The Success Story

Former receptionist and a mother of three boys, Stephenie Meyer had never had so much as a short story published prior to writing Twilight. She never had any intention of publishing the book that was born in her dreams and claim she wrote it just for her own enjoyment. When her sister read the book, she recognized a diamond and persuaded Stephenie to submit the manuscript. It was rejected nine times before it was finally purchased by Writers House. It ended up being purchased at auction for $750,000 by Little, Brown and Company in 2003. The purchase included the rights to three books, and the frenzy began.

The original book catapulted to a number one bestseller on the New York Times Bestseller List in 2005 and stayed on the list for months. The rights to the book were sold in nearly thirty languages and Stephenie Meyer was an overnight success. She quickly followed the original book with New Moon in 2006, Eclipse in 2007 and the final book in the series, Breaking Dawn in 2008. Each book became an international best seller and all were translated into nearly thirty languages.

The fiery success of the books was followed quickly by movie deals, with the first movie released in the U.S. in 2008 by Summit Entertainment. New Moon hit the theaters in 2009 followed quickly by Eclipse in 2010. The final book will broken down into two parts and Breaking Dawn: Part I is set to premier in late 2011. The movies have enjoyed phenomenal success, with each movie breaking box office records set by the previous one.

Stephenie Meyer never imagined that the beautiful meadow scene that she dreamed about, and which would set the scene for chapter 13 in the first book, would catapult her to fame and riches. She remains humble and grateful to her fans for her success. She has been listed on Forbe’s list of Most Successful Women as well as earning a spot on Vanity Fair’s 100 Information Age Powers. Both the books and the movies continue to be phenomenally successful.