As a lot of you must know by now, the first 12 Chapters of Midnight Sun, Smeyer's addition to her Uh-may-zing boooookes was leaked on the internet several days ago, and this has chagrined her dazzle verily.

From her official website:

August 28, 2008 (part II)

As some of you may have heard, my partial draft of Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the Internet and has since been virally distributed without my knowledge or permission or the knowledge or permission of my publisher.

I have a good idea of how the leak happened as there were very few copies of Midnight Sun that left my possession and each was unique. Due to little changes I made to the manuscript at different times, I can tell when each left my possession and to whom it was given. 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.

I did not want my readers to experience Midnight Sun before it was completed, edited and published. I think it is important for everybody to understand that what happened was a huge violation of my rights as an author, not to mention me as a human being. As the author of the Twilight Saga, I control the copyright and it is up to the owner of the copyright to decide when the books should be made public; this is the same for musicians and filmmakers. Just because someone buys a book or movie or song, or gets a download off the Internet, doesn't mean that they own the right to reproduce and distribute it. Unfortunately, with the Internet, it is easy for people to obtain and share items that do not legally belong to them. No matter how this is done, it is still dishonest. 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.

So where does this leave Midnight Sun? My first feeling was that there was no way to continue. Writing isn't like math; in math, two plus two always equals four no matter what your mood is like. With writing, the way you feel changes everything. If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldn't dovetail too well with the original story. In any case, I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely.

I'd rather my fans not read this version of Midnight Sun. It was only an incomplete draft; the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes. But how do I comment on this violation without driving more people to look for the illegal posting? It has taken me a while to decide how and if I could respond. But to end the confusion, I've decided to make the draft available here (at the end of this message on the Midnight Sun page). This way, my readers don't have to feel they have to make a sacrifice to stay honest. I hope this fragment gives you further insight into Edward's head and adds a new dimension to the Twilight story. That's what inspired me to write it in the first place.

I do want to take a moment and thank the wonderful fans who have been so supportive of me over the past three years. I cannot begin to tell you how much each of you means to me. I only hope this note will stop all the confusion and online speculation so that the Twilight universe can once again become the happy escape it used to be. After this incredibly busy year, I am now focusing on spending more time with my family and working on some other writing projects.

--Stephenie

I don't think I need to add much more than that.  Lol.  This is so bloody beautiful...Oh Smeyer...please to be going over there to cry upon your pile of ill-begotten millions.  We all know that that book is going to be finished and published eventually so that you can add to your dragon hoard of booty. 

Who else thinks that she's just waaaaahing for the sympathy and threatening to not provide any more crack so that everyone can forget about the epic fail that was Breaking Dawn and start kissing her ass again? *raises hand*

Edit:

And we get reactions from the Amazon Boards and the ♥ TwiMoms ♥. The ONTD comm weighs in on the situation.

And the NuttyMadam reacts. Though sorry, there's no vid this time since she took it down. But here, have a transcription of the lost vid, courtesy of aegflota

We are all a bunch of meanies hiding away in this little club house of ours.

Smeyer Ego stroking.

Bonus Snack: The Twimoms just cannot leave the poor boy alone!. There's wankiness in the second link, as the TwiMom in the picture appears and asks for her photo to be taken down. Also, Here is a step by step instruction manual on how to go about your Pretty Vampire Actors stalking, for you n00bs who have no idea how to go about it. It is illustrated and everything. The TwiMoms are nothing, if not thorough.

OH NOES YOU GUISE! They be calling the FBI on us!!! WHAT DO WE DO? WHAT DO WE DO?

Twilight is going to save our country from the evil lesbians so you'd better all stop dissing it!

Cleolinda Midnight Sun Commentary! Yay. Lol.

ETA:How do you gain respect for your much derided favorite author? Why, by starting an online petition for it, of course!

Dearest, beloved, Fandom Wank.

I know you were looking forward to great excitement today. Some of you said words to me that indicated you anticipated fiery 'judgement' upon those who remained fresh and dewey white, those you call n00bs.

Anyway, you got today instead.

Stop anticipating things, we'll just break your hearts.

Sincerely,

Sepia P. Magpie, Esq.



PS: Use this post to reflect on how you could be better people. Or just fuck around in the comments.

It was necessary to crush the pixel-stained
technopeasants* in order to save them.

Or:

The SFWA embarrasses itself. Again.


The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Association has a serious hate-on for e-books and a disturbing fascination for DRM. (And weirder anti-piracy measures, such as the Shades of Grey thang.)

They don't so much embrace technology as try to be the RIAA for the cover-painting-by-Michael-Whelan set.

Summary from the Nielsen-Haydens' blog : SFWA raided a site called Scribd (it's basically Flickr for text), and sent a cease-and-desist for a whole passel of files.

Among said files are reviews, a reading list for high school kids, a novel released under a Creative Commons license, and back issues of a magazine that'd been uploaded for promotional purposes.

The list of files marked for deletion.

Note the sig: Vader said, "Luke, I am your feather." Bothered by typos? Avoid pirated ebooks.

It's not just a job for Dr. Andrew Burt; it's a lifestyle. (But if I were him, I would've gone with DO NOT WANT!!! instead.)

ETA From puipui: Nick Mamatas mocks the second take-down email to Scribd.

In other news, I just got a tin deputy badge from a box of Crackerjacks and will be placing some parking tickets I just printed out on my home computer on the windshields of cars on my block. If anyone receiving the ticket asks, yes I am authorized to hand out these tickets and they are real tickets, the fines from which I will collect. If these real tickets get me into trouble, then they are not real tickets and anyone suckered by them is to blame for his own foolishness.

Ars Technica weighs in: Worse than Vogon poetry.

[...] it quickly became apparent that the USS 1701-SFWA had a crack in its dilithium crystals.

Cory Doctorow ain't happy, either.

Indeed, I have told Vice President Burt on multiple occasions that he may not represent me as a rightsholder in negotiations with Amazon, and other electronic publishing venues.

Hi kids; I got served a C&D over summer break.

Thanks to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, I now have a terrific “teachable moment” when I start school on Tuesday. When my students ask me what I did on my summer vacation I can tell them I was accused of violating copyright and learned all about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the SFWA and counter-notifications.

From the magazine folks: We received a notification that one of our issues had been taken down because ‘because the copyright owner contacted us and asked us to.’ That statement was of great interest to us, because we hold the copyrights for these issues at the magazine.

Lawrence Watt-Evans is not pleased with Cory or SFWA. (Afaik... I'm assuming this is him, from a brief Googling.)

( There are several reasons I quit SFWA. Cory Doctorow and Andrew Burt are two of the minor ones. )

The president of the SFWA (one Michael Capobianco, not the Andrew Burt dude) makes some statements here and officially, there.

Scribd's response to their response.

ETA Like maddened ferrets in a wet burlap sack

Speaking of Scalzi, the Whatever is back and he's putting in his two bits.

[...] believe me when I say a great number of us groaned and wondered why it is SFWA, which is often very positively helpful to writers, has to kick itself in its own balls as often as it does.

Distressing lack of wank in the post itself from the man who ran against the current SFWA prez, but it should get started once the blog's readers wake up.

ETA From limyaael: The SFWA ditches its e-piracy arm.

(* Correction: "Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretches")

I saw this while searching through hp_icons and was going to report it to wank_report, but someone beat me to it.

Well, 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' just came out four days ago technically, if you count it being released midnight on the 18th of November. Some countries don't get the movie until much later, even until December.

Of course this doesn't mean that the movie already hasn't been leaked on the 'net, of course. teh_indy already has caps up of GoF just a few days after release, and well, someone who hasn't seen it has complained about not cutting the post for spoilers.

From this, many people have basically said 'if you don't want to be spoiled, don't click the link', but much arguing is being had with solus_aetas with everyone about how it's not fair that some countries got to see GoF before others as well as claiming that the caps are illegal, and all of teh_indy's friends come to defend her honour and insult solus_aetas's English, amongst other things.