This post isn’t about authors in general, it’s about the marketing machine that is The Twilight Franchise. Stephenie Meyer is a millionaire several times over–and that was long before the release of Bree Tanner–so I’m sure her bills are paid and her family is clothed, fed, and comfortable.

Next, I never said anything about her being greedy. Nor did I say there was anything wrong with earning money for her work. In fact, I said the opposite. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting paid for one’s work. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with making boatloads of money for one’s work either.

What I did say was that the Bree Tanner philanthropy angle was duplicitous. I’m happy that the Red Cross at least got something, but people shouldn’t be drooling at her (or her publisher’s) feet because, OMG, they’re so generous…it was a marketing ploy. And a damn good one, which is why I told the authors/publishers/publicists to take note.

But frankly, I would have rather given my dollar directly to the Red Cross (which, incidentally, I did).

To offer perspective, 100% of the net proceeds from the sale of The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling go to Lumos (formerly Children’s High Level Group), and it wasn’t even that highly publicized–even when she caught a lot of flack for being greedy by coming out with yet another, but not quite, Harry Potter book.

Although I saw plenty of buzz for the book coming out, I didn’t know any of the proceeds went to a charity until I’d had the book in hand and read the front matter. Not only that, Rowling helped chair the foundation.

What did all of that tell me? It wasn’t about the marketing with Beedle, it was about getting money into the charity. And that’s the difference between the release of it and Bree Tanner.

Hope that clarifies it for you or anyone else who may happen across this post.

I really don’t care and don’t fallow Stephenie and all that’s she’s doing but I for one, thought it was kind of Stephenie to donate one dollar to the Red Cross for every book for how ever long. If it were me, I wouldn’t have done any thing like that. Damn I’m so poor!