The Twilight novels According to Meyer, the idea for
Twilight came to her in a dream on June 2, 2003, about a human girl and a
vampire who was in love with her but thirsted for her blood. Based on this dream, Meyer wrote the draft of what became chapter 13 of the book. Meyer researched the
Quileute Native Americans to include their legends and traditions in the novel, though some Quileute tribe members found her use of their legends offensive. Meyer joined the American Night Writers Association (ANWA) for aspiring
Latter-day Saint female writers. She completed the novel in three months. Her sister's response to the book was enthusiastic, and she persuaded Meyer to send the manuscript to literary agencies. Eight publishers competed for the rights to publish
Twilight in a 2003 auction. By November, Meyer had signed a $750,000 three-book deal with
Little, Brown and Company.
Twilight was published in 2005 with a print run of 75,000 copies. Bimonthly book signings and events at the Changing Hands Bookstore in
Tempe, Arizona, early in her writing career helped cultivate her fanbase.
Twilight reached No. 5 on
The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Chapter Books within a month of its release, and later rose to #1. The novel was named the
Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and a
New York Times Editor's Choice. Despite its success,
Twilight was one of the most challenged books of 2009 according to the
American Library Association for being sexually explicit, age-inappropriate, and for religious views; some schools and libraries were asked to remove the books from their shelves. Upon publishing
Twilight, Meyer had already outlined a story for a sequel. However, her publisher insisted that she follow
Twilight with two sequels following Bella and Edward in college. Consequently, Meyer expanded the story into a series with three more books:
New Moon (2006),
Eclipse (2007), and
Breaking Dawn (2008). The original story she pitched for the sequel would later be published in
Breaking Dawn. Meanwhile, Meyer wrote a short story, "Hell on Earth", about demons at prom night, which was published in April 2007 in
Prom Nights from Hell, a collection of stories about bad prom nights with supernatural effects. Meyer's fans urged her to expand "Hell on Earth" into a full novel, but Meyer was occupied finishing
Eclipse. In its first week after publication,
New Moon reached No. 5 on
The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Chapter Books, and in its second week rose to the No. 1 position, where it remained for the next 11 weeks. In total, it spent over 50 weeks on the list. In May 2007, Meyer held two promotional prom events at an Arizona State University gymnasium to celebrate the special edition release of
New Moon and the release of
Eclipse. For the event, Meyer wore a blood-red evening gown and signed over 1,000 books. Meyer's red dress was later auctioned for $5,500 at a fundraiser for a book seller's battle with breast cancer called Project Book Babe. After the release of
Eclipse, the first three "Twilight" books spent a combined 143 weeks on
The New York Times Best Seller list. Over 1.3 million copies were sold on the first day. The novel won Meyer a
British Book Award for Children's Book of the Year, despite competition from
J. K. Rowling's
The Tales of Beedle the Bard. In 2009, Meyer faced plagiarism accusations for
Breaking Dawn. Author of
The Nocturne, Jordan Scott, claimed the circumstances around Bella's supernatural pregnancy and subsequent transformation into a vampire were similar to the storyline of her novel and indicated that Meyer plagiarized the plot of
The Nocturne. Meyer dismissed the accusation, claiming she had not heard of the writer nor the novel. Scott failed to produce a copy of the novel to support her accusation;
The Nocturne is not available on
Amazon and is listed as "temporarily sold out" on her website. The series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide in 37 languages. In 2008, the four
Twilight books were in the top four spots on
USA Todays year-end bestseller list. Meyer was the bestselling author of 2008 and the first author to have books in all four of the top-selling spots. The
Twilight novels held the top four spots on
USA Todays year-end list again in 2009. The success of the
Twilight series has been attributed to the Internet, which allowed Meyer to directly reach out to her fans, leading the series to be called "the first social networking bestseller". According to scholar Lykke Guanio-Uluru, the
Twilight series "popularized and helped redefine, the
paranormal romance subgenre".
Twilight saga films In 2004, Paramount's
MTV Films and Maverick Films optioned
Twilight before the book was published in order to maximize its potential profits. The written script deviated greatly from the novel. However, the film was put into
turnaround. In 2006,
Erik Feig, president of
Summit Entertainment, attempted to make a deal with Meyer by assuring her that the film would be true to the novel and that "no vampire character [would] be depicted with canine or incisor teeth longer or more pronounced than may be found in human beings". In 2007, the rights were sold to
Summit Entertainment.
Catherine Hardwicke was chosen to direct the film, and
Melissa Rosenberg wrote the new script.
Kristen Stewart was cast first as
Bella Swan, and
Robert Pattinson was cast as
Edward Cullen after an audition with Stewart and Pattinson revealed they had good chemistry.
