amanda) loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to vampires. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of vampire folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and she may bite you (and not in the fun way).

29 comments

  1. I actually much prefer the TV series to the books, anyway, which is very rare for me.

    I’ll probably still read the books to find out the conclusion/s of the stories, never mind who’s writing them.

    1. same for me … its the first book were I like the serie (movie) more than the books. and yet I can’t really explain why …

  2. I haven’t read the books, but while this is fair in a legal sense it still seems so unfair to do this to a writer if she created the stories and characters.

    1. I feel the same way Veritas, the publishers may own the books as they hired her to write the series but it doesn’t make it fair to fire her because she wrote something they disagreed with, like I said above she wrote up everything that exists of vampire diaries so she should have the right to continue to write them instead of this Ghostwriter, they aren’t even giving her the benefit of the doubt because they are only using some of her content in phantom or maybe in the other two as the info on only using someparts of her stuff in phantom might of changed to using only some content in the other two books(sorry if I am confusing you or dont make sense).

  3. To be completely honest, I thought L.J. Smith had lost her marbles when I read The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall. It read like a bad anime crossover and made me disgusted. It was not the series that I had learned to love in the 90s.

    I can understand that she wanted to try to do something ‘new’ possibly, but doing such after a series is already so established, and so many years after the last novel was released, was a bad idea. She should have just tried to start a new series and use the ideas that she wanted to bring into this new section of The Vampire Diaries series.

    It still doesn’t justify the treatment she got from the publisher (or whoever) though. If they had problems, they should have just canceled the series. While that would be bad for some as well, it would have been a lot more respectful. I guess the cash cow just keeps mooing, with or without the original creator.

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  8. I think the publishers are making the completely wrong move with firing LJ Smith. It’s completely unfair that someone who’s put so much care and love into a series is just chucked aside because the direction of the story wasn’t to their liking. I personally was very pleased with the Damon and Elena romance side of things, as it felt like it had grown in a real sense, rather than the instant romance of Stefan and Elena. So, when it suddenly changes from Elena’s feelings for Damon to suddenly not thinking of him in that way, I’ll be sure not to read it and ruin the series for me. I’m happy as it is.

    1. I fully agree with this. I loved the last novel and I have been excited for the new book to come out. I am sad that Smith was removed from the series because I LOVED where she was going with the relationship between Elena and Damon. It would be nice to have a story that ended in a way that was not obvious for once. I though this is where this series was headed and was looking forward to a great romance.

      Oh well. Guess things have to be black and white.

    2. totally agree, i loved the wah smith was heading with the story, specially with damon and elena, im so sad they kicked her out its not fair.

    3. I think you are totally right Lauren and Cat and Ebony!!!In my opinion Damon and Elena is ”the real staff”! I mean i dont think there is something special in Stefan and Elena.Its just a plain romance like twilight.Ok its good but im bored of this.And IMO The Return Series is still good like the previous books.Just because it has more Delena scenes doesnt make it ”bad”.Its really unfair and funny that they just fire the creator of TVD!!!Anyway i think that most of you dont like the books because you ve watched first the series.I love both of them and i see them like different things.Just dont forget that if it wasnt L.J Smith there wouldnt be either of them…

  9. I, too, vote for the relationship between Damon and Elena. It speaks of redemption and rings truer than that between Elena and Stephan, which seems one-dimensional, bland, not really worthy mention. I wonder if this was the disagreement between Smith and the TV series? The final book, Midnight, is due in March – from the beginning of the book series, I had the distinct feeling that Elena would end up with Damon, rather than Stephan. I hope I am right and that the TV series will follow suit. Oh, well, time will tell…

  10. In the tv series altjough I like damon and elenait was only because of the books and they really dont have the same relationship…. as far as the tv show goes I am a stefan and elena shipper.

    In the books I actually like elena ( i dont in the show). I find elenas character much more interesting and a bit more realistic even. I loved the damon and elena relationship in the last book, and it just makes more sense to me..them as a couple, i mean.

    If smith stops writing after Midnight, I will not continue reading the series because i know it will never be the same, its not the author its someone else who has a different vision of where to take the story. You may as well kill every character and make elenas sister margaret the new main character and then have defan a new vampire character.

    THIS F*&^%$(% SUCKS !!!

    1. I know, I love the books, but I hate the series… They probably picked it up to twist it into something more “Twilight-y”. Since apparently the only thing girls are interested in now is love triangles with whiny, depressing, brunette characters. Yes, I’m brunette, but what’s with the sudden influx in EVERY female book character with a hair color other than brown being turned brunette?

      … I definitely won’t be reading the new series. I don’t like to read books not written in the original author’s vision.

  11. I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY ARE FIRING THE AUTHOR FROM THE VAMPIRE DARIES SERIES! it makes no sense when right in the middle of the book series they fire her and pick some random person to continue! they wont know the characters as well as L. J. Smith does. and honestly in my opinion L. J should have the right to OWN the series after all the work she put into in.

    (i will continue to read the series bc i am curious to see where it goes but it wont be with the same enthusiasm, sometimes i hate my suriousity)

    and i think the Damon and Elena relationship makes much more sense then the Elena and Stefan relationship, as you read the books you seem to get to know Damons character a lot better then you get to know Stefans character- but that is just my opinion.

  12. I read the books before actually watching the series. I enjoyed both even though the the TV series kind of strayed from the books. Its sad to think that L.J. wont be writing it anymore. I think it would kind of lose its essence because the original writer wont be writing it anymore. I just hope that the ending I’ve been waiting to happen would the one that will take place in the final book, that is STEFAN and ELENA FOREVER. Even a lot of the above comments like damon, i still love stefan best!!!

  13. This is all soooo FUCKED UP!!!
    Not only is this not fair, it’s not RIGHT.They can’t just get rid of her like that!
    The series was her creation,something she’s been working on,putting all her love and care into for around 20 years now.She should be able to write the books the way she feels they should be written.
    I personally was going for Bonnie+Damon, but if L.J. wanted Elena+Damon,then that would have been okay with me.It would have been okay with all the readers.
    This sort of treatment is just unbelievable,outrageous,abominable,and a lot of other synonyms…the list goes on and on.
    Bottom line:BOOOO to Alloy!!Keep your chin up Lisa, we all still love you,always will.

  14. I loved Lj Smith since the start but…im kinda ok that there changing writers because if you read the first books you can see how different they are to the new ones. Lisa dosn’t sound the same, its almost as if she lost all the characters point of views and personality, Elena the most. I was really dissapointed with how the new series started and ended and in the end of midnight I feel like what she did to damon was so that it would be harder for the ghost writer to write the new books. Its almost bittersweet with how lj is ending but maybe the new books would be better.

  15. This is bull shit I will not read any books after midnight if LJ smith isnt writing them nor will i watch the series on TV. They cant just fire her after all the hardwork she put into the series.

  16. sooo what happens to ALL the Delena fans out here?? Honestly, in the past few books, it’s definitely more clear than ever that Elena was getting to be much closer to Damon than Stefan.. at least to me. So is that supposed to take a 180 now? :( I may sound like a kid throwing a tantrum but.. I want Delena! I want Delena! I want Delena!

  17. I hope the ‘Hunters’ trilogy fails. It’s no gud reading that trilogy bcuz it’s not written by L.J Smith. Do NOT pick up this book, if u do then make sure u HATE IT!!! L.J should B the 1 2 finish it, since she bought it to life. F***ing Harper.

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