Stephenie Meyers Road to Bestsellerdom

Posted on August 31, 2007

Now that the Harry Potter adventures have ended, publishers and readers are looking to the successor. ABC News asks whether Stephenie Meyer's teen vampire Twilight series might be the one. Meyer's latest novel is Eclipse, which is the third book in a series that features typical teen Bella Swan and her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen. Bella must wrestle with a big decision: does she accept the gift of immortality Edward's powerful family can offer or is the price too high to pay?

"It's very well-written and the love story appeals to a lot of people -- young adults and adults as well," said Sarah Harkins, district marketing manager for Borders, Inc. Much like Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling's rags-to-riches story, Meyer's life took a fairy tale turn. Four years ago, she was a stay-at-home mother of three with no writing experience. Then one night, she had a fateful dream about a vampire's confession of love to a girl.
"It was a sweet, kind of tender moment," said Meyer, recounting the dream. "But there was this dark side to it because he was also admitting how much he had wanted to kill her from the first day he met her." That dream would eventually become chapter 13 in her first bestseller, "Twilight." A sequel, "New Moon," would follow. Meyer's themes are admittedly dark, but she says her books are about life, not death -- love, not lust.
In fact, this devout Mormon is a self-described "chicken," too squeamish to sit through gory vampire movies or even read Bram Stoker's "Dracula." "My books are all completely coward-proof. If you're frightened, you can still read them," she said. Meyer has sold more than a million-and-a-half copies of her three books and is writing at least two more novels. But she downplays the obvious Harry Potter comparisons.

We just love these author rags to riches stories. We can read them all day. This series (which we haven't gotten around to reading yet, alas) sounds like it would really appeal to fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.