Taylor Lautner was cast in the role of
Jacob Black. Released on November 21, 2008, the film received favorable reviews;
Roger Ebert called the film, "lush and beautiful" and
Peter Bradshaw said it was, "wildly enjoyable". The film was a box-office success and became the fourth-highest-grossing November opening weekend release up to that time. Meyer makes a brief cameo appearance in a diner scene. The same year, Meyer began her work in film with a
Jack's Mannequin music video "The Resolution", which she co-directed with Noble Jones. Each novel adaptation was headed by a different director.
Chris Weitz directed
New Moon, which was released on November 20, 2009. On opening night,
New Moon broke the record for the highest single-day domestic gross on opening day, which had previously been set by
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Despite its commercial success, the film received poor reviews; Roger Ebert criticized the slow pace of the film, and Tim Robey of
The Telegraph similarly said, "the movie gives us all the requisite looks of tortured longing, and not a lot else". Directed by
David Slade,
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, an adaptation of the third book in the series, was released on June 30, 2010. An article from
The Guardian reported that it was the best film of the series according to critical consensus for being more "cinematic" and striking a better balance between romance and the supernatural. However, an article from
The Telegraph rebutted
The Guardian claim, arguing that
Twilight remained the best film in the series due to the "entirely straight-faced contrast between the forces of eternal darkness and the rigors of high school". Having already obtained the rights to
Breaking Dawn, Summit approved a two-part adaptation. In 2011, Meyer started her own production company, Fickle Fish Films, with producer Meghan Hibbett. Meyer spent much of 2011 producing both parts of
Breaking Dawn,
Breaking Dawn: Part 1 was released on November 18, 2011, and the
second part was released on November 16, 2012. Part one of the film received mixed reviews. Part two of the film received more positive reviews with Roger Ebert calling the ending "sensational". Critics also praised the acting, particularly that of Stewart. The
Twilight Saga was successful in the box office. With a combined budget of $373 million, the five-film series earned $3.341 billion worldwide. Despite the commercial success, the films were extensively criticized.
Breaking Dawn: Part II won seven
Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzie awards) including Worst Picture, Worst Sequel, and Worst Screen Couple (for Taylor Lautner and
Mackenzie Foy). The series spawned two
parody films:
Vampires Suck and
Breaking Wind, which were critical failures. In 2009, Stephenie Meyer was included in the
Forbes Celebrity 100 list of the world's most powerful celebrities, entering at No. 26. Her annual earnings exceeded $50 million. The same year, Meyer was ranked No. 5 on
Forbes list of "Hollywood's Top-Earning Women", the only author on the list, and it was noted that the "
Twilight series of young-adult vampire books have taken the publishing and film worlds by storm". In 2010,
Forbes ranked her as the No. 59 most powerful celebrity with annual earnings of $40 million.
Subsequent Twilight publications In August 2009,
USA Today revealed that Meyer broke J. K. Rowling's record on their bestseller list; the four
Twilight books had spent 52 straight weeks in the top 10. In all, the books have spent more than 235 weeks on
The New York Times Best Seller list. Upon the completion of the fourth entry in the series, Meyer indicated that
Breaking Dawn would be the final novel to be told from Bella Swan's perspective. In 2015, she published a new book in honor of the 10th anniversary of the best-selling franchise titled
Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, with the genders of the original protagonists switched. On March 30, 2010, it was announced that Meyer had written a 200-page novella entitled
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. The book was released on June 5, 2010, by Atom and was available for free between June 7 and July 5 on the official website. Following the release of
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Stephenie Meyer donated $1.5 million to the American Red Cross Relief Fund to aid victims of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. Those who took advantage of the free e-book were also encouraged to make donations to the Red Cross.
Midnight Sun was to be a companion novel to the
Twilight series. The novel was intended to be a retelling of the events of the novel
Twilight, but from the perspective of Edward Cullen. Meyer had hoped to have
Midnight Sun published shortly after the release of
Breaking Dawn, but after an online leak of a rough draft of its first 12 chapters, Meyer chose to delay the project indefinitely. The release of
Midnight Sun was tentatively re-planned after re-visiting the
Twilight series with
Life and Death, a gender-swapped retelling of the novel in 2015. However, the release of
Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian in 2015 halted and soured Meyer's plans to release the
Midnight Sun because
Grey was also told from the male perspective. Meyer stated in a New York Comic-Con panel that it was "a literal flip the table moment", admitting that "
Midnight Sun is kind of cursed". This led to the novel being on indefinite hold. According to an article from
The Guardian in 2018,
Midnight Sun was "no longer in the pipeline". Following its release, it sold over one million copies, was number two on Amazon's "most sold" list, and was number one on
USA Today bestseller list one week after its release date. Meyer has mentioned having several other book ideas on file, including a ghost story titled
Summer House, a novel involving time travel, as well as another about mermaids. ==Adult fiction publications